How to Sell Your House Quickly

Whether the housing market is good or bad it's still possible to sell your house quickly – quite simply you need to make your house buyer-friendly.
Here are just a few pointers to help you on your way…

The Basics:
Simple things like removing all family photos and replacing them with generic prints. Buy new towels with matching carpets for the bathroom, keep things tidy inside all cupboards and clear your kitchen surfaces. Always keep the house vacuumed, working your way backwards so as not to leave footprints on the carpets.

What Does it Take:
Make the exterior look more appealing - you'll have to clean and ruthlessly declutter, as well as tackling any repairs to make the property more appealing – even hiring professionals – it will be worth it financially in the long run. You may even want to think about bringing in a ‘home stager' and you'll also need a thick skin, it's hard to take less-than-flattering comments of your home.

When to Start:
Begin to prepare your home the moment you decide to sell. Ideally you should give yourself 90 to 180 days before you list it to allow enough time to complete updates, repairs and decluttering. This will allow you to plan and work out strategies without putting too much pressure on yourself and getting stressed-out.

Get a Professional Opinion:
A local estate agent can provide you with information on similar homes in your area – the pricing and what you can do to show your property off. They can review your property and advise you on what needs changing, moving, removing and repairing.
Most people, when selling, are reluctant to spend on home improvements – such as replacing kitchen top or carpets — because they believe the buyer will want to choose their own decoration. But buyers are often looking for move-in ready homes and have minimal work to do themselves. Try to renew or replace with neutral colours and give you home a much wider appeal. But be aware of not spending too much as you may have trouble recouping this later on.

Price Appropriately:
What you paid for your home when you bought it is irrelevant. The housing market may have changed since, along with the value of your property. Pricing too high is a good way to keep your property on the market for months.

Hide Your Personal Items:
Buyers should be able to picture themselves living in the home, which means removing your personal things. Including family photos, knick-knacks, collections, trophies, toys, etc. This allows people viewing to actually get a sense of the house and how they would use it.

No Hiding Place:
Hiding thing in cupboards to tidy up isn't going to work—because buyers are going to look into everything. Think of storage areas and cupboards as small rooms in your house and tidy them as well.

Super Clean:
Your house might be the cleanest it's ever been, but if there's a layer of dust, potential buyers will notice. Your house has to be absolutely spotless. And once you've cleaned have a good sniff around – there's nothing better than a bad odours to put buyers off. If you have such as pet smells try baking beforehand, put on some fresh coffee or even scented candles.

Disappear:
The last thing most visitors want to see at the open house is you following them around, this can certainly put potential buyers off and may have them thinking you have something to hide. Let your agents show potential buyers around your home.

Don't Stop:
Even if you have shown your house a hundred times, keep up the pace; make the beds, shine the sinks and clean the bathroom before any prospective buyers arrive. The hundred and first time you show might be the one.