While I’m in Ohio kicking my family’s butt at board games over the holiday, Dominique Brown agreed to take over the reins for a day. Thanks, Dom!
For those of you who don’t know him from our podcast, Dominique Brown is a financial planner, landlord, personal finance blogger and video blogger. He is the owner of YourFinancesSimplified.com where he talks about everything from being a new father to his worst financial mistakes. He is also the owner of InsiderRealEstateTips.com where he talks exclusively about real estate. He’s been featured at The Huffington Post and H&R Block. You can find him either on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube or Instagram.
Maybe your adjustable rate mortgage is about to put the ARM on you. Maybe you just took that once-in-a-lifetime job halfway across the planet. For whatever reason, you need to sell your house fast. When your back is against the wall, you might try some of these unusual methods to sell your house fast.
Saturate the Internet
It may surprise you to know that 66% of folks shopping for homes begin their search online. For this reason, make certain your realtor has your property listed on the internet. The top five sites are Trulia.com, Homes.com, Craigslist.org, Zillow.com and Yahoo.com. While there are other sites, these top-of-the-heap places give your property greater exposure, hopefully shortening the time to sell your home. Don’t overlook social media sites like Facebook, LinkdIn, and Twitter. Send out copies of your listing to everyone on your contact list. Start a blog about your home, talk up the neighborhood, schools, and nearby attractions, such as parks or community centers.
Try eBay
I know this sounds wacky, but for about $150, this is a cost effective way to create buzz about your home, and can land you a ton of traffic. The auction is not binding, and if you choose not to accept any offers, that is your privilege. If you need to sell your house fast, consider this part of your advertising expense. Who knows…you might sell your house fast!
Got Kids?
Put them to good use. I read about a couple that had “Buy My House” T-shirts made for their children and all their children’s friends. This shouldn’t get you into hot water with Children and Family Services and hey…a lead is a lead, right?
Incentivize Your Broker
Offer your broker a bonus for a quick sale. The bonus should parallel your need to sell your house fast. Avoid cash bonuses. Offer a weekend get away to Las Vegas, Chicago, or Atlantic City. Maybe your broker is a sports fan and would appreciate getting tickets for that big game. Use your imagination. That’s why I suggest you avoid cash. So boring!
Incentivize Your Buyer
Offer to pick up the full boat on closings costs. Maybe you could sweeten the deal by prepaying the property taxes for few months. This could really help a first time buyer.
Price it Right
Work closely with your broker to arrive at a selling price that is attractive, but not so attractive as to arouse suspicion in potential buyers. If you price your house too far below the rest of the market, prospective buyers may think something is amiss with the home, the neighborhood, or the schools. This is a balancing act, and if your broker is clear on your goal to sell quickly, then together you can arrive at a Goldilocks’ price—not too high, not too low, but just right. Another way to sell your house fast and still get a fair price is getting in touch with NeedToSellMyHouseFast.com, a trusted home buyer famous for buying houses in cash.
Some people think that under pricing your home is “good thing.” These people believe that market forces will come into play. They believe potential buyers will actually bid against one another and force your selling price into line with market prices. You and your broker will have to make that call.
Don’t Forget the Basics
Don’t get caught up in the wacky things you are doing to speed the sale of your home and forget the basics. Do not make that mistake. You still need to make certain your home is in good repair inside and out. Make sure the rooms are clear of clutter. Keep the dishes washed and the kitchen spotless. Bathrooms should always be spotless too. If you have pets, consider boarding them with friends or with a kennel. Not everyone is a fan of the furry friends. Make sure you mow the lawn, put toys and tools away and repair any problems with outbuildings or fences. When your broker is showing your home, it is usually best for you to be absent. Spend some time visiting open houses. This is a good way to get ideas for highlighting your property, and it is free.
If you have had experience with selling your house fast, let us know about it. Have you had success in making a fast sale?
I wish that people would deep clean their houses before putting them on the market. It is a total turn off to go in and see dirty baseboards and cobwebs. Maybe I am a clean freak?!?!
hahahah.. no you’re not a clean freak, that should be common for anyone who is buying a home.
Believe it or not, in Minnesota 9 out of 10 times the seller pays the closing costs! This is a good incentive for first time home buyers, but it’s standard in almost all sales in Minnesota.
As a seller, I would just raise my price by 3.5% and offer you 3% as a concession 🙂
Thankfully when we bought our house the seller paid the closing costs. We’ve not sold a house yet, so do not have experience with that. We did however sell our last car using Ebay and it was a great experience. It’s a bit of a nontraditional way, but I think it can be a very useful tool if done right.
When you sold your home on ebay did you get fair market value? HOw did you handle the sell/inspections and all of that.
It was actually a car we sold on Ebay. It was a great experience for us and would recommend it to anyone selling one privately.
We didn’t have much success selling our home this past year despite doing a bunch of different things to get it looking as good as possible. We even added an incentive to the buyer’s agent for getting a quick sale. I’ve never thought of the Ebay thing…that’s interesting!
We just took our house off the market and will put it back on in early March. Hopefully we have better luck next year!
Aww that sucks, I wish you luck in selling your house this time around.
We sold our house 3 years ago this month. It was just over 4 years old at the time and it took 8 days to sell for full price.
We interviewed several Realtors, both were popular in our neighborhood. We went with one that had a team of 5 other Realtors working with him. This brought in a lot of traffic because each Realtor had their own list of clients that were looking for a house.
We always kept our house in show home condition the whole time we lived there, very clean and maintenance free.
As well the Realtor had very nice professional pictures taken, which I know a lot of Realtors skimp on. Our property listing was only posted on MLS.ca but it all went well.
One of the things I noticed in your post is that you can offer an incentive to your Broker. I was told several years ago that that is illegal in Canada. We can’t even give them a gift card for Starbucks or something like that.
Last I checked there is nothing illegal about incentives for a realtor in the states. When you sold your home 3 years ago did you make a nice profit? That was during the boom times and a lot of people made a ton of money.
Yes, we had it built in 2005 and we made just over $200,000 in profit in 2009. The boom in 2006 in Canada is what increased the price of our home dramatically.
Oddly enough friends of ours purchased their new home last week after 2 days being on the market on FACEBOOK. The realtor posted the home and they saw it and were sold the same day. Never say never you don’t know who is watching. Mr.CBB
Now if only the Facebook initial public offering was that impressive! I hope your friends really love the place.
It’s many years since I last sold a house during a recession when nothing was moving. It went in 2 weeks and I got what the agent suggested it was priced at. How? First I wrote the spiel and it was a bit longer than their usual efforts and second I set the price up 10% and it ended up at the price the agent originally suggested. But the big thing about selling is – think of it when you buy! It’s probably too late if you’ve already bought but the next time you look at a house, think how easy it would be to sell.
The other thing about agents (realtors in US-speak) is that although they are paid at least over here by the seller, in effect they work for the buyer. Why? Because they want turnover. If they can sell 10 houses each at 10$ less than the owners want with the same effort as selling one house at the true market price, they make 9 times to income. Easy. So the buyer can look at a number of properties, flirt with each seller, think about offers etc etc because they have some liquidity whereas the poor seller, however nice the property is, can’t really do this.
Particularly these days, all the power is therefore with the purchaser.
great points John. That’s why I would only sell if I have too and not for a penny less than I want to sell for.
When saturating the internet, take good pictures, and many of them. It’s incredible how many adds people skip because there aren’t pictures. And they are right, why should they lose their time and come have a look if you are unable to help them evaluate the property before?
Pauline, that was exactly what I was thinking. Take good shots of clean areas – preferably with wide angle lenses. Pay the extra listing fees to have it listed with 15 pictures instead of 3. If you want to sell fast, people are going to want to SEE it to get the process moving.
Also – I’d make sure all the neighbors know that you are selling. One guy in our neighborhood recently bought the house next door to him, fixed it up a bit and now rents it out. He’s the landlord next door!
What benefit would a seller get from telling the neighbors he’s selling?
I agree with you 100%! when we shopped for our home, the first step was the internet. If the place didn’t have 10 high quality pictures, we skipped it.
I like the incentive the broker bit. I’d hire a top notch photographer to take pics and set up a temporary website/blog to sell my home if I was having a hard time…at least it would be fun.
I agree 100% on the real estate photographer. I would through in a professional stager too if I was having issues moving my place.
We sold our first house in a month after expececting it to sit for at least 6 months. It was super clean, we worked out butts off to make the yard look awesome. We painted the deck and front stairs, and cleaned out all the clutter so the closets were half full and looked huge. It could have been luck, but I think people don’t always take care of the little details that can turn people off right away.
Great job! did you end up getting the price you wanted as well?
The wife and I are working on getting our house ready for sale. We have a lot of work to do, but these tips should help out greatly. I love getting things sold quickly and hopefully I can get the house sold quick.
Good luck in selling your home. I hope it goes fast.
My mom’s trying to sell her house with very little luck. Her realtors just aren’t motivated. I’ll have to pass along this info to her, especially the idea to motivate the realtors!
If the realtors aren’t motivated then get new ones and use an incentive to get the placed sold. No need to sit with someone who can’t get the job done.
Good points! I would add staging your house as another idea. Declutter and put your house in order to make it show well.
Staging can be the difference from 2 weeks on the market and 2 months. People need to feel like they can live in your place. Make it look like a model home and people will want to buy it.
Great ideas. I have never thought to put my house on eBay, but I know I’ve sold motorcycles this way, so why not a house! I think the last point is the best though… pricing your house correctly is the most important part in selling it fast. I learned this the hard way with my first house (usually the brokers know what the proper price should be :))
What happened with your first house? Priced too high? Too low?
I read some great points here. This will be my guide and it really helps a lot. It is also important to choose the right customer so that you will get the right price that the house really have.
I just came onto your post and found it quite interesting. I am also associated with se ll house fast, quick house sale, sell house quickly, and love to enjoy the stuff on the same as its rarely found on internet. Thanks again for writing such a good post.
I sold my house on Craig’s list in 2008.
It was just when the economy started to implode, so I was shocked. Especially considering it was in a rural location!
hahah, I like the idea of using your kids as a selling strategy! On a serious note, my sister managed to sell her home on homes.com. So I guess that’s one I’d have to suggest 🙂
Nice post very informative post about the finacial advice thanks for the author share the post
Wacky ways can sometimes be misinterpreted for desperate. I want to utilize social media but I’m not sure which route to take. (FB, Twitter, Pinterest) Is this a waste of time?
Hey, Nick! I think if you talk about the property responsibly (and in a way that you don’t sound desperate), you can do all of the above….although Twitter really isn’t great for the type of contact you want. I think Facebook and Pinterest might work better).
I wholeheartedly agree with the “Saturate the Internet” advice – though I bet the number of buyers that search the internet may be higher than that. But the part about printing t-shirts for the kids – now that is crazy or shall I say desperate. I did hear about an idea that was interesting: Raffling the house. Owners would accept $200 raffles to a Paypal account and guarantee returning the money if a certain amount of raffles did not get purchased. Marketing would be done over the internet. Interesting.
Wow, Simon! That’s absolutely nuts! Talk about a creative idea…..