There comes a point in life when you have to sell a house. The market constantly offers fresh properties for purchase here in the UK, and America too.
Over 5.34 million homes were sold in America in 2019, according to research from the National Association of Realtors. Whether it is before you buy a new place or because you’re moving to another location, you will surely wonder:
‘”How can I sell my home?”Â
Believe it or not, this is a question that many real estate agents (Estate Agent here in the UK) wonder about, too. Not every house sells right away or is easy to put on the market. However, some tricks make homes more appealing.
Such tricks can help speed up the selling process of your home in America and works equally as well here in the UK – and may even get you a better price.
What’s the Quickest Way to Sell Your Home?
If hiring a real estate agent (Estate Agent here in the UK) is not an option for you, then you need to learn the ropes before you put your home on the market. Unless you have a history of selling houses like hotcakes, you’ll make some mistakes and need to put a lot of effort into boosting your home’s value.
On average, real estate transaction commissions go around 6% of the home sale price, which adds up to a lot of money, especially if you have a big property. Many people decide to skip hiring real estate agent (Estate Agent here in the UK) because this means a significant cut to their profit. If you’re thinking: “No, thank you”, then you need this guide.
To sell a home faster, you need to learn these things:
Find the right price for your home
No matter how great your house looks or how well you stage it, or even how much you spend on marketing, an overpriced home will not sell fast – or at all. You shouldn’t sell it at a rate that’s below its value, but before you put it on the market, you need to figure out how much you can charge for it – realistically.
Stage the home for the buyers
Visualisation is very important when you’re selling a property. What looks like home to you will be new to others. Buyers will be hesitant to buy your home if they cannot imagine themselves living there. Thankfully, there are many ways, some of them very affordable, to stage a home to look its best.
Execute a good marketing strategy
Right now, sellers have a much wider reach and buyers have more options at their fingertips. You must use this opportunity to get your home out there. The more people see it and like it, the better price you can get. Not to mention, a good marketing strategy will help you sell your home faster.
Learn to recognise the right offer/ negotiate better deals.
Some buyers will simply come to your home or ask questions without any real interest to buy it. Others will slow down the entire process, making you lose prospective buyers while waiting. And of course, there’ll be the ones that you can bargain with to get a better price and the ones who will bargain from the moment they set foot at your home. You need to know how to deal with all these people and reach the best agreement possible.
To achieve these things, you need some knowledge and experience. Thanks to technology and the Internet, you have a great advantage. For most of these things, there are tools that you can use to speed up and improve the process. Tools can help you market your home, stage it for the buyers, widen your reach, and even calculate the perfect price.
The 5 best tools for selling your home
Knowing this, here are some of the best tools to use to sell your home faster – and at a better price.
1.   Floor plan software
Real estate is visual at its core. Nothing can convince buyers to purchase property more than a good-looking home they can imagine themselves living in. Even before they set foot on your property, people will want to see what it looks like, how big it is, and how it is organised.
To present the size and order of your home to potential buyers, you can use Foyr, the best floor plan software today. This creator will allow you to craft the perfect show home, focus on every room individually, and demonstrate to buyers what you’re offering to them.
Many interested buyers skip on good-looking homes because they dislike how they are organised or need more rooms or space. Thanks to a good digital floor plan, you can show potential buyers what the’ll see when they come to your door. This will eliminate the ones that are not interested in what you’re offering and entice those who are looking for what you are offering.
2.   Professional photography
Long gone are the days when you could take some photos with your phone and place them on a real estate listing – and make it look attractive. Sure, you can do this, but how great will the photos be? Even if you have the best phone camera, you still need the right angle, depth of field, lighting, and many other things that make for good photography.
Amazing photos are your best tools for attracting people to show interest in your home. If you skip this part, you’ll lose many leads that skipped your ad just because “it didn’t look right”. According to Balduf, around 15 to 20 percent of all listings already include professional photography. People seem to be learning about the importance of visualisation in real estate.
At the very least, you should hire a professional photographer to effectively take photos of the rooms, exterior, and landscaping. This is integral to a fast and successful sale. People are looking for high-resolution photos with details of the rooms. They want to be immersed in the place to take the time and visit it in person.
3.   Virtual home staging
Videos have shown a lot of potential and success for home sellers. Thanks to technology such as 3D and virtual reality, people can feel like they are at your home without coming there. However, very often, bringing in new furniture to boost the value of the home is too expensive for sellers.
Not to mention, it is already unnecessary and not practical. Why?
You won’t be living in that home once you sell it. People who come in it might not like the way you organised the space or your furniture. They’ll have to throw some things and buy new things, which is not only expensive but also a waste.
Thanks to virtual staging, you can show people how their home could look if they bought it – without spending money yourself. Thanks to tools for virtual home staging, you can work around the outdated decor in your home, tweak the things that are not attractive, and give people an idea of how the place could look like.
In 2018, a survey showed that 68% of homes in the United States that were staged sold for 9% more than the ones that weren’t. With bigger access to virtual staging tools like VisualStager.com and iStaging.com, you can increase the value of your home, as well as the buyers’ interest.
Of course, you’ll have to specify in your marketing that this is virtual staging and not the actual condition of the home. People will surely appreciate the option to see what their future home would look like, and still be able to make their choices in terms of how it will be decorated.
4.   Online showing scheduler
Since you don’t have a realtor to organise the home showing or communicate with people, you can surely use some help with this. Buyers don’t appreciate the big forms required to set up a showing. This is a competitive market, so they’ll want the process to go fast and smooth.
In America thanks to tools like ShowingTime and CurbCall, sellers can keep track of a very organised schedule. They can send automated messages, communicate instantly with interested buyers, and boost their chances at a faster sale.
5.   Listing and advertising tools
When your home is finally ready to be put on the market, you need to find ways to list it. Unless you get it to the right people, no staging or floor plans will help you make the best sale.
Today, most people search for their homes online. Knowing this, you should make your listing visible all around the Web. Some popular places to list your homes include MLS, the Multiple Listing Service that realtors use to get the most exposure for properties. This will give you incredible visibility and widen your reach.
And of course, the tool that is a must today is social media i.e. platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Chances are, buyers will use some of the social media platforms, and an ad appearing in their news feed can make all the difference for you.
Final thoughts
Selling a home in any country is not easy, but it is doable. If you use the right tools and strategies, you can sell your home at a great price, maybe even a bit above its value. When you do this, don’t be afraid to get some help. It takes a village to achieve the big things!