Tips for Selling Your House Quickly

Do you need to sell your house in a hurry? Perhaps you’re moving for a new job, or maybe you’re facing foreclosure and need to get out from under an overwhelming mortgage quickly.

Selling a house can be stressful, and when you’re under a serious time crunch, it can make the process even more taxing. When you need to sell your house fast, there are a number of things to consider. Let’s take a look.  

Decide Which Strategy You’ll Use to Sell

Before you can sell a house, you need to determine how you’ll approach the sale. Pick a sales strategy that you believe will work best in your situation and timeline. As you consider your options, remember that selling with a real estate agent or on your own can take several weeks or even months, depending on the market. 

With that in mind, choose between the following selling strategies:

• Hire an agent. When you work with an agent, you get the advantage of in-depth market knowledge in your specific area. Experienced agents understand how to sell a house quickly and can streamline showings, negotiations, contracts, and closing paperwork. But all of that comes at a price. Combined, agent commission fees and closing costs can get expensive. On average, commissions range from 5% to 6% of the sale price, and closing costs typically range from 2% to 4%. On a $350,000 sale (the average home price in Colorado Springs), you’ll pay between $24,500 and $35,000 in fees just to sell your house.

• Sell For Sale by Owner (FSBO). Selling your house FSBO is a viable option if you want to sell quickly, but you’ll need to know how to negotiate like a pro. And if you don’t have market knowledge, you’ll need to do some in-depth research to ensure you price the property correctly. Moreover, you’ll need to understand how to handle paperwork, contracts, showings, inspections, and the closing process, which can be a lot to juggle when you’re in a hurry to sell. One distinct perk of selling FSBO, though, is that you’ll avoid paying a seller’s commission fee. However, you’ll likely still need to pay the buyer’s agent a 3% commission on the sale. 
• Sell to a Cash Home Buyer. If you need to sell your house fast, perhaps the easiest way to do it is to sell to a real estate investor (a.k.a. a cash home buyer). Investors buy houses in any condition, so even if your home needs repairs, they can purchase it. Cash home buyers do not require you to clean the property or make any improvements at all. Here’s how the process typically works:

• Contact the cash home buyer. You reach out to the buyer’s agency with a few basic details about the house you need to sell. The agency will contact you back (usually within hours) to schedule a convenient time for a quick property walkthrough. 
• Conduct a property assessment. During your property walkthrough, the cash buyer will assess the condition of the house and any other factors that may affect its fair market value.
• Get a fair cash offer. After determining the fair market value of your home, the buyer will build a cash offer and deliver it for your review and consideration. 
• Decide to sell and close when you’re ready. If you like the offer and choose to accept it, you can sell the house immediately. If you need some time to decide, most investors’ offers are good for 30 days or so. 
• It’s important to note that when you work with a cash home buyer, you’re under no obligation to sell. You can have your property appraised, but if you don’t like the offer, you can always choose to decline it.

Take Care of Minor Repairs

If you choose to hire an agent or sell FSBO, you’ll need to handle any minor repairs your house requires if you hope to sell it quickly. While you won’t have time to perform major renovations, you should definitely take care of the smaller stuff like:

• Replacing cracked or loose floor tiles
• Fixing damaged or loose plumbing components, door handles, trim, etc.
• Patching up scratched or peeling paint, both indoors and outdoors
• Fixing loose or leaky gutters
• Anything else that could raise a red flag in the eye of prospective buyers

If you’re selling through traditional realty avenues, be prepared to field lowball offers if you fail to perform minor repairs. In the eyes of many prospective buyers, minor issues can be a red flag and hint that more extensive underlying problems exist.    

Stage the House and Improve Curb Appeal

If you choose to hire an agent or sell FSBO, staging and curb appeal are incredibly important. Making a solid first impression on prospective buyers is critical whether you need to sell a house fast or have several weeks to work with. What prospective buyers see heavily influences their decision to buy, so make sure you:

• Spruce up your landscaping
• Tidy up the exterior of the house
• Remove clutter and highly personal items from the interior of the house
• Clean the house from top to bottom
• Freshen up your home decor by adding new curtains, rugs, pillows, wall art, and other items that will help prospective buyers envision what living in the space might be like

According to one Zillow Group Report, 48% of recent home buyers claimed that staging and curb appeal were important in their buying decision. For the best chance of inspiring a buying decision, make sure you dress your house to impress. 

Need to Sell Your House Fast?

If you need to sell your Colorado Springs house fast, get in touch with our team at We Buy Houses Colorado Springs. We’re cash home buyers, which means we can buy houses in any condition – no repairs or staging needed – and close on your sale in just a matter of days. To get started, fill out our contact form or give us a call today at (719) 602-8814.