So, you’re looking for tips to make selling your home easier?
This article will walk you through 15 super easy tips that you can do immediately. You’ll learn what exactly to focus on to make selling a breeze.
Tired of fluffy articles give you junk advice?
The following tips are tried and true. They can even make your home sell for a higher price.
Let’s dig in.
Table of Contents
- Fix Your Landscaping.
- Remove The Clutter.
- Paint Your House.
- Hire A Great Realtor.
- Put Up A ‘For Sale’ Sign.
- Drop Money On Photos.
- Make A Video Tour.
- Use All Online Marketing Channels.
- Use Great Lighting.
- Have Your Home Professionally Cleaned.
- Make The Repairs Your Agent Advises.
- Remove Odors.
- Spruce Up Your Kitchen.
- Organize.
- Get Rid Of Your Pets.
Selling Your Home – 15 Tips You Can Definitely Use To Sell Your House
1. Fix Your Landscaping.
The first impression someone gets is when they pull up to your house. Your curb appeal – lawn, plants, flowerbeds, etc. Don’t worry… You don’t need anything fancy. You just need to make sure that the landscaping is tidied up.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to improve the landscaping for curb appeal, try mowing the lawn, edging the driveway and sidewalk, trimming bushes, and mulching. These are cheap ways to increase your curb appeal when trying to sell your house fast.
In real estate, first impressions matter. When a buyer is checking out 3-5 homes in one day, you want your house to give them that good gut feeling that lingers.
2. Remove The Clutter.
Another way to cheaply improve your chances to sell your house fast for the highest offer is to remove the clutter in your home.
To get the most out of this, do two things: put everything you’re not using in a storage unit and hire a cleaning company. This will cost you roughly $300.
Pack up all of the belongings that you are not using into boxes. Take those boxes and any extra furniture to the storage unit. This will remove all of the clutter in your house and make the home feel more open when potential buyers are checking out your house. Remember, clutter makes the house feel smaller and cramped.
The cleaning company will make your house spotless. They will also do a much better job at cleaning than you will. We naturally overlook messiness when we clean our own homes. How clean and clutter-free your house is is the first impression that buyers have of your home. Creating a bright, open space will help you maximize the amount of money that you make from selling your home.
3. Paint Your House.
Pick a neutral color and repaint your house. If your house is anything besides a neutral color, you will turn off a lot of buyers from purchasing your home. They won’t want to buy a house and have to repaint it themselves.
If you’re wondering what colors to paint your house, the easiest route to take is to stick with an off white color scheme. Remember selling your home is not about personal preferences but appealing to the masses. Stick with off white and light creamy colors for maximum benefit.
To save some money, consider rolling all of the walls that you can. It’s recommended that you hire out all of the trim work once you have completed rolling. Hiring a professional will make your paint job look much better and it won’t take weeks to complete.
4. Hire A Great Realtor.
If you are noticing a trend here, that’s because there is one. Working with a professional to sell your home has a ton of benefits, and takes a lot of the heavy lifting off of your shoulders. An experienced Realtor can often sell your home faster, and for a better price, than you can on your own. This, in fact, is one of the most valuable tips for selling a home. Just make sure you hire the right agent!
Make sure that you are vetting the Realtor properly. Hire one that is local in your market, has lots of Google reviews, and has successfully sold dozens of homes. Most people make the mistake of just hiring any Realtor that Zillow populates on their website.
To find the best Realtor in your area, go to Realtor.com and type in your zip code. Depending on where you live and how populated it is, this will pull up hundreds of Realtors in your area.
This will pull up all of the Realtors in your area. To filter down the results, just choose 5-star ratings. This filters out Realtors who have not done enough volume to get reviews or have provided poor service to their clients.
You’re a smart homeowner. Don’t be crazy and list your house for far too high of a price compared to its actual value. Consult your Realtor and see what they think the house is really worth. Ask them what the best price is to sell it quickly.
Most people make this fatal mistake. If their house is worth $200,000, then they list it for $220,000. Even if you or your agent believe that the market is hot and the house can sell for $220,000, you will create more demand for the house by listing it for $200,000.
The more demand that your house has, the more likely it is that you can have a bidding war and the more likely that you will get $220,000. However, if you start at $220,000 and the demand isn’t there, then your house will sit on the market for weeks or months without selling. Price drops and time on the market can kill a deal.
Some agents will try to maximize their commissions by having you list the house at too high of a price. Avoid this kind of agent at all costs! There is nothing that will prevent you from getting top dollar faster than hiring a real estate agent who overprices your home!
5. Put Up A ‘For Sale’ Sign.
Even if you are marketing online (which you should be), you should put a ‘For Sale’ sign in the yard. For starters, this will help people easily find your house when they can to check it out. Real estate signs also will let passerby traffic know what you are interested in selling
You want to keep selling your house a secret? This is a mistake. A ‘For Sale’ sign will give people the information that they need to call you to learn more about the property. Hint: We still use ‘House for Sale’ signs on our properties. We even place signs at nearby intersections where a ton of traffic can see the signs.
What if you don’t like answering calls? I know I don’t. Set up your voicemail to have basic information about the house. Include bedroom and bathroom count, recent upgrades you’ve made and the age of your roof, water heater, and HVAC. At the end of your voicemail message, ask them to leave a voicemail if they would like to see the property. This filters out looky-loos and allows you to only talk to serious buyers.
6. Drop Money On Photos.
Hire a professional. Regardless of how good you think you are at photography, an experienced real estate photographer can pay for themselves when selling your home. When budgeting for the cost of selling your home, don’t skimp out on photography.
Your listing photos are the first thing that anyone sees. Buyers will quickly ‘pass’ on your house if the photos are sub-par quality. Bad, heck even decent, photos can make your house feel dingy, cluttered, and small. High-quality photos make your house feel open, well lit, roomy, cozy and inviting.
How does the home being marketed look online? This is such a vital consideration, yet so many sellers underestimate the importance. Your home photography is a gateway to a buyer’s perception of the property – good or bad! Want to see a quick example of really bad real estate photos posted online? Take a look and keep in mind when buyers and other real estate agents see this they cringe. It is Real Estate agents that market like this who give our industry a lousy reputation!
7. Make A Video Tour.
If you want your house to stand out from the competition, you should consider creating a video of the property. Here’s an example video:
The video is simple. You don’t have to create anything crazy, or even have great editing skills. This just shows the Realtor walking through the property.
If you are going to do a video, there are some things to do before you shoot your video.
- Remove all of the clutter.
- Deep clean the house.
- Do a simple staging (notice the kitchen placemats).
- Turn on all of the lights.
- Open all of the doors and windows.
- Walk the house without recording to make sure you know your route.
Here’s a link to Oberlo’s article on the best free video editing software. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to purchase the software. You can use the free or trial versions for something this simple.
8. Use All Online Marketing Channels.
Old school real estate agents MIGHT put your listing on Zillow, Redfin, and Trulia. Most likely, they are going to do word of mouth, a pamphlet in the local newsstand, and list it on their website that gets zero traffic.
Really good agents are up to date on all of the marketing channels to sell your house. Let’s be real for a second. The better the marketing, the more eyes that see your house, and the more demand you have, which means more money in your pocket.
Realtors should be marketing your house on social media (Facebook Ads, Facebook groups, YouTube, and personal pages). Agents with experience in these marketing channels can cheaply get your house shown to thousands of people.
Agents who are good at developing an online presence already have a brand and a following. This allows them to organically get your property in front of more potential buyers.
If they are just putting the house on the MLS and passively waiting for traffic, then you’re sure to make thousands less on the sale of your home. Realtors who have developed an online presence have the ability to have your property bid up by the thousands of people who are following them.
9. Use Great Lighting.
How do you feel when you look at these two photos? One is inviting and cheerful while the other makes you not even really want to enter the room.
If you want to add natural lighting to your home, you can do a few simple things.
- Open all of your blinds.
- Remove your curtains or replace then with white ones.
- Paint your walls with an off-white color.
- Replace your linens with white linens.
These simple and cheap actions will drastically change the feel of your home. It will be more inviting to buyers, make the home feel more open, and appeal to more people.
Again the presentation of your home is critical. Small things like lighting can make a big difference with no money coming out of your pocket!
10. Have Your Home Professionally Cleaned.
Even if you’re great at keeping a clean house, we naturally overlook messes and clutter. The small details matter when you are trying to sell your house. A professional cleaning company will get in all of the nooks and crannies that you pass over, making your home spotless and looking its best.
The easiest way to know your home is spotless and looking its best is to hire a professional cleaning company. Make sure your kitchen and baths are spotless. Buyers will pay closer attention to these areas.
You should also have your carpets professionally cleaned. It’s hard to tell how dirty your carpets have gotten over the years. A professional cleaner will pull up all of the dirt from your carpets, making them look new again. This is one of those things where spending a few hundred dollars can save you thousands by preventing the buyer from thinking they need to replace the carpets immediately.
11. Make The Repairs Your Agent Advises.
Let’s be real. Most home renovations will not provide you with a good ROI. The highest return on investment that you can get is by replacing a garage door, which provides a 98% return on your money.
Many renovations are arguably a bad investment for sellers, as it is hard to get your money back in the sale. But if your real estate agent advises that you fix some things, like faulty wiring, a hole in the fence, a leaking toilet or a visible stain in the ceiling, you should do it.
These are things that the buyer will use an inspection to demand a lower price because they feel immediate attention is needed. If things are bad enough or will cost the buyer too much money to repair when they take ownership, then they may back out of the deal.
Inspections are the number one place where home sales fall apart. It only makes sense to address the problems beforehand. If you know about a problem, a good home inspector will more than likely find it. It’s easier to just fix the problems now rather than in the middle of the negotiations for a price reduction.
12. Remove Odors.
In the investment world, bad odors make investors see dollar signs. This is because bed odors make other buyers run away and the investor can get a good deal on a stinky house.
The smell is powerful, and can easily drive someone away from buying your home. However, you may not even realize the smells are there. Ask an outsider that you trust, like your Realtor, to let you know if there are any unpleasant odors.
Pet smells are definitely the worst culprits. We acclimate to the smell of our pets. Their odors get into the furniture, carpet, and linens take over the house. Your house can smell like a dog without you even knowing it.
Believe it or not, pet odors can kill a home sale. This happens because some buyers fear they won’t be able to get rid of the odor once they purchase the house. Don’t take any kind of chance with home odors – remove them!
This is where the carpet and upholstery cleaners come into play. Have all of your carpets and cloth furniture professionally cleaned. Wash all of your sheets and bedding, your pet’s beddings, your pet’s cloth toys, and curtains. Also, open your windows and doors to let your house air out.
13. Spruce Up Your Kitchen.
The kitchen is the main selling point of any home. If your kitchen has not been updated in the last 5 years, it’s probably outdated compared to other similar homes that you are competing against.
To cheaply update your kitchen, consider replacing your faucet, light fixtures, cabinet hardware, and appliances. Also, consider having your cabinets painted.
Before you do anything, consult your real estate agent to make sure that you are updated the home according to what is trending. Don’t make updates based on your personal tastes!
14. Organize.
Regardless of how much you don’t like it, potential buyers will be looking through your closets and storage. If you want to make sure that you have a great impression, organize your closets (closet organization tips).
This tip goes back to our previous tips where we suggest that you put everything that you DON’T need into storage. This goes for your closets and storage too. The neater, cleaner, and less cluttered that your storage is, the more like the buyer can envision that their stuff will fit in there.
If your closets are crammed, the perception will be that there’s not enough storage in the home. If the closets are empty-ish and well organized, the buyers’ perception is that there is plenty of storage for all of their family’s belongings.
15. Get Rid Of Your Pets.
Not literally! When you have an open house or buyers coming to tour your home, take your dogs somewhere for those 1-2 hours.
Even though your pet is your best friend, some people are allergic or afraid of pets and seeing yours could make them not buy your house. It is hard for pet owners to imagine sometimes, but some people really don’t like pets.
Take the pets somewhere safe and comfortable, like a friend’s. Having evidence of your pet, including their odors can be a real turn off to some people.
There you have it – these are some of the best home selling tips to get you on your way to a successful home sale!