Tips for Selling Your House Fast

Hi everyone!  It has been a crazy week for me.  A few days ago we were wrapping up some things around our house and getting it ready to be put on the market.  The night before it was officially “For Sale”, our realtor called and asked if he could go ahead and show it to a couple.  The house was ready and looked amazing, so we loaded up Gracie into the car and left the house.  The next morning I got the call from our realtor saying that we had a full price offer.

 I thought my staging and our improvements we did to the house would help it sell fast, but I didn’t think it would be to the first people to walk through the door.  Since we had such good luck, I thought you might like to know my tips for selling a house fast.

1.  Improve your Curb Appeal.

You have to get people in your house so you need to have great curb appeal.  This was our house the day we were driving around the neighborhood before we bought it.  We stopped in the front, and I told Yankee we should add it to our list.  He said no it looks horrible.  I told him we could change it all, and thank goodness I got him to look at the house.  The house sat on the market for months, and I think the curb appeal was part of the reason.

 

Improving curb appeal is one area where you should spend a little bit of money to get your house ready to sell because you have to get people in the door.  Simple things such as painting your door a bright color will help people remember you house.

 

Flowers and mulch go a long way, and if you feel up to it, window boxes will add some charm to your curb appeal.

 

2.  Take your rooms back to their original purpose.

 

If you turned your third bedroom into  your craft room or a storage room, clear it out, and  turn it back into a bedroom.  Some people have a hard time visualizing a bedroom if the room is filled with things other than a bed.  If you don’t have a bed to fill the room,  get an air mattress and set it up on some blocks.  Cover those blocks with a bed skirt, make the bed, add some pretty pillows, and voila, you have another bedroom.

 

 

3.  Clear the clutter.

I really feel this helped our house a lot.  Yankee and I went through all the closests and took out tons of clothes and shoes. Closets in an old house are small, but we made ours work big by adding a closet system shortly after we moved in.  We had matching hangers, and everything hung neatly.  It even made me feel as if we had a huge closet.

 

 

I did the same thing with our pantry, linen closet, and the cabinets in the kitchen and cabinets in the study.  I thought about the way I looked for a potentially new house.  Any place where I would look when house hunting, I cleared the clutter in my own house – even the medicine cabinet.

 

Clearing clutter can also mean removing some furniture.  We moved our wine fridge and put it in the basement so we had an area in our kitchen to convert to an  eat-in area. Clear your counters. I tried to limit our counters to having only three things on them.  This way buyers could really see the counters and envision themselves cooking there.

 I heard this somewhere and thought it was a great tip: Remove 1/4 of the furniture, 1/3 of the books, and put away 1/2 of your knick-knacks.  If you are running out of space, put things under the bed or even in the washer or dryer right before a showing.

 

4.Add some life.

 

I like to add fresh flowers, but that could get expensive.  Bowls of fresh fruit or plants also adds some color and life to your house.

 

 

5.  Don’t forget the lighting.

 

All lights should be turned on during a showing (even in the day.)  Make sure you have all the same light bulbs.  For example, do not use bright white in some of the bulbs and soft white in others.  They should be uniform to look more inviting.  And just a hint, soft white lights are more soothing.

 

 

6.  Clean up the spider webs.

 

Go around your whole house inside and out and wipe down all of your spider webs.  Our house is clean but I was shocked how many we had.  This tool was a great in helping us get all the webs down.

 

 

7.  Think about the final details.

 

Make sure all the toilet seats are down, and if you have any air conditioners in your windows, take them out.  Spray WD-40 on your hinges so the doors don’t squeak.  Make sure the windows and mirrors are clean and shiny with no streaks.  Clean out the refrigerator so it will look newer and bigger.  Sweep the front sidewalk and steps.  Pick up any dog “do” that might be in the yard.  Have a  mailbox that is in good condition.

 

 

Sellers often don’t want to put out extra money to fix up the things around a house in order to make a quick sale.  Yet, they will be willing to lower the price thousands of dollars after their house sits on the market too long.  Think about doing what you can up front to make your home stand out from all of the others.

It’s work, but it’s fun work.  And it might just put more money in your pocket.

Thanks for stopping in.

Cheers!

 

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