What helps to sell your house fast

However, if you decide to sell your home the traditional way, there are still plenty of things you can do to entice buyers and hopefully close quickly.

Price your home competitively

In terms of what helps sell a house fast, pricing a home competitively is usually your best bet. With a traditional sale, your agent will provide you with a few comparable homes, aka “Comps”. These are similar homes that have recently sold in your area, which you can use to get an idea of a fair listing price. You’ll work with your agent to set a price and negotiate with buyers.

On the other hand, Opendoor, through its brokerage, uses current market data and teams of local pricing experts to analyze hundreds of comparable homes so you can get a competitive offer quickly without listing or showing the home. Learn more about how Opendoor calculates the value of your home.

If you’re selling the traditional way, you may choose to price your home slightly lower than other similar homes in order to attract more buyers and hopefully bid up the price. When trying to sell fast, overpricing risks having to endure months of showings or having to drop the price. Buyers can become skeptical of homes with long days on market.

Amp up your curb appeal

Curb appeal is crucial when selling your home because it affects a buyer’s first impression of the property. With that in mind, consider the following tasks to ensure that your home’s exterior looks its best:

• Update the landscaping in the front yard
• Reseal the driveway
• Give the front door and garage door a makeover
• Upgrade your outdoor lighting
• Repaint the home’s exterior

Learn more in our guide about what you should consider when preparing your house for sale.

Once you’ve updated your home’s facade, exterior features, and landscaping, the next hurdle is keeping them well-maintained. If you haven’t already, put your yard on a regular maintenance schedule, especially while you’re showing the home. This ensures all of that hard work continues to shine.

→ Want to skip listing, showings, staging and all the stress? Request a free, no obligation offer from Opendoor.

Make necessary repairs and upgrades

Most homeowners have a list of repairs that they’ve been meaning to tackle for a while. From cleaning out clogged gutters, fixing broken appliances, to patching up holes in drywall, taking care of these tasks can go a long way. Many buyers prefer a home that is move-in ready, meaning it may require extensive updates.

Now is also the time to consider renovations that make your home appear more updated, thus increasing interest from buyers. If you want to focus on selling fast, you may consider sticking to doing minor renovations that can add value to your home.

Check out Opendoor’s home improvement value calculator to see which renovations may increase the value of your home.

Declutter and depersonalize your house

Next, it’s time to move on to your home’s interior. Here, your main goal should be to declutter as much as you can in order to make your home look more spacious. Keep in mind that this doesn’t just mean shoving extra items in closets. Buyers often look everywhere, even storage areas. Taking the time to truly clean and organize your home can save you time showing the home.

In addition to decluttering, it’s also recommended to depersonalize, or work to make the space as neutral as possible. Buyers want to be able to envision themselves living in your home and that can be hard to do if they’re surrounded by your lifestyle. Consider neutralizing the space by removing personal items such as family photos, achievement certificates, and collections.

Invest in high-quality photography

If your photos don’t make your property look worthy of scheduling a showing, there’s a good chance that your home will continue to get passed over for other, more photogenic options.

For best results, consider hiring a professional photographer to do the job or negotiate with your real estate agent to include photography and other marketing expenses in their commission. On our blog, you’ll find some tips on how to make your home’s photography stand out. In short, think like a buyer. Try to provide as much visual detail as possible from different angles so you can easily get a complete picture of what it’s like to be inside your home.

List at the right time

Finally, it’s important to take real estate seasonality into account. Conventional wisdom states that spring and summer are the best times to sell, but that can vary by market. Places with warmer climates, like Phoenix and Las Vegas, are often much more active during the winter months than areas that experience colder weather.

That said, the decision of when to sell your home is also a personal one. When you need to sell fast, you don’t always get to choose the optimal time to sell. This is an area where iBuyers can offer a lot of value, allowing you to sell quickly and avoid the uncertainty of seasonal market trends.

Takeaways

There are plenty of things that you can do, as the seller, to encourage buyers to make an offer and sell your home fast. Most of them boil down to taking the time to prepare your home so that it looks its best when it hits the market, as well as pricing competitively.

Finally, selling to an iBuyer like Opendoor can not only be one of the fastest, but also the most convenient ways to sell a home. You can avoid the stress of preparing your home for sale and having to rearrange your routine to accommodate showings and open houses. You can also control your moving timeline, as opposed to listing and waiting as you negotiate the timing with a potential buyer.

This article is meant for informational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as financial, tax, legal, or insurance advice. Opendoor always encourages you to reach out to an advisor regarding your own situation.