Selling houses for top dollar... faster!

Selling tips for home owners

Tips to help you sell your house faster

The biggest tip for selling your house faster is to slow down and gets things right BEFORE you list the property. For most homeowners, that means putting in a lot of work or hiring a lot of outside help to get it ready.

The biggest mistake house owners make is putting their property on the market before making sure everything is as good as it can be with available resources.

This doesn't mean adding on a new addition to the house, but it may mean updating the kitchen and bathrooms. These are the 2 rooms that you'll get almost all of your investment dollars back. However, even if you don't get back all those kitchen investment dollars, it might mean that you'll be able to sell your house faster-- and that's an important point that goes far beyond the dollars spent fixing the kitchen.

When your house is viewed by strangers during the selling process, they don't really care about you or your life-style. In fact, the less they know about you (from your house and the furnishings) the better the selling process moves along.

Research

Most people don't just wake up one day and put their house on the market. It is usually a drawn out process. Granted, some situations do require putting the house on the market without much planning. Sudden job changes, or deaths in the family are the primary causes. Most other reasons pile up on us until they seem to reach a critical mass that can only be satisfied by finding a new home.

Create a marketing plan for your home that will help distinguish it in your local marketplace and attract buyers to your property.

The first step in creating a marketing plan is doing some market research on what your competition is doing, especially in competitive markets.

Look at the deals your neighbors are offering. "The most important thing is to really shop the competition on the market right now," says Elizabeth Razzi, author of "The Fearless Home Buyer," published in 2006, and of "The Fearless Home Seller."

Look at everything from a buyer's viewpoint. "Get out in the car and spend a weekend looking at everything you can," Razzi says. "Visit some weekend open houses. Just get a feel for what your buyers are looking at."

Visit newly built houses to see which amenities and incentives builders are offering. Listen to what other visitors to open houses are saying. Find out if there's something in particular they're looking for -- something you should do to make your house more presentable.

Major steps for selling your home

Once you've got an idea of what the housing market is like in your area, put your plan into action by getting your house ready to sell.

What that entails depends on your circumstances and your budget. If your house has been well maintained and is in great shape, you're miles ahead of a house owner that has ignored maintenance and let the entire property fend for itself.

There are several steps that you can begin immediately. Cleaning is one and scheduling a home inspection by a certified home inspector.

No matter what condition your house is in, it will need additional cleaning.

The home inspection will let you know if there's anything major that needs to be corrected.

• If walls need paint, paint them now.

• If carpets are worn, replace those now.

• If you plan on using a realor to sell your property, you might want to hold off on the interviewing process until your house has been inspected, cleaned and painted. Doing those things first will help give your prospects an accurate impression of your property.

Part of the sales process is removing you from the property. Remember, your heart is elsewhere. You want to de-personalize your home and open it up so a prospect can see how your property might become their new home.