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How To Sell Your House Quickly For A Good Price (Plus 7 Mistakes To Avoid)

How to sell your house quickly for a good price - Plus 7 mistakes to avoid

There are many reasons why you might want to sell your house quickly. In this article I’m going to take a look at those reasons and how you might sell it quickly, but for a good price too.

How to sell your house quickly for a good price:

  1. Prepare your house for viewings.
  2. De-clutter, clean and make your home smell nice.
  3. Update and repair your house.
  4. Choose the right estate agent.
  5. Be realistic with the asking price of your house.
  6. Consider reducing the price to 90% of market value.
  7. Contact a home buying company for a quick sale.

Are you looking to sell your house quickly for market value?

Tips on how to sell your home fast

If you are looking for a quick sale of your home, and asking “how to sell my house quickly for a good price?” here are the above 7 tips in more detail, beginning with the preparation of your house for a sale and viewings.

In conjunction with selling your house quickly for a good price, I recommend you also read this article about how you could save £71,475 on your next house purchase by becoming a cash buyer. But then I recommend you also take a moment to read this article too, which is asks the question: “are you better selling your house and renting before buying again“.

But then you may also like to take a look at my video course about “How to sell your house in under 2 weeks for more money“. Not only does this course help you sell your house quickly for more money, but you also get the Mortgage Savings Calculator Tool too. With this tool you can calculate your savings when you adopt this strategy of selling and buying houses, a tool you’ll not find anywhere else.

1. Prepare the house for the viewings

One of the most important aspects of any home sale is first impressions. Think back to when you first bought your house. You probably knew this was the right home for you when you first walked in.

Or perhaps even before you even entered the house. This really does happen, there are a large percentage of people who buy a house before stepping foot into it.

We all have that gut instinct or that feeling about a house. It normally kicks in, almost before the front door is opened. But your ‘gut-instinct’ certainly sends signals to your brain when you walk through the front door.

Whatever that feeling is, or however it works doesn’t really matter. But so long as you know what I’m talking about, that’s the main point.

You’ll find that whoever comes to see your house, they will likely have that self same feeling. But what you want to do is to provide every chance for as many people to have a positive feeling about your home. You want to appeal to as many viewers as you can.

How to make that excellent first impression with your home

There are many ways for you to make that first good impression on potential home-buyers. The first of these is to de-clutter your house and make sure there’s a nice smell as people arrive.

2. De-clutter, clean and make your home smell nice

De-clutter and make your home smell nice

Buyers don’t expect to find a house without belongings. They know that people live there. But clutter and over-crowded rooms will put buyers off.

You should de-clutter your house and personal items should be kept to a minimum. You should de-personalise your house and create maximise storage space. Make your home look as big as possible.

Tidy away all those little bits and bobs that don’t enhancement the look of your home. De-clutter and clear out any spare rooms or box rooms. Make sure bedrooms look like bedrooms and not storage rooms packed to the rafters.

Enhance the space with plants and flowers, but then make sure these are well watered and look cared for. Dead plants or flowers will create the wrong first impression.

Give your house a good deep clean

As a part of de-cluttering and making your house smell clean is to give the whole house a deep clean. Focus on your kitchen and bathrooms. Make sure your kitchen has clear and clean work tops. Do the washing up or put the pots in the dishwasher.

Make sure the toilets are clean and have recently been descaled and been bleached.

Most people love the smell of real coffee beans or freshly baked bread. If you have it in you to make some bread or to put a new pot of coffee on so your house smells delicious when people arrive, this may even help the sale.

More reading: How much does a bathroom add to home value UK (What to spend)

Pet smells will put buyers off

The opposite is true of pet smells. If you have a dog or a cat, make sure you get rid of any doggy or cat smells from your house. Not everyone is a dog or a cat lover and this will put potential buyers off buying your house if it’s your dog they smell when they first walk in.

Cigarette smoke and smells will put buyers off

Sorry to be controversial, as I know this may upset you if you’re a smoker. But honesty is always the best policy. The smell of cigarette smoke can and will put buyers off buying a house or flat.

In fact only recently I chose not to buy a flat for this reason. It wasn’t the flat itself, because I could repair and update it for a resale, as this is what was needed.

But the problem in this case were the corridors to get to the flat. These had a very strong smell of cigarette smoke. I’d have no control over this, and no matter what I did with this flat, I wouldn’t be able to get rid of the cigarette smoke smell for potential buyers. This would be their first impression.

This is not a dig at you if you smoke by the way, it’s about helping you sell your home. There’s a very small percentage of people who would like their house to smell of cigarettes. If this is the first thing that buyers smell when they walk in, this is not a good first impression.

I know you may be thinking the smell will go Once you’ve sold, so what’s the problem? This is true, but it takes time and the nicotine stains the walls and fabric of a house. People know this and some don’t want the hassle to sort this out.

It’s all about making your home appeal to as many as possible to help it sell it quickly.

The second way to make a good first impression with your home is tip 3, which is to ‘update and repair your house’.

3. Update and repair your house

Update and repair your house

If you’re looking for a very fast house sale, you may not have time to update and repair your house. But if you do have time, depending on your reason for wanting to sell quickly, this is one of the best tips to help a house sell fast.

Not all updates and repairs need to cost the earth. Plus some very simple and cheap repairs can make all the difference to how quickly your house will sell.

To sell your house quickly if it needs repairing the price must reflect its state of repair

But as already mentioned earlier in this section, you may not have the time to do the required repairs or updates on your house. To sell a house that does require repairs or perhaps requires major repairs, will require you to drop the price if you don’t do the work beforehand.

How much you need to drop the asking price will depend on the amount of repairs or updating needed. Minor repairs can be tackled by most people, but not everyone is keen on doing DIY.

But for those keen DIY enthusiasts, a house that needs doing up is exciting for them. However, the asking price of the house must reflect the work that needs to be done. You cannot put a house that’s in need of repair on the market at the same price as a house that’s in tip-top condition.

If your house does require major repairs, the price will need to reflect this too. Your potential buyers market has just got smaller too. You are now probably only looking at selling to either builders or property investors.

But of course builders and investors need to build-in a profit to the deal, as well as the cost of the repairs. This has to be reflected in the asking price for it to be attractive for an investor to be interested.

So be prepared to offer your house at a very realistic asking price to reflect its condition and state of repair.

4. Choose the right estate agent

Choosing the right estate agent is key to selling your house or to selling your house quickly. However, if you really need to sell your house very fast, you may be better off not even using an estate agent.

But assuming you would like to sell through an estate agent, you need to go about choosing the right one. Interview at least three estate agents in your area and ask to see what houses they’ve sold recently. Choose the right estate agent for the type of house you are selling.

Ask your agent about having an open day

Open days are a great way to sell a house quickly. Well attended open days generate interest and create competition. Where there’s competition this can push up the asking price, but more importantly it can push people to make a quick offer.

If on the day you receive multiple offers, don’t necessarily go for the highest bid. Take the advice of the estate agent on this and generally go with the offer from the most proceed-able buyer.

Sell your house quickly without using an estate agent

If you really need to sell your house fast, you may be better to approach someone like us. We can act fast and we don’t get you locked into a long chain of sales.

Many house sales fall through for any number of reasons. Sometimes people can’t get a mortgage, their own house sale falls through, or perhaps they change their mind. But whatever the reason, this may not be the extra stress you need or want.

Selling a house is one of the most stressful things you can do in life for most people. But if you need to sell fast, this heightens the stress levels significantly.

If for example you are going through the repossession process, you don’t necessarily have the time to wait around for a conventional sale to happen. If you are behind on your mortgage payments, your mortgage company will be chasing you for a solution.

Where you find yourself in this situation and you need to sell your house fast, but you don’t have time to sell it in the conventional way using an estate agent, please contact us for a solution.

5. Be realistic with the price of your house

To sell your house quickly, you really need to be realistic about the price you put it on the market. The market conditions and the time of year can both have an impact on how quickly your house will sell. But no matter what time of year or month it is or how good the market conditions are, your house won’t sell if it’s over-priced.

Do your own research on house prices in your area. You can use websites like Zoopla and their ‘house prices‘ section to compare house prices on your street or nearby.

But also, enlist the services of at least 2-3 estate agents to value your house before you put it on the market. But if you’re looking for a quick house sale, don’t go with the highest price.

6. Consider reducing the price to 90% of market value

If you need to sell your house quickly, a top tip is to drop the asking price to around 90% of the fair market value. By dropping your price in this way makes your house stand out from the other houses that are similar to yours.

This is a cost effective method and beats having to wait to sell your home at its original asking price. Or alternatively, it avoids you needing to use a quick house sale company, who on average pay around 75% of market value.

However, sometimes people need to go down the route of a quick sale using a house sale company like us. But it doesn’t always mean taking an offer of 75% of asking price, as there are many ways to achieve a sale without you losing out on your home’s equity.

However, you may have negative equity, which makes it more difficult to reduce the price of your house. But this leads nicely onto the the next tip, which is to consider contacting us for a quick sale.

7. Contact a home buying company for a quick sale

How to sell your house quickly for a good price

If you are in a position where you’ve been marketing your house for some time and your house is just not selling, or alternatively if you need to sell your house fast, please contact us to find out what your options are.

We can act fast and buy your house quickly with a number of alternatives. Some these solutions mean you get the asking price (or sometimes more) for your house and quickly!

If your problem is that you have negative equity, which is stopping you from selling your house quickly at a price that covers your outstanding mortgage, we also have a solution for this situation too.

If you are in the middle of a repossession, it’s important you avoid being repossessed at all costs. We can help you in this situation too.

Contact us for more details on how we can help you to sell your house quickly for a good price.

Reason why you might want to sell your house quickly

The top reasons why people want to sell their house fast include the following:

  1. New job in a new location.
  2. Expecting a new addition to the family – so needing to up-size.
  3. Going abroad and emigrating for a new life or job.
  4. Illness or death in the family.
  5. A relationship breakdown or divorce.
  6. You are going through a repossession.

If any of the above reasons is why you need to sell your house fast. Or perhaps you have another reason why you need to sell quickly. Either way, the rest of this article is aimed at helping you with your problem.

7 mistakes to avoid when selling your house

7 mistakes to avoid when selling your house

Selling your house quickly is not just about what you need to do, but also about what you need to avoid doing too. There are many reasons why houses don’t sell, which includes these seven mistakes.

If your house is either not selling as fast as you’d like or if you want a fast house sale in any case, you need to avoid the following seven mistakes.

  1. Over pricing your house.
  2. Using duff photos.
  3. Not having a floor plan.
  4. Extreme personality.
  5. Incorrectly presented rooms.
  6. A lack of curb appeal.
  7. Asking for feedback and not acting on it.

Let me now explain each one of the mistakes in a bit more detail.

1. Over pricing your house

The number one reason why houses don’t sell quickly is because they are over priced. An overpriced house may not even get past the starting blocks.

Earlier in this article one solution I suggested to sell your house fast was to reduce your house’s selling price to 90% of it’s original market value. This is different to pricing your house correctly in the first place.

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of being told your house is worth more than it actually is worth. It’s a great feeling when a bright-eyed estate agent walks in to your home and tells you your house is worth more than you thought it was worth.

But unless you were totally wrong with your valuation (which is unusual), it’s likely the agent is playing games. Don’t get me wrong, not all estate agents play games, but some do. They are out to win your business and over-valuing is just one of those tricks.

This trick will soon come to light when you’re not getting any viewings. This is when the same agent will suggest reducing the price, which will be a reduction to the correct price it should have started at. But now they have you locked in a contact.

Choose your estate agent carefully!

Price is the first thing buyers see

The first thing buyers see about your house is its price. So when it comes to valuing your home, this has to be done correctly.

An over valued property is likely to deter people from even arranging a viewing in the first place.

The biggest risk of going down the over valued route is that your house sale will stagnate. People will begin to wonder what’s wrong with your house and it may then not sell at all. This is unless you then reduced its selling price to below market value in order to drum up some interest.

2. Using duff photos

The second thing that people look at when viewing a house on sites like Rightmove is the photographs. It’s important to make sure the photos really ‘sell your house’. If you are going to sell your house quickly using an estate agent, they will take these photos for you.

But it’s important to make sure the shots taken of each room show the room off at its best. Make sure each room is tidy and clean before the photos are taken. But also the curtains should be open to show-off your house in the best light too.

Make sure you replace any broken light bulbs before the estate agent comes over to take photographs. Having the lights on will create that extra light and take away some of the shadows in the rooms.

If however you intend to sell your house without using an estate agent, make sure you take some good photos.

Taking a good photo is firstly about the staging of the room and secondly about the lighting. Get these two things right and you should take some good photos that will sell your house online.

3. Not having a floor plan

These days most of the house selling is done online. What I mean by this is that most people use the internet to narrow their search. Buyers will spend more time researching properties and reviewing the details online before they arrange an actual viewing.

If you don’t get past this first stage of online house viewing, you’ll not sell your house at all, let alone sell your house fast.

One important element of helping to get past this first stage of viewing is to provide a floor plan. Most estate agents will provide a floor plan when they put your house particulars together, but make sure you ask this question before you appoint the agent.

If however you intend to sell your house without using an estate agent, you should attempt to provide a floor plan yourself. Floor plans are mostly not to scale and they don’t have to be. They are designed to give potential buyers the dimensions so they can see if their furniture will fit or it will help them to plan new furniture.

4. Extreme personality

There is nothing wrong in giving a house a bit of character or personality. But remember to not over personalise your house. Not everyone will share your taste in loud colour schemes, huge family portraits or large collections of cuddly toys or train sets, or whatever that may be.

Buyers need to be able to picture themselves in your house. It’s important that they see your house as being their new home.

5. Incorrectly presented rooms

Don’t fall into the trap of presenting your rooms incorrectly. If for example you’ve always used the box room as a dumping ground or for storage, clear this out and turn it back into a bedroom.

If you have a three bedroom house, but one room is not shown as a bedroom, you are actually selling a two bedroom house instead. You want to make it easy for people to see what they are buying. A bedroom should have a bed in it so that the buyers can see it functioning as a bedroom.

Many people use their third bedroom as a home office, which is okay. However, when it comes to selling your house, you are probably better off changing this third bedroom back into a bedroom.

6. A lack of curb appeal

The first thing that potential buyers see after they’ve viewed it online is the front and the outside of your house. You should therefore make sure your house has curb appeal. Many sellers focus on the inside of their house, but forget to update the outside and the garden.

Make sure the lawn is mowed, the hedges and bushes are trimmed, plus the front of the house looks appealing to potential buyers.

7. Asking for feedback and not acting on it

When people visit your property and view it as a potential buyer they will usually provide feedback to the estate agent. It’s important that you ask for this feedback and where there’s negative feedback, and especially if it’s about something that can be remedied, act on this right away.

But of course, if the feedback is that people don’t like your property’s position, it may be on a busy road or backs onto a railway line. There’s not a lot you can do to change this. However, you could request that the agent re-positions your house to show these ‘negatives’ as a positive.

For example, if you back onto a railway and this means you’re not too far from a train station, make sure this is explained in the sales particulars. This will attract those buyers who are perhaps looking to use the train to commute to work.

I hope you’ve got something from reading this article on how to sell your house quickly for a good price

If you’ve got something from this article on how to sell your house quickly for a good price please share it on your favourite social media site.

Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below too. Alternatively, if you need more help, please feel free to contact us on our contact us page here. Or join the discussion and ask your question in the property forum.

How To Sell Your House Quickly For A Good Price (Plus 7 Mistakes To Avoid)

Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been investing in property since purchasing his first commercial property in the 1990's for his own Chartered Accountancy business. But his first property investment project was to turn an old dilapidated restaurant into a large 5-bed home, which he purchased for £117,500 and sold for £450,000 (to see an "after" photo of the house before it was sold see here: About). Russell owns a number of investment properties, which includes houses, flats and HMO's. More recently he has turned his creative side to investing in property using lease options. His largest lease option deal to date was to acquire 12 properties worth over £2 million for just £12, which means he paid just £1 to acquire each property!

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