Want your home to sell fast?

Save yourself endless weeks of strangers poking around your house and constantly tidying up?

I’ve put together a list of top tips to sell your home fast, which helped us snag a buyer in just 2 weeks.

Moving is super stressful! It’s most certainly the reason that we stayed in our former home for 10 years, when we’d only planned to be there 5. But there came a day when I had sustained one too many Lego related injuries. I looked around my once minimalist chic living room and despaired. I was surrounded by brightly coloured plastic crap toys. My son needed a playroom! We desperately needed some grown up space back.

I’ve put together a list of tips to help sell your home fast, including some things I really wish I’d been told before selling my home. You’re welcome pal.

Find the right estate agent

This is so important to sell your home fast. You don’t want to waste precious months with the wrong Estate Agent. The best Estate agent is not necessarily the cheapest one or the one that gives you the highest valuation.

Online agencies have become increasingly popular and can save you a ton of cash, but be prepared to organise and conduct the viewings yourself. It might not be too practical if you work long hours. Also, ensure that they are going to do all the paperwork and liaise with your buyer/solicitor through to completion. Otherwise, it could mean a ton of work for you.

If you prefer to do it the traditional way, then meet with multiple agents before deciding which are the best fit for you. Are they professional, knowledgeable, on time? Would you buy a house from them? Does their website work well? How will they log viewing/feedback etc?

Obviously price will come into it a great deal, but ultimately go with your gut and don’t be afraid to change your agent if you’re not happy with the service you are receiving.

While we’re on the subject of Estate Agents, there are a couple of little bonus tips that I learnt the hard way.

• Check, check and check again the small print! Hidden in our contract was a clause, which meant that we were tied to our agent for 18 weeks. We would have been stuck with them for that duration, even if we were unhappy with their service.
• Don’t be afraid to negotiate their fees, we managed to battle them down from 3.75% to 1%.
• Finally, they generally won’t mention VAT which is added to their fee. Remember to add this in when you’re calculating your moving cost.

Set a realistic price

Do your research – what do similar sized properties sell for in your area? You can check at one of these websites: Land Registry Zoopla or Rightmove. Then you’ll have an idea of what is a realistic, achievable and fair asking price.

We put our house on the market for £5000 more than we wanted for it and managed to achieve our desired price. If you price your house too highly, then be prepared to wait, and wait, and probably drop your price anyway. Why not skip all the hassle and price to sell your home fast.   

Who’s the best person to sell your house?

It’s probably you! No estate agent can ever have the level of knowledge that you do about your own home. So if the opportunity arises, embrace it. Whilst it can feel a little strange and awkward at first, remember what you have loved about living in your home and be sure to mention those things to potential buyers.

Failing that, leave a note for your estate agent with a few things you think are key selling points, such as additional parking space, a new boiler, the fact that the station is a 10 minute walk ect.

Declutter

By the time we got around to selling our house, I felt like we were bursting at the seams with toys. Nobody wants to move into a glorified play school, even if they have children. Too much clutter distracts the buyer from really looking at what your house has to offer!

You’ll need to declutter anyway if you’re moving, so save the hassle later and do it now! Have a good therapeutic clear out. Your house will look so much more spacious and this is really important if your house is on the petite side.

If you can, ask friends and family if they can store some bulky items, which you can live without until you move. Definitely make a list of what has been stored where though.

The smell of success

It may sound obvious, but given that I viewed a house that stank of wet dog and another of intense onion, maybe not. Make sure your houses smells nice!

If you’re at home before the viewing throw open the window for 10 minutes and then light a fresh scented candle or two. Or if you won’t be in, a reed diffuser or a plug in would do the trick. Nothing too overwhelming, Vanilla would do nicely!    

Never work with children or animals

By this I mean try to keep pets and children out of the equation when you have a viewing, if possible. We have two cats and I would just put them out in the garden when people came to view. I took my son out to the park during viewings, because he is quite the chatterbox. One experience of him asking a potential buyer ‘are you going to buy this tiny house, so that we can move to a nice big one’ is enough really. Just mortifying!

Fresh white walls

I have no doubt, that you have impeccable taste or else you wouldn’t be here ;). However, most people want a blank canvas to put their own stamp on.

So, if there’s any particularly loud colours or ‘unique’ wallpaper choices, consider neutralising it with a coat or two of paint. Don’t get me wrong, bold colours can look amazing. Unfortunately, it’s surprising how many people simply can’t see past the amount of redecorating they need to do, if they move in. White will go with pretty much any colour scheme, so make it easy for them.

If you’re about to put your house on the market, I hope these tips have been helpful. Everything crossed that you get a buyer in record time.

Is there anything else you would add to this list? Let me know in the comments below.

If you’ve been on any house viewings, what’s the worst thing you’ve seen?

Mine is probably the house where there was a cat litter tray in the middle of the hall (no lid). It was full to the brim with fresh kitty deposits. You had no choice but to step over if you wanted to go upstairs. Just grim.

Why not pin this for later?