5 Ways To Sell Your Home Faster
No matter how long your home lingers unsold, you can comfort yourself that at least you're not Mark Twain. The celebrated author put his Hartford, Connecticut home on the market for $60,000 in 1901, according to biographer Fred Kaplan. Despite repeated markdowns, the elaborate house failed to attract a buyer until the price was finally slashed to $25,000 two years later. What was once a much-loved home—and one in which Twain estimated he'd invested more than $100,000—became a painful albatross. "I would rather go to hell," Twain wrote the friend who was helping him sell the place, "than own it 50 days longer." If you want to avoid Twain's agony, you'd be smart to do some work up front to make sure your house sells fast.
Finish the "honey do" list.
Just about every homeowner has a string of little repairs that never quite get done. Now's the time. Fix the screens, oil that squeak, patch the cracks, paint the trim. Stuff that you've long since stopped noticing could be shouting "Deferred maintenance!" to every potential buyer.
The cost: A few bucks if you're handy, a couple of hundred or so if you hire someone who is.
Get inspected.
A pre-sale inspection can help in two ways, says real-estate columnist Tom Kelly. Professional inspections can identify problems that could thwart a sale in time to fix them. And if there are no major problems, he said, an inspection can publicize that fact to skittish buyers.
"Having an inspection (report) right on the counter during the open houseshows the buyers that the seller's got nothing to hide," said Kelly, author of several real-estate books, including " Cashing in on a Second Home in Mexico."
The cost: Around $400.
Pack up the clutter.
"Clutter eats equity," said real-estate broker Barb Schwarz, CEO of StagedHomes.com and a pioneer of the concept of professionally preparing houses for sale.
Too much stuff makes rooms look smaller and focuses buyers' attention on your possessions rather than the home you're trying to sell. That's why many professional stagers recommend removing as much as a third of your things to better show off rooms and closets.
"Since you're going to have to pack it up anyway, do it now," advised Schwarz, who said she has staged more than 5,000 homes. Buyer's "can't imagine themselves living there if they can't see the space."
The cost: $150 to $300 a month for three months' storage.
Depersonalize and neutralize.
The first items that should go in those packing boxes: family photos, collections and just about anything else that says "you." Streamline your artwork and consider toning down bold decorating statements, said Ilyce Glink, author of "50 Simple Steps You Can Take to Sell Your Home Faster and for More Money in Any Market." That means neutral shades f you need to repaint walls or replace carpets.
"Buyers have a hard enough time envisioning how their stuff will look on your walls," Glink said. "By neutralizing your dcor, you can help give them the blank canvas they need to imagine your house as theirs."
The cost: $10 and up for paint; $500 and up for new carpet.
Clean like a fiend.
"I mean Q-tip clean," said Schwarz, who recommends taking a cotton swab to faucets and fixtures, scouring fingerprints from all the switch plates, shining windows until they're spotless and vacuuming up every last god hair from the baseboards. "You should be able to eat off the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor."
You'll need to banish suspect smells as well; you don't want your house to become known in real estate circles as the "cat pee place." If your pets have had one too many accidents, you may need to replace the affected carpet and padding and have the underlying floor sealed. If you're not sure now your place smells, get your least tactful friend to take a few whiffs and tell you the honest truth.
The cost: $10 or so in home cleaning products, of you do it yourself; $75 and up if you hire help.
By Liz Pulliam Weston
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