10 tips for selling your house fast
You plan to sell your property and want to know how you can complete the sale as quickly, easily and profitably as possible.
Below you will find 10 tips that will help you understand how to sell your home fast, based on our proven experience as real estate agents!
Let’s start.
Do a preliminary check of the necessary documents
Just because the property is in your possession does not necessarily mean that you immediately have all the necessary documents to put it up for sale and, more importantly, to complete a purchase and sale.
Here are the mandatory documents that must be submitted in order to sell a house:
- energy performance certificate (APE);
- deed of sale of the property;
- Cadastral plan of the property;
- Mortgage view of the property;
- Certificates of the regularity of the property and the situation of the facilities;
- Seller’s personal documents.
You should have no particular problem finding your personal documents, while it is not a given that you will have all the cadastral, energy, and urban planning documents available immediately: in case you do not have them, we suggest that you get to work on finding them right away, because the manner and timing of receipt may not be immediate.
Do you need help? Discover Ideas & Real Estate’s real estate services: we collect the necessary documents and take care of all the tedious bureaucratic issues.
This list is not exhaustive of all the possible documents you may need to submit in order to list your property for sale, but they are definitely the most important and basic ones to have on hand.
In case you need more, because, for example, your house has special features or a particular location, your real estate agent will be the one to point it out to you.
And with that, we immediately connect to the next paragraph.
Choose your real estate agency carefully
A real estate agent is not simply a “door opener” who shows houses, nor is he a disinterested referee who moderates buying and selling: he is a qualified professional who looks after the best interests of his clients, providing valuable information, expertise, insights, viewpoints, guidance and advice.
Selling real estate, as well as buying it, is no small action: it carries with it not insignificant bureaucratic, economic, organizational, managerial and emotional implications.
Getting step-by-step assistance from those who really know and provide you with all the tools you need for satisfactory buying and selling is undoubtedly the best choice.
Our advice, therefore, is not only to Always rely on a licensed and duly registered real estate agent – to avoid misunderstandings, hindrances and burdensome losses of time and money – but above all to select a high-quality real estate agency, up-to-date, contemporary, and makes every customer feel truly cared for and listened to.
Entrust the property exclusively to the real estate agency
We are sure you have heard this advice elsewhere. They probably explained to you that it is only through exclusivity that you can receive all the attention and commitment of a real estate agency.
In short, those who ask you for exclusivity often do so by promising you 100 percent dedication and assuring you that they will be available to you at all times, whenever you have any questions.
While this is undoubtedly true (because it is undeniable that the exclusive client-agent relationship generates the best partnerships and sales), we are interested in making you understand that the real importance of real estate exclusivity is another.
When you choose to entrust your property to multiple agencies, without giving exclusivity to any of them, it is not the potential clients who are competing for your property, but rather the real estate agents.
Who, at the cost of being more competitive than other agencies in the eyes of buyers, may advertise your property unfairly, with distorted price and information.
Don’t tell us that it has never happened to you to see the same property presented by several ads from different agencies, with discordant data and inaccurate sale prices, differing from each other even by several thousand euros…
Not only that, potential buyers who make offers by turning to different agencies are not competing with each other. This may lead you to sell at a lower price than you should.
Put your property up for sale at fair market value
Although there are online appraisal tools available for those who want to sell their homes, for set the right sales value specific knowledge of the area, a thorough understanding of the real conditions of the real estate market-in the present and immediate future-and a great ability to interpret the desires of potential buyers are required.
Define the correct market value of a property is as much an art as it is a very pragmatic and strategic calculation: one must take into account market movements, buyer demand, home condition, location, any critical issues with the property, and numerous other factors that are difficult to intellegere if one is not an expert.
One factor that really should not be taken into account when determining the sale price of the house? The emotional one, which paradoxically is the element rated as most important by almost all salespeople.
If it is relevant to you that you have owned that property for decades and that your children were born and raised there, it is not relevant at all to a potential buyer.
Why is determining the right selling price of a property so important? If a house is immediately perceived as overpriced relative to the market, it will be overlooked by applicants and remain for sale longer than necessary. An inflated price will also make houses similar to yours appear as “bargains” but sold at a correct price.
The longer a property remains unsold, the more it will depreciate in value. The more buyers notice that the property has been for sale for a long time, the more suspicious they will become about the actual quality of the purchase and try to bid down.
Know and enhance the strengths of the home
What initially prompted you to buy your home? What makes it really special? What is your strong point that all your friends or relatives point out when they come to visit you?
It may be a beautiful garden, a spacious terrace, a convenient garage, a fine residential neighborhood, quiet neighbors, excellent lighting, a dreamy living room, a particular and original conformation, …
After so many years of living in the same house, it is normal to no longer notice its strengths, but with a little attention and the right advice from your trusted real estate agent, you will undoubtedly be able to come up with a list of features that make your property attractive.
As soon as you have identified them, it is most important to highlight them well, during visits, but also through high-quality real estate photographs.
But more about that later.
Do home staging activities
Simply put, the expression “home staging” refers to all those small renovation and home decor actions that prepare the property to “go on stage” and make it more appealing.
Home staging does not involve large and expensive renovations, but rather some strategic aesthetic and appearance accommodations.
Repainting, deep cleaning, removing anything excess, rearranging the arrangement of furniture, improving the lighting in rooms, adding small accessories and decorative items, … The goal is to make the house as attractive as possible, for as many potential buyers as possible.
This is not to distort it, but to make it more interesting in the eyes of buyers, who might be intimidated by a cluttered home filled with unattractive objects and where the presence of the previous owners makes it difficult to imagine themselves inside.
Home staging is also extremely useful in properties that are now empty: with just a few inexpensive furnishings and temporary accessories, it is possible to revive the atmosphere and make it more welcoming and human.
Performing home staging work can be exhausting and difficult if you don’t have the right skills and don’t know where to put your hands:
that’s why the best real estate agencies provide this additional service to their clients.
Produce quality photographs of the property
It is very easy to distinguish between amateur and high-quality professional real estate photographs-especially today, in an era when potential clients rely heavily on images and do not want to set up appointments, much less make purchases, sight unseen.
High-quality real estate photographs can help you highlight your home’s potential and, of course, receive more interest from potential buyers.
To make them, you don’t just need a state-of-the-art cell phone or an expensive camera: you need to know what to photograph, in what way, in what light, and what points of interest to highlight. This is a job that needs to be done, of course, by a professional real estate photographer: only in this way can your home listing have an edge right from the start.
Again, the best real estate agencies make this valuable service available to their clients.
Welcome customers into your home as welcome guests
It seems obvious to say, but first impressions work wonders, even during real estate visits arranged by agents to show the home to potential buyers.
We fully understand that visits can be exhausting, especially if there are many of them and one after another, but it is really important to welcome each visitor with courtesy, helpfulness , and politeness.
You won’t have to take charge of the house tour or give in-depth explanations about the property-that will be taken care of by the agent-but it is reassuring for potential clients to be able to meet the owners and ask them a few questions, for example about the neighborhood or the neighborhood.
Making water, drinks or coffee available to guests is also a plus that is not mandatory, but always welcome and can make a difference.
A word of advice: during visits, allow the agent and visitors to move freely, without following them and especially without interrupting the visit with comments, clarifications or questions.
In case there is a need to discuss some issues, wait until the end of the tour.
Evaluate each proposal well even if the house has been for sale for a short time
The idea that you do not need to accept the first real estate proposals you receive because “there is time” is very limited and could preclude you from an interesting and profitable purchase or sale.
Get into the mindset that rarely will a prospective buyer offer to buy your property at the exact sale price without making a counteroffer from the outset.
Our advice is to evaluate them all carefully and without bias, listening to the suggestions of your trusted real estate agent. Remember: any proposal, if sensible and not overly downbeat, can open the table to an interesting discussion that, if well managed, could result in a quick and mutually satisfactory sale and purchase.
Do not ignore external factors (e.g., season of the year, socioeconomic status)
You have decided you want to sell your house: great!
But, is it the right season to do so? Some studies claim that the spring and summer months (May to July, just before the vacations) are the best for arranging visits, followed by September and October, the period when actual buying and selling is concentrated instead.
What is the socio-economic landscape like around you? How is the housing market doing? Are people more or less likely at this time to buy houses? Does selling your home now mean getting less than you might get by waiting for better conditions?
These are all questions that are not easy to answer unless you have the appropriate real estate skills. And, unfortunately, few people know that choosing the right time to put their property up for sale can really make a difference.
A competent and knowledgeable real estate agent will be able to help you answer all the most important questions and provide valuable guidance so that you do not make any missteps.
In conclusion
Selling a house is an important step and less simple than it may seem: if you have read the article up to this point, you will have noticed that there are a great many factors to pay attention to.
It is precisely for this reason that theassistance of a trained and high-qualityreal estate agency can make the difference between a difficult and disadvantageous buying and selling and one, on the other hand, that is quick, peaceful and fruitful: both for the seller and the buyer.
