Sell Your House Fast: 7 People You Need on Your Team
Congratulations! Before you start playing with a mortgage calculator to see how much you can afford on your next home, you’ll want to know how to sell your current home fast. Ideally, you’re
Congratulations! Before you consult a mortgage calculator to see how much you can afford on your next home, you’ll want to know how to sell your current home fast. Ideally, you will list your home, generate interest quickly from potential buyers, a bidding war will ensue, and you will get more than the asking price for your house.
Before this can happen, you need to gather a team of people who can help you achieve your goal. Whether you’re a first-time or experienced seller, having a talented team of professionals one your side means the difference between a quick, stress-free selling experience or one that isn’t. Before you list, here are seven key people you’ll want on your team to help sell your house fast.
1. Real Estate Agent
Selling a house is a complex process. That’s why the first person you’ll want by your side is a real estate agent.
The job of a listing agent is to guide you through the entire home selling process. This includes identifying necessary house preparations and repairs, pricing the home correctly, setting up staging, executing a strategy to promote your home, negotiating with the buyer, and closing on the home.
But to do all of this you don’t want just any agent–you need the right agent for you. How do you choose a real estate agent?
You’ll want to find someone who provides personalized service, selling houses in your area fast, and for the most money. It’s important that you do research–read reviews and home sales data available online to make sure you’re choosing the best person for this important role.
2. Home Inspector
It’s true that most buyers will conduct a home inspection before they agree to purchase the property, but what if you were to beat them to it?
Hiring a home inspector to do a pre-listing home inspection is a proactive approach, and it offers some advantages to sellers that you may not be aware of.
With the pre-listing inspection, you receive an objective report on the actual condition of your property. Knowing what issues and repairs need to be addressed before you list, you can fix the, and avoid unexpected findings from the buyer’s inspector.
Also, knowing the condition of your home can be an asset during the negotiation phase. As you may already know, buyers often use their home inspection as a way of getting concessions from sellers, such as requesting a price discount. If you’ve already addressed home repairs, it is less likely that anything new will come up and impact your negotiation.
3. House Cleaner
Having a home that is fresh, clean, and inviting for potential buyers is crucial when selling. If buyers are interested in your home, they’ll open closets, explore cabinets, and they might move furniture around. The difference between inspecting a sparkling clean house and a place that hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned can make or break a deal. That’s why your home needs to be spotless from top to bottom.
Hiring a professional cleaning service might prove helpful during what is likely to be a very busy time for you. Also, professionals have experience with the thorough cleaning needed to sell a house. They will use high-quality products and equipment to deep clean your entire home–even the nooks and crannies that you didn’t know existed.
It’s also important to consider the timing of cleaning your home. You don’t want to wait to hire a professional cleaner after your home has been listed. It is something you should invest in before your home is on the market, so the listing photos can reflect your clean home.
You should also consider having your home cleaned regularly while it’s on the market. It could take some time to sell, and if you’re living in it during that time it may be extremely difficult to keep it in pristine condition.
4. Home Stager
Staging is one of the most important parts of the selling process. Contrary to what many may think, home staging is about more than just preparing a house for sale. There’s an art and a science to staging a home that goes above and beyond simply cleaning and decluttering a space.
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Staging is about making the home look larger, brighter, cleaner, and more welcoming. It markets the house as a lifestyle that buyers will experience if they own the home. In fact, research shows that 83% of buyers; agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as their future home.
Professional stagers know exactly how to showcase a space using furnishings, color, artwork, and accessories. They offer prospective buyers a glimpse into how each room can be utilized. A skilled home stager will be key in transforming your space to appeal to the greatest number of buyers, which can help sell your house fast.
5. Real Estate Photographer
The key to successfully listing and selling your home quickly is the photos. Today, more than ever, online browsing is a critical part of the home buying process. Buyers can tour your entire home without ever leaving their couch and if they aren’t sold on the images that they see online, they will move on.
You may think you can take some of these photos yourself, but research shows hiring a professional photographer can help homes sell faster and for more money. The better you represent your house online, the faster it will sell.
In addition to traditional real estate photography, consider adding aerial photography–which can show off your entire property and surrounding area in a scenic view. Maybe you’re selling a lakefront home in Greensboro, NC. An aerial shot can easily put into perspective the full scope your property has to offer.
6. Painter
Painting a home before selling it may sound like a hassle, but home buyers may be turned off by the turquoise bathroom, or the custom mural in the foyer. See my recent post, “Paint Colors that Help Your Home Sell Quickly.”
Hiring a professional painter to give your home a fresh look will appeal to a wide range of home buyers, both in-person and online. It may also help sell your house fast when your property is one of the nicer-looking available homes on the market.
7. Handyman
There will be few things more off-putting to a prospective home buyer than touring a property with dents in the walls, broken fixtures, or loose cabinet fixtures. Before listing your home, make sure you’ve made the necessary repairs and renovations. There will be projects you can complete yourself, but you will be busy with other details as you prepare to sell. That’s where a handyman comes in. A handyman is a skilled jack-of-all-trades who can handle an array of repairs in your home.
Additionally, before you sell your home, it will likely need a home inspection. A professional home inspector will give you a report which lists any issues needing attention. Handyman services can be helpful for addressing most problems on that list and making sure repairs are done by code.
Selling a home and navigating the housing market can be a stressful experience. Having the right people on your team during this journey–all working together to help sell your house fast–can make all the difference. Before you list your home, consider bringing these seven people onto your team as their advice, expertise, and guidance can help be invaluable during the selling process.
Originally published by Redfin
(Original publication August 2020 on gatecitydesign.com. Edited, revised & updated with new formatting January 2022)
