How to Sell Your House
Selling a house is not always a straightforward process. If you want to get the best price for your house and recoup some of the investment you made, you need to put in a bit of work.
Luckily, it’s not an impossible feat. There are many paths for how to sell a house, and which one you take depends on the amount of skill, time, money, and patience you have to spare.
This article will outline a general method for how to sell your house, from preparing your home for listing to closing the deal with the new owner.
Plan the Timeline
Once you have decided, “I want to sell my home,” the first step is to draft a timeline and a plan. Selling your house is more than just listing it and waiting for offers to pour in. A lot of prep work is involved to make your home attractive to buyers.
Generally, it takes at least three months of prep work before you’re ready to list your property on the market. You’ll be dealing with inspections, repairs, staging, and cleaning. If you would like to work with a real estate agent, finding and vetting one can also take time.
Do a Home Inspection
When thinking about how to sell your home, a home inspection is one of the best investments you’ll make. This process can alert you to critical issues in your house that need fixing before you show it to potential buyers. If you go in unprepared, your buyers may notice these issues before you do.
An inspection can also help you with the next step: pricing your house.
Set the Price
One of the more challenging questions to ask, apart from “should I sell my house?” is “how much should I price it?” Pricing too high can deter buyers from looking at your house, while pricing too low can cut the profit you deserve.
Luckily, there’s one key factor you can base your price on when you want to sell: home values in your neighborhood. As a starting point, use the average cost of houses that recently sold. Alternatively, you can seek the advice of an experienced real estate agent.
Prepare Your House for Sale
Preparing your house is a critical step in the planning of how to sell a home. The general impression that buyers have of your house should align with your asking price. However, home preparation doesn’t need to be elaborate, and you shouldn’t spend unnecessary money just to impress.
Simple cleaning and decluttering will do wonders to your home’s appeal. You’ll want to make it as tidy as possible. If you need to decorate, always pick neutral colors or accents.
If issues are found during your house inspection, you might consider fixing them before you show the house. For example, cracked walls, missing shingles in the roof, or faulty plumbing can detract from your home’s value and overall appeal.
List Your house
Before listing your house, take high-quality photographs of every room and area from all angles. An attractive photo can catch the attention of prospective buyers, and can really benefit your selling process. You should also prepare listing information like a house description and a list of features of your home.
Once you have all the prep work done, listing your home on an MLS database is arguably the easiest step. If you’re working with a real estate agent, he or she will set this up for you. However, you can easily do it on your own if need be.
Review Offers
After hosting a few open houses, you should be getting quite a few offers from buyers. Carefully review each one and see if you feel confident with their terms.
When checking buyer offers, however, try to look at more than the price. You should review their timeline (do they want to move in next week or next month?), closing costs, and proof of funding.
If there are certain aspects of the offer you’d like to change, you can always negotiate with the buyer. For example, you may want to offer concessions, like homeowners coverage or inspection fees, in exchange for a higher price.
Close the Deal
This may be the last step on how to sell your house, but there are still important tasks that you must complete to close the deal. During this time, the buyer will do their due diligence and inspect your home thoroughly.
You should also be aware of any closing costs that you need to cover as the seller. These typically include transfer taxes, title insurance, and recording fees. If you hired a lawyer to help with the closing, you will need to pay legal fees as well.
Is Selling Your Home Really The Solution?
Are you researching “how to sell my house” because you can’t keep up with mortgage payments or debt? You might want to use other tools first, like debt relief or repayment strategies.
To learn more, request a free consultation with one of our expert debt consultants. They will put together a personalized recommendation for you and walk you through our program.
