Sell Your Home Fast: 9 Expert Tips for All Sellers

Additionally, your agent can handle all of the communication with your prospective buyer. Real estate is a full-time job, so most people choose to hire an agent to help with both a fast sale and a fast purchase. In 2023, 89% of buyers and 89% of sellers used a real estate agent for their home transaction.

It’s also important to find the right agent for your selling situation. HomeLight’s Agent Matching platform can help. Based on information you provide about your home and selling goals, we’ll connect you with top agents in your market. To help you choose the right agent, be sure to ask these important questions.

2. Clean, declutter, and paint

Your prospective buyers need to be able to picture themselves living in your space. A clean house is attractive to buyers because they see it as a blank canvas that they can make their own. Give your house a deep clean, put away the personal clutter, and throw a fresh, neutral paint color on the walls. Decluttering and painting can each add an average of $8,000 at resale, according to a recent HomeLight survey.

“We have to have the property in top-dollar shape,” says top Washington real estate agent Nancy Lee, who sells homes 65% faster than average agents in her area. Sometimes this means decluttering or painting, and “sometimes we have the carpet cleaned or we change the flooring.”

3. Hire a professional home stager

Like decluttering, home staging lets the buyer focus on the house itself instead of what you’ve done with the place to make it your own. In fact, 81% of buyers’ real estate agents in 2023 said that staging helped the buyer picture themselves living in a new home.

“Staged homes spend less time on the market and result in lower carrying costs,” says Brad Pierce, Creative Director at Haven Home Staging and Redesign. “Staging helps present a property in its greatest potential.”

In addition to helping the buyer envision their new life in the house, staging is often more cost-effective than renovating or reducing your listing price.

According to professional home stager Donna Allen, “The objective of staging is to eliminate any distractions for buyers and to showcase the property’s best features, along with making sure the house is neutral and current.” She considers the demographics of the neighborhood and the target audience to determine the best way to stage a home so that her client can sell their house fast.

“There are three responses to home staging,” Allen continues. “Yes, no, and WOW. WOW is the one to aim for.” When your buyer has that kind of reaction, you’re one step closer to selling your house fast.

4. Price your house appropriately

Pricing is key to selling your house fast. The first step is to get a sense of what your house is worth, so that you can price it appropriately — and HomeLight’s Value Estimator can help. The next step is to hone in on the perfect asking price for your property.

California agent Cheryl Coleman, who has close to two decades of experience in the industry, stresses the importance of strategic pricing as a vehicle to selling your house fast. “You cannot underprice the property,” she says. “But if you overprice it, you’re doomed.”

Recent statistics from the National Association of Realtors support Coleman’s statement. In 2023, buyers usually bought their homes for the full asking price, and 25% of them paid over the asking price.

Buyers are out there, and sometimes they’re even willing to pay more than your listing price. Draw them in with an appropriate price tag and creative marketing.

5. Market to your target buyer

Real estate marketing starts online. Home buyers use the internet to help them find their next home, so it’s important for you to write a creative real estate listing that your target audience will see — and that they’ll want to read.

Thanks to the increase in online access to home listings, Lee and her colleagues focus on digital marketing. Real estate agents use tools like 3D real estate tours and social media marketing to garner interest. Once your listing is marketed across the web, you can then impress your audience with an open house.

6. Host open houses to sell your home fast

Some sellers might be uncomfortable with strangers wandering around their homes during open houses, but hosting an open house gives every buyer that’s interested in your property the opportunity to view it.

Coleman recalls a recent experience in which a local home had sat on the market for months. She convinced the seller to let her work her open house magic. “We had 200 people at the open house, and it sold three days later,” she said.

7. Incentivize prospective buyers

Incentivizing buyers is a powerful strategy for selling your home quickly, especially in a competitive market. One effective approach is to offer financial incentives, such as covering closing costs or providing a home warranty. By reducing the initial financial burden, you not only make your home more attractive but also broaden your pool of potential buyers.

You can also include high-demand items in the sale. For example, leaving behind appliances, custom furniture, or electronics can tip the scales in your favor. These items, which might not be of significant value to you in your next home, can be enticing to a buyer looking for a move-in-ready experience. 

8. Request a cash offer

Another way to expedite your home sale is to request a cash offer. Selling your house fast for cash might sound too good to be true, but it’s actually more common than you might think. In fact, cash sales are on the rise in various markets throughout the U.S.

Although you might get less money in a cash sale than you would in a traditional agent-assisted sale, cash buyers, like house flippers and property investors, are always seeking out properties for sale — and they prefer quick transactions. You can sell your house for cash in a matter of days or weeks as opposed to months, so a cash offer is a great option if you’re really looking to sell quickly.

If you’re not sure how to request a cash offer, start with HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform. Just answer a few simple questions about your home, and receive a competitive offer in as little as a week. You can close on your timeline — sometimes as quickly as 10 days.

9. Be ready to move

Selling your home can be stressful. Before you put your house on the market, make sure you’re ready to move and go through with the sale. If you, as the seller, back out of a real estate contract, there could be legal repercussions, delaying your sale even further.

If you’re dedicated to a quick transaction, connect with a top agent and start decluttering and packing now. It’ll put your mind at ease as you approach your closing date. With these tips in mind, you’ll be passing the keys off in no time.

Header Image Source: (Andy Dean Photography / Shutterstock)