Trying to sell your home can be difficult - even with the real estate marketing improving. There is still competition out there, so you need to do everything possible to make sure your house stands out from the crowd. Here are some of the best tips to get your home sold in the shortest time for the highest price:
Clean it Up
When it comes time to sell your home, you need to understand that you are no longer living there for yourself. In other words, the way the home is decorated should not be for your enjoyment, but to appeal to the largest possible base of buyers. This means getting rid of all the clutter, doing a thorough cleaning on the inside, painting a neutral color, doing all minor repairs, and removing all personal items. For this step, you may need the services of a staging professional. An expert in home interiors can help you stage the inside of the home properly, so it will wow buyers when they walk through the door.
Before the buyer ever walks through the door, though, they will either be turned on or turned off by the exterior. See to it that with your house, it is the former. Get the outside cleaned up -- the landscaping, trees, bushes, grass, everything necessary to make the outside of the house appealing. The combo of an appealing interior and exterior will make your house stand tall in the market.
Price it Right
To sell your home in a timely fashion, you need to make sure it is not over-priced. The reason is that if you set the price too high, you will waste valuable time while you are paying the mortgage and waiting to move on to the house you really want to be in. Go through the listings in your neighborhood and pay careful attention to homes that are similar to yours. Also check free websites like Yahoo and Zillow to cross reference what you are seeing in your own research. Then even if you decide to sell the house without a realtor, you will still have a good idea of what the price should be.
Market it Effectively
That said, most home sellers would be crazy to sell their home without a realtor - and preferably a top realtor at that. You need to work with someone that has all the most up to date marketing techniques and knows how to get as many eyeballs on your listing and prospects in the door as possible. When it comes right down to it, real estate sales, like any other type of sales, is nothing but a numbers game. The more people that see your home, the quicker it well sell. So when you want to sell your home at the best possible price, make sure you partner with a real estate agent that has a proven track record of successful results.