Sell Your Seattle Area Home in 5 Days!
The real estate market in the Seattle is not what it was in 2007, but for homeowners in the Puget Sound area that still need to sell fast, there are still ways to make that happen! Believe it or not, you can still sell a home in the Seattle area in 5 days or less. The trick is knowing what to do.
Step one to selling your home in 5 days – Have it completely ready for buyers to see. This means that all the staging is done, your home is clean, clutter is removed and it is 100% showroom ready. As a professional real estate agent, I can tell you with certainty that a home that is cluttered, dirty and/or smells bad will turn buyers off instantly! You are already planning on moving, so take this opportunity to pack away all your personal items such as photos and extra clothes, as well as some of your furniture. Talk with your real estate agent about what they feel you need to remove and get done to make your home ready for buyers. Now remember, don’t take any of this advice personally. This is a means to an end and a necessity when wanting to sell your home fast.
Step two to selling your home in 5 days - Have a professional home inspection done ahead of time. This saves buyers some worry about what work needs to be done and gives you time to address any items that may come up. In all likely hood, you will recoup the cost of having an inspection done via the speed in which you sell your home and final selling price.
Step three to selling your home in 5 days – Price it to actually sell! For a fast sale you must price your home aggressively. I would suggest 10-15% below your nearest competition. This may be a hard pill to swallow, but when time is against you and you need to sell NOW, it is what needs to be done. With the abundance of homes on the market, buyers can be picky, and the first item on their list is almost always the price of the home. Price aggressively and you will get offers!
Step four to selling your home in 5 days – Offer to pay closing costs right up front. Almost all buyers are going to ask for at least some concessions to pay for closing costs, so speed thing up a little, and make your home more attractive to buyers by offering a reasonable amount towards their closing costs right up front. This may be the ticket in getting the buyers that were riding the fence, to make a move on your home.
Step five in selling your home in 5 days – Actually accept an offer. In my career, I have seen it happen several times that we have brought a property to market staged and priced correctly and gotten an offer very quickly, only to have the sellers balk at it. They assume that if they got an offer that fast, they may be able to get a better one if they wait a little while. This is a false assumption. In general, you will almost always get your best offers first. The longer your home is on the market, the more shop worn it will be and the a lower price it will garner because of it. Speed is your friend. The faster you can get an offer in and accepted the better. Remember that every day that you are sitting in your home you are paying interest on your loan.
Those are the main five steps in selling a Seattle area home in 5 days. These rules apply to other areas of the country as well, but there may be some differences depending on your market. While it may sound a bit extreme to price your home this aggressively and to offer closing costs up front, remember that our goal is a very fast sale. The only way to sell a home faster is to offer it to investors and they will be looking for a discount of 30%-50% off of the retail price.
If you need to sell property in the Seattle area FAST call me, Jacqueline Cliff at 425-773-3149!
