Establish a competitive price for your home by using a comparative market analysis (CMA). Appropriate pricing is the absolute number one way to sell a home faster. Creating a CMA involves collecting data from the top 3 to 6 similar homes within the area that have sold in the previous 6 to 12 months. The sold prices are used as benchmarks or starting points, and then adjustments are made based on the differences in the homes. Creating an accurate CMA requires skill and experience, however it does not require a license in most states.

The best way to gauge a home’s general range of value without having a Realtor or Appraiser create a CMA is to consider the overall home listing and sold prices within your area. If you’re not under the listing prices of the other homes and have significant upgrades in comparison, you will not attract any buyers. Also, if you are not under the sold price of the recently sold homes, your home may be worth less than even what is offered for it, meaning your home won’t appraise and the buyer can’t obtain financing.

Appearance is everything, and though most potential buyers are attracted by the picture of your home online, they may be repulsed by the dog hair, kids’ toys, last night’s pizza, and all of the associated smells. A home that is neat, clean, and orderly, even if you and your family are still living there, will be inviting. The key is to help buyers see themselves living there. There are many ways that you can really make your home stand out, but the most important is to clean everything thoroughly and make sure it smells wonderful.

Disclose everything that you know is wrong with your home. If you can, try to fix as many of the issues as possible, but make sure you don’t hide anything. For one, it’s illegal to lie about any problems, but you will also earn the potential buyer’s trust if you are upfront about what they might have to repair in the future. Keep in mind, once a buyer has a price in their mind, they will want a discount for anything that has the appearance of decreasing the home’s value. They will usually want to negotiate or walk away if they find out about issues later.

In order to sell your home faster, you must list your home on the local multiple listing service (MLS). 85% of all buyer home searches begin online, and they typically come from this huge database of homes. Listing your home on the MLS requires a Realtor, as only licensed real estate brokers have access to this service. However, even if you decide you want to sell your home on your own, you can find a brokerage that offers a variety of a la carte services, such as listing on the MLS only.

Finally, if you want to sell your home faster, include incentives for buyers. These may be monetary or simply non-value adding perks that will come with the house (hot tub included if closed in 3 weeks, or full surround sound theater with quick closing).

There are many ways that you can sell your home quickly without having to drop your price, and certainly without selling to one of those “We Buy Your House For Pennies” organizations that would be violating laws if they were licensed real estate brokers like me.  If you’re interested in some techniques that you can use to help you sell your home faster, visit SellHomeFaster.info.

If you want to learn how to sell your home in 21 days, Click Here!  If not, thank you for reading my article on the 5 Essentials to Selling a Home.  Please check out my blog on Real Estate and leave any feedback.  It’s still in the works (quite new actually)

In today’s real estate economy, here’s some home selling help that could make a difference for you. Online auctions frequently have the phrase “from a non-smoking home” in their product descriptions. Non-smokers immediately take notice. Stricter legislation and more media coverage is bringing the topic of smoking to the forefront of people’s minds more often. The effect of the economy on real estate is like the effect of cigarette smoke on a home. Who knew it could affect so many different things and be around this long? Even the smallest edge counts in a market where competition is tough, home values have dropped and qualified buyers are scarce.

Most homes have a subtle odor that’s part of the lifestyle of the owners. It may be from pets, cleaning products or yesterday’s dinner. But if anyone in the house smokes, nicotine odors may be noticeable as well. Most smokers don’t smoke in their homes, but for those that do, it can affect the future sale of the home by reducing the number of buyers that would be interested. Smoke goes everywhere, and tobacco odors can be re-activated by heat or humidity, so cleaning the residue is a major undertaking.

When sellers face an uphill climb to sell their home, you hate to see buyers walk away because the smoke removal task seems so daunting. It’s not just the work involved, but the overall cost can influence a potential buyer. Window coverings and carpets need to be professionally cleaned or in the case of allergies, completely replaced.

After the floor and window coverings are taken care of, there’s more. Nicotine also builds up on the ceiling and the walls. These surfaces will almost always require complete repainting. Because the nicotine can bleed through multiple layers of paint, you’ll first need to wash, rinse and dry all surfaces, then apply a primer that is made for sealing out stains and odors. Without it, nicotine stains can seep through several coats of fresh paint overnight.

Remember to scrub the furnace ductwork (replacing the filter) and the closets and windows. All surfaces of cabinets and drawers should be cleaned too. Because smoke is attracted to lights, clean the fixtures, bulbs and any ceiling fans in the home. An often missed spot is tile grout. It’s no fun to clean because it’s porous and absorbs everything. If the tile is in a bathroom, the grout may need to be replaced because humidity can cause odors to resurface.

Check the effectiveness of the cleaning by leaving the house for a few days with the windows closed. Then bring someone that’s sensitive to cigarettes through the home to see if they can smell any nicotine. Do anything you can to get the edge in a competitive real estate market. When you remove cigarette smoke from the home you are selling, you will end up with a larger pool of buyers. In a slow market, you want all the home selling ideas you can get.