Our top tips for selling your house fast

Giving your our best tips for selling your house, including the best way to advertise and if now is a good time to sell your house...

Selling your house is a costly, time-consuming process, made more complicated if you’ve never sold a property before and don’t know where to start.

Whether you’re new to selling or just want a refresh, we’re here to give you our top tips for selling your house, including the dos and don’ts, the best way to advertise and whether or not now is a good time to sell your house.

Ready to dive into our best house selling tips? Use the menu below to help guide you:

Tips for selling your house – the dos and the don’ts

What should I do to my house before I sell it?

Ready to sell your property but don’t know what you should do to your property first? Read our 8 top tips for selling your house – the ‘dos’:

Declutter

A fairly obvious one but it’s crucial you spend some time clearing out any excess junk which you don’t want or need. The only thing clutter is going to do is make your living space look smaller and therefore less appealing to potential buyers.

Whether you put the clutter in storage, donate to charity or give it to a friend, you will want to make sure it’s all cleared away before you invite any estate agents in for valuations. After all, more floorspace = property looks bigger = higher asking price!

Clean and tidy up

This tip sort of links with our last one but make sure you give your house a proper clean. No dust, no smells, no pet fur – just a sparkling clean house.

When a house is spotless, it naturally gives off a cared-for impression, making it look newer and more expensive. Also, no potential buyer is going to want to live in a property that is filthy, meaning it’s key you clean round to make your house as desirable as possible!

Fresh lick of paint

Giving your walls a fresh coat of paint in a neutral colour, like white, will do a few things for potential buyers.

Not only will it make rooms look lighter and brighter, which helps to make them look bigger, but it will also help a buyer to better visualise themselves in your house, as they will be able to picture their furniture in rooms with a neutral colour, compared to rooms in bright obscure colours.

Front door

This tip may go hand in hand with giving your house a fresh coat of paint, but it’s important you make sure your door looks in great condition to create the best possible first impression – as your front door is the first thing anyone is going to see.

Fix any cracks

Any broken door handles, faulty lights or cracks in the ceiling will need fixing up before you think about selling your property. Leaving things broken will give the impression your house isn’t well cared for, making it less appealing.

Make it smell nice

Whether this is through using air fresheners, brewing some coffee or doing some baking, making your house smell nice makes it feel more inviting and homely, helping potential buyers to visualise themselves in your home, meaning they will be more likely to put in an offer.

Flowers

This one is pretty self-explanatory – flowers look nice and help to add a bit of colour into each room, meaning your house will look more inviting and therefore more appealing.

Sort your garden

You don’t need to be a serious gardener to keep your garden looking tidy. Whether this is mowing your lawn or adding some flowers and plants into different plant pots, having a tidy garden will go a long way in creating the right impression.

What should you not do before selling your house?

Okay, you’ve read the do’s and now want to know the don’ts. Coming right up – the 6 things you’ll want to avoid when selling your house:

Depersonalise

One of our top tips for selling your house is to not depersonalise. You don’t want your house to have a ‘cold’ feeling, which it will if you take out furniture or paintings – the things that make your house look alive.

It can be hard for potential buyers to visualise themselves in your home and so by depersonalising, you’re only making it even harder for them to picture, making your house less desirable to them.

Ignore your competition

When you’re selling a house, you’re automatically in competition with the other properties on the market. It’s important you don’t just ignore this fact and actually check out the competition.

We don’t mean organising viewings and having a look round but have a little nosey online so you can see what the interiors are like and what you can do to make sure your house looks better value compared to theirs.

Let your pet take over

Whilst you may see your pet as part of the family, potential buyers may not like animals or may even be allergic, so don’t allow your pet to run riot during viewings.

Make sure your pet is confined to one room or is out of the house when showing buyers around. Also, it’s a good idea to have air freshener throughout your house to make sure there are no funny smells.

Windows

Unless it’s something simple like giving your windows a quick wash or paint, don’t bother trying to replace your windows with double glazing or to something of a different design.

It’s not only a costly manoeuvre, but it’s also something which is down to personal taste, meaning you could spend thousands replacing all your windows for a buyer to come along and change them again anyway.

Kitchen

Just like windows, a kitchen is something which is down to personal taste. You could spend tens of thousands changing your kitchen to be what you think is ‘modern’ only for buyers to come along and hate it.

Instead, just give your kitchen a fresh coat of paint, clean all surfaces and cupboards and put any appliances into drawers to present a cleaner, smarter kitchen.

Bathrooms

Unless you’re wanting to just give your bathrooms a clean, paint and a ‘de-limescale’, don’t worry about spending lots updating your bathrooms. It’s something that will be very costly to you and most likely won’t lead to adding much extra value to your property.

Do empty houses sell faster?

Empty houses can be great for those people who are looking for a ‘project’, as an empty house appears bigger and is a blank canvas, allowing potential buyers to see what they have to work with.

An empty house is also one that doesn’t have any personalisation, which can make it easier for potential buyers to visualise themselves in the property.

However, on the flip side, an empty house is one that will struggle to hide any flaws and can very quickly look uncared for and unloved. Also, with the house being empty, there’s no furniture or artwork to give viewers ideas on how good the property could look, making an empty house harder to sell.

Tips for selling your house – how to get your house valued

Once you’ve spruced up your property a bit and it’s in ‘selling condition’, then it’s time to get your property valued. There are a few different ways you can get your property valued and it’s important you conduct a fair bit of research at this stage.

It’s crucial you position your property at the right price on the market. Without the right price, your house will either stick on the market because the price is too high. Or, if it’s priced too low, you will end up getting a lot less than you could and it may deter people from the property, as a super low price indicates there may be issues with your property.

Research online

Before going to your chosen sales method, whether this is an estate agent, online estate agent, auction or something else, it’s a good idea to do some online research to help get a rough idea of what your property is worth.

Use websites such as Rightmove or Zoopla to see the sold house prices in your area over the last 12 months.

It’s important you look at properties that are a similar size and condition to yours, as you need to set yourself with a realistic expectation and not let your own bias towards your house steer your judgement.

You can also look at similar houses nearby which are currently on the market, but it’s important to remember you will only be seeing their asking prices and most houses don’t sell for the asking price.

This will mean you can’t expect to get the amount you’re seeing as the other houses asking price, but it will help give you an idea of what sort of price you may be able to start at, with the view you will likely get less than this price.

Get professional valuation

Another one of our tips for selling your house is to get your house professionally valued. Whether you’re wanting to sell with an estate agent or not, it’s always a good idea to get a few estate agents in to get their opinion on what they feel your property is worth. Invite three different estate agents around and take an average.

It’s worth remembering, estate agents will know you have invited other estate agents and so they can often give you a higher price than what your property is worth in an attempt to get your business, so be sure to keep this in mind.

Buyer’s situation

Although this won’t affect the asking price, the buyer’s situation will affect what you can get for your property and how quickly you will be able to sell it. By this, we mean, if you get a few offers, your natural reaction would be to choose the highest one, but that’s not always the best idea.

For example, if you have two offers, the one who submitted the higher offer may not have sold their house or even have it on the market, meaning you will be waiting around for them to find a buyer, and you have the risk of the chain collapsing.

The other offer may be slightly lower but may have been submitted by a cash buyer, meaning they don’t have any property to sell, giving you a chain free sale that can complete in as little as a few weeks.

Be realistic

We’ve already mentioned this but one of our top tips for selling your house is to just be realistic. If the market is slow or your house is a little run down, you can’t expect to get a really high price for your property.

Setting your house’s asking price too high or too low can be damaging to your house sale, whether it be the house sticks on the market or that you get way too little for your property.

You also need to be realistic about your situation – if you want a fast sale, you need to set your asking price a little below your property’s market value.

External factors

A final one of our tips for selling your house when it comes to getting your property valued is to think about what external factors may affect your asking price.

For example, the market tends to slow down at certain times of the year, for example just before and after Christmas and during the summer holidays, so during this time, you would expect to get a lower price.

More recently, we’ve also seen the coronavirus drastically affect the housing market, with the market being completely shut down for months. After that, we saw the Stamp Duty Holiday being implemented, leading to demand spiking, pushing housing prices up to record highs.

Tips for selling your house – the best way to advertise

When it comes to selling your home, there’s no right or wrong way to go about it as, after all, it’s personal to each individual and what is right for you might not be right for your friend or neighbour.

Deciding which is the best way to advertise will depend upon which sales method you choose to use. For example, selling with an estate agent will mean how your property is advertised is decided and dealt with by them.

On the other hand, if you’re wanting to sell your house yourself, then how the property is advertised is completely up to you, allowing you to decide the platforms you use and how the viewings are conducted.

Local estate agent

Selling through a local estate agent will generally mean you get a more complete service. You will generally pay a higher fee, compared to online estate agents, but everything will be handled from advertising on popular property portals to viewings and negotiations.

As far as advertising is concerned, your local estate agent will get your property advertised on their website, popular property websites (such as Rightmove or Zoopla), may also get you a feature in the local paper or across their social media platforms.

Estate agents will also provide ‘for sale’ signs, which is a great piece of advertising as any passer-by will instantly notice your house is for sale, prompting them to register an interest in it.

Online estate agent

An online estate agent will generally be a cheaper alternative to a local estate agent but may result in you doing a proportion of the work. Unlike a local estate agent, online estate agents work remotely and charge a one-off upfront fee, instead of a commission of the sale price.

As far as advertising is concerned, some online estate agents will cover viewings, advertising on property portals and photographs, but others will expect you to provide the photos and cover viewings and, in some cases, you have to pay extra to get your property onto more than one property website.

Some online estate agents will include a ‘for sale’ sign in their fees, but others will expect you to pay extra. We recommend you make use of this and pay for a sign, as it will allow anyone who looks at your property to immediately identify its availability.

Selling privately

If you’re wanting to ditch any kind of estate agent, then you may look to do all the work yourself and sell privately. It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that selling privately can make advertising a lot more difficult.

For example, you’re not able to advertise on Rightmove, Zoopla or PrimeLocation unless you’re an estate agent, ruling out these as potential advertisement options.

One of our tips for selling your house privately would be to make use of local newspapers, your social media channels and any property forums/blogs which allow you to attach comments.

You will also need to handle all viewings yourself. Don’t worry if you’re not a natural salesman because what you ARE is an expert on your property, meaning you can give the best account of it to any potential buyers.

Also, you will have to look at a way to get a ‘for sale’ sign, to make sure you’re not missing out on any advertising through this method. Whilst you could get a bit creative and make one yourself, you will also find them on different selling websites for fairly low prices.

Is now a good time to sell a house?

Whether or not now is a good time to sell will depend on a combination of an individual’s situation and what the market conditions are like.

Whilst reading our tips for selling your house will help you get your house into selling condition, with the hope to achieve a fast sale, there are no guarantees the market will play along. This could lead you to waiting months (maybe even a year or more) before your house sells, despite your house being in perfect condition in a great area.

So, what do you do if you’re wanting to sell your house but it’s the ‘wrong’ time of year for the market? Or maybe your house is looking a little run-down, but you don’t want to spend lots of time and money fixing it up?

Sell to us!

Here at The Property Buying Company, we’re a cash buyer of property, buying any house in any condition – so you can forget reading our long list of tips for selling your house. We will cover all your fees, even the legal ones, and we can complete in a FAST timescale to suit you.

We also have over 50 years combined experience and multiple good reviews on Trustpilot, allowing you to feel you’re in safe hands.

With us, every day is a good time to sell your house!

Why not give us a call or fill in our online form today to get a no-obligation cash offer, which we could have in your bank as soon as next week…