How to Sell Your House Fast in Summer: Wow Buyers With These 8 Tricks

Summer can be a tough time to sell a home. With kids out of school and vacations kicking off, not to mention all the activities the season brings, summer can be challenging for home sellers. What’s more, no one enjoys driving around shopping for homes when the mercury hits 100 degrees. But what if you don’t have the luxury of choosing which season to sell a home?

With only minor investments, you can add features that will wow sellers and maximize your summer selling potential. Here’s how to sell your house fast this Summer.

Make Your Yard Summer Ready

The last thing you want potential buyers to see when they pull up to a home is a dead lawn or yard waste. These are glaringly obvious during the hottest months of the year, which means the yard needs to be a top priority. Don’t make people imagine living in a home in cooler months, help them visualize living in it now.

1. Deep Clean the Yard – Complete the Big Projects

When someone tours your yard, they’re likely assessing projects they’ll need to tackle once they buy the home and if there are too many projects, they may decide to pass. While some of these projects will be hidden in other seasons, they’re on full display during the summer months. Meaning, if you are selling this season, check off as many projects as you can – from clearing deadfall to patching the lawn.

Indeed, lawn repair has the highest return on investment (ROI) of any yard care project, and will do wonders for your curb appeal.

And while you’re at it – don’t forget to clean out the toolshed! Nothing is worse than needing to sweep out and de-cobweb a toolshed before you can move in any of your tools and appliances.

2. Plant a Vegetable Garden

Fresh produce is great, and it’s even better for you when it’s from your own garden. Nothing says summer like harvesting your own veggies (and trying to offload your excess zucchini on the neighbors), so a pre-planted vegetable garden can help buyers picture themselves in your home this summer.

Instead of making them do the legwork to set up a garden, take an afternoon to plant one in advance – if you time it right, they could be moving in as everything starts to ripen.

Raised beds are probably the easiest option for putting in a simple good-looking garden. Here’s an excellent guide to establishing a garden using raised beds.

3. Punch Up Your Porch/Patio Game

Backyard barbecues are classic summer fare, so it’s always good to help people picture their own. A new patio is the third most appealing outdoor improvement for buyers with the second highest ROI, making it an excellent investment that will help sell your home quickly.

Consider adding shade to a patio with a pergola or stringing lights across the yard. You can even add seating and a fire pit, which will really help buyers picture themselves enjoying a cool summer night with friends.

• You can buy prefabricated pergolas or you can always build your own.
• Most fire pits are relatively inexpensive, but building your own and carving out a seating area is sure to impress.

4. Add Misters to Keep the Yard Cool

It’s easy enough to keep a house cool during a showing – just crank up the AC. But what about the backyard? A misting system is a simple and cheap way to turn down the temperature in a yard. You can even hook your misting system up to a connected device so you can turn it on remotely and impress buyers.

Misting kits can simply screw into a hose bib and a smart irrigation valve makes it easy to turn on with your smartphone.

5. Install Features to Get Kids on Your Side

With kids out of school for the summer, it’s likely that some buyers will have their kids in tow when viewing homes. This can be a boon for clever sellers that add kid-friendly summer features to their yards. When considering homes, a parent might just lean toward the home with a rope swing or a zip line that brought their kid so much joy on a hot day seeing houses.

Impress Buyers With Smart Features

Naturally, helping buyers stay cool while they look around is vital; a sweltering house is never going to feel like home so you should do everything you can to focus on keeping the home comfortable during the entire buying process. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with home automation technology.

1. Use a Smart Thermostat to Keep Your Cool

Homeowners can’t always be home to turn up the AC for a showing, and turning it on right before might not cool the home off in time. The other conventional solution is to simply keep the AC blasting throughout the day, which can add up quickly. A smart thermostat solves both of these problems, allowing you to turn on the AC at any time without needing to be at home. What’s more, adding smart features to a home can save 10-15% on your energy bills – an excellent selling point.

2. Upgrade Your Sprinklers

Anyone with a lawn or a garden dreads the water bill spike at the beginning of every summer. You can help mitigate this by installing a smart sprinkling system in advance of your sale. Wi-Fi connected sprinklers can save up to 30% on water usage – another helpful selling point for buyers.

3. Add in Some Automated Window Shades

Fewer things feel more futuristic than seeing your shades open and close on their own. While they may be one of the stranger improvements on this list, they’re excellent for showing a home. Especially on bright summer days, you can keep the sun out and the home cool, until a showing, when you can show off your shades that would look right at home in Tony Stark’s penthouse. And the best part is that you don’t even need to buy new shades – many smart shade devices simply replace the drawstring.

Sell Your House Fast This Summer

In most parts of the continental United States, summer has two temperatures – hot and hotter. You should be keenly aware of this when listing or selling a home. You can always have cold water bottles available for open houses or keep the AC cranked for showings, but taking it a step further can really close a deal.

Focus on yard projects that will shine during the summer and add home automation elements to make your listing stand up to the summer heat.