Selling your home is one thing, but minimizing its time on the market is another thing entirely. Regardless of your reasons, be it the acquisition of a new property, or entering a new phase in life, if you’ve ever asked yourself: how do I sell my property fast, there are certain things you can do to achieve this. The main thing you have to keep in mind is how your property stacks up to its competition on the property market.
The property market operates in such a way wherein items that offer the most value to their buyers get taken off the market the soonest. When you’re in a rush to sell your property, you want to maximize its value, both perceived and real, to your buyers. Read more for some tips on how to turn this stressful time into a breeze!
1. Refresh Everything
The first thing you need to prioritize is refurbishing your property. We encourage you to walk through your property and check everything with a fine-tooth comb. Are there any dirt marks on the walls near your floor? Is there soap scum buildup in your bathroom? Does your grout need replacement?
These are the little details you may be able to overlook in your daily life but could prove to be a dealbreaker for your potential buyers. You want your property to look the same as when you first moved in! Of course, there’s no shame in availing of a third party’s services to perform a deep clean on your property. Just please don’t overlook this step as it can potentially negate the effect of our next tip, which is to…
2. Stage your home
For the uninitiated, home staging is the process of preparing a property for sale to allow it to appeal to the highest number of potential buyers possible. With more eyes drawn towards your property, this can significantly cut down its time on the market.
While this can be an entire article unto itself, there are a few points you can prioritize when having your home staged to convert casual browsers into potential buyers.
Style It Neutrally
The first thing you want to consider is the overall look of your property. Is your furniture coordinated? Does your place employ a neutral color pallet? Did you leave any particularly… esoteric art pieces on display? These are just a few questions you can ask yourself when considering your property’s look as you prepare it for sale.
If you think your property is a specific representation of your individual taste and aesthetic preferences, that might not bode well for its appeal on the mass market. This isn’t a knock against you, though! What looks good for you may put other people off.
Remember that the goal of home staging is to make your property appealing to as many people as possible. You have to style your property neutrally when preparing it for sale. Usually, this entails subbing out your furniture and decor altogether.
This is where professional home staging services such as Singapore Furniture Rental come in; you will be able to rent furniture, decor, and even plants to allow your property to appeal to the mass market. Basically, neutral styling will make your property feel more like a pop song, and less like free jazz. However, if you think your furniture is basic enough, with a discerning eye you can do most of the work yourself. This starts with the next step, which is to…
Store Your Personal Items
Another important thing to remember when preparing your property for sale is to ensure your personal items are hidden from view. Whether it’s your family photos or things related to your hobbies — you want these tucked away in storage. This is the next step you can take after styling your property neutrally to allow your potential buyers to imagine themselves living on your property. You can imagine it’d be a bit difficult to do that if they see reminders of your life all over the place!
Let The Light In
Lighting is one of those things people don’t realize the importance of until it’s gone. Without a decent amount of natural light, a property can end up feeling more like a jail cell than a home. When preparing your property for sale, ensure all your curtains are drawn and all the lighting is on. This is also a good time to check your lighting to see if any bulbs are dimming or slow to turn on.
If your property doesn’t have a lot of windows, the right splash of color on your walls and curtains can help accentuate what light is able to enter. Choose brighter colors that absorb light more effectively. Couple this with some additional table and floor lamps and you can breathe new life into your property.
There are no downsides to going through the effort to stage your property. Not only does it make buyers up to 20% more likely to buy the property, sometimes even at a higher rate, but it allows you to…
3. Present your property online
The preparations for selling your property don’t end with home staging; you need to give equal care and consideration towards its online presence on property portals. This starts with documentation.
Take Great Photos
You want to take photos that represent your property well so buyers will be able to see your home the way you do. Look at properties similar to yours on property portals such as PropertyGuru for some references on how to frame your shots. Including shots of the surrounding area is also nice to have, but try not to shift too much focus away from the property itself. If you took the effort to stage your home beforehand, then this should be as simple as finding a good angle and tapping the shutter on your phone’s camera app. Just make sure you don’t take your photos against the light; a shot like this can potentially undo all your work staging your home.
Create a Virtual Tour
While having photos that highlight the property’s features helps a lot, it is also extremely important to ensure you get videos and virtual walkthroughs of the property done as well. If you plan on doing this yourself, provided your phone was manufactured within the last year or two, it should do the trick. Just make sure to purchase a gimbal for your phone to ensure your shot is nice and steady. You may also consider dubbing a narration over your footage to ensure that your voice is audible. While this seems like a lot of work, steps such as this are doubly important in the age of Covid-19 as people try to minimize their contact with the outside world as much as possible.
Location, Location, Location
When showcasing your property online, keep in mind that you’re not just marketing the property itself; you’re marketing a lifestyle. You want to highlight the benefits of living in that specific property in that specific location. What amenities are available? What are the immediate surroundings of the property like? Include photos of these in your posting as much as possible! Also, make sure to write descriptions of the property that reflects this information.
For example, if the property is near schools or universities, just indicating that your property is good for families in your posting’s description would go a long way. Including travel times to nearby landmarks is another thing you can do to highlight the convenience of living in your property.
If you don’t have the resources to get this content together, better real estate agents will be happy to do this, as well as provide home staging for you; so long as you sign them on an exclusive. Doing so gives your agent the assurance to go the full mile when marketing your property and getting a sale done as soon as possible.
4. Pick the right real estate agent
Real estate agents can make life a lot easier for you, especially if you’re in a hurry to close a sale on your property. Any real estate agent worth their salt is going to ensure your home is properly staged and well-represented on property portals. However, choosing the right one to market your property is a potentially difficult process. This is especially true if you intend to sign them on exclusive instead of finding multiple agents to handle marketing your property. You want to consider factors such as the opinions of those in your network, the agent’s portfolio, and also your own impressions when meeting with agents during your selection process.
Don’t worry, you can pull this off!
While working under time pressure can be incredibly stressful, especially if the task at hand is to sell your property, going about things in a systemized and orderly manner is only going to help. As long as you remember these key principles, you’re going to have a much easier time getting your property sold.
