I Need to Sell My Home Fast – What Are My Options?

Table of Contents:

Reasons for a Fast Sale

There are several circumstances in which you may need to sell your home quickly.

These situations require a fast sale and are ideal for those needing to avoid a lengthy sales process that would cause severe financial strain. Here are some of the most common scenarios.

1. Foreclosure: An unexpected job loss can make it impossible for you to continue to afford your home. Even if your home is in the foreclosure process with the bank, you can still put your home on the market. Depending on how far away your home is from being put up for auction, you may only have a month to get the house sold.

2. Inheritance: You inherit a home but do not need it, it is a long distance away, and you do not have the funds to maintain it, pay utilities, or cover property taxes.

3. Bad renters: If you rent out your property and have a negative experience with your tenants. In some cases, the bad renters are there due to resorting to open application standards to get the house rented. Unfortunately, this can backfire when the tenants make an otherwise promising investment turn bad.

4.. New job: If you are asked to relocate for a new role selling your house can be difficult. Many employees work hybrid roles post-pandemic, so a new position may require you to come into the office and relocate.

5. Divorce: Starting anew after a divorce can require a house sale of the formerly joint home. If one party cannot maintain the mortgage alone or both parties want out of the house, selling it quickly is a priority.

Damage and structural issues:

Water damage

A house that has experienced damage from a flood can cause severe damage. Also, a home with a history of water damage can be a challenge to sell. The average water damage claim for a home is around $7000. Therefore, a quick home sale is necessary if a homeowner does not have the funds to repair the damage.

Fire damage

Fire damage is like water damage in that it creates a lot of destruction that can be very expensive to repair. If homeowners’ insurance does not cover the costs and the homeowner does not have the funds on hand to repair the damage, the house may need to be put on the market for a fast sale.

Foundation cracks

The foundation of a home is the base structure that creates its stability. It is essential, and damages can cause anywhere from $10,000 and higher.

Foundation issues only worsen over time, so they need to be addressed. If a homeowner cannot pay the funds to fix the problems, the house may need to be put on the market. The home can be placed on the market in a fast sale at a discounted price.

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How to Make a Fast Home Sale

These are just some examples of why you may need to sell your home in a hurry. When it gets to getting the house sold, there are a couple of options to sell a property fast.

One option is to request an all-cash offer for your home. This can be tricky. There are a couple of pointers to pay attention to. For starters, it is essential to attract a buyer who wants to make an offer. In hot markets, homes sell quickly, sometimes within just days. It can take around 35 to 40 days to sell a home in typical markets.

Most buyers who want to buy a house quickly in a hot market will look for one that is move-in ready and can quickly pass through the appraisal process.

Additionally, in a typical sale, the seller must wait for the lender to close the buyer’s mortgage, taking up to 49 days. The length is part of the mortgage process and cannot be sped up. This is when asking for an all-cash offer is beneficial. There is no mortgage process. When asking for an all-cash offer, you can put your house on the market like any other home or work with a company that purchases houses for cash as their business model.

Sell Your Home For Cash

When you sell for cash to a company, you skip the entire process of open-houses, staging, and all of the other promotional components of selling your home. Instead, the company buys your home outright with no agent fees. Sometimes the company tours the house, and other times they will just review photos.

They will put an offer on the house with pricing and terms, and you decide if you want to sell to them. Some buyers will require an inspection, but not always.

The types of companies that buy homes for cash are either large house-flipping businesses that purchase houses on a large scale or smaller investors who buy a few homes per year and flip them. In most cases, selling for cash is done to avoid financial strain, so as a seller with an all-cash option, the tradeoff with the speed of the sale is receiving a lower price than your home’s actual value.

Companies looking to buy homes for all cash often look for these factors.

• The house would be an excellent rental property. For example, if the house is near a shopping/dining area or college, it could be a perfect rental home.
• The house is outdated but in a good school district. This makes a flip worth it because the location is ideal. Additionally, the business will get a great sales price post-flip from a young family desiring an area with a good school district for their children.
• If the house is in a great neighborhood with well-kept homes and a booming market such as Atlanta or Phoenix, it will be a good purchase for flipping.

Try an FSBO Listing Service

Using an online FSBO services such as Richr.com, can also help lead a speedy sale. These services will list your property on the MLS and on popular listing sites where it can get the exposure it needs to sell quickly, without a realtor. Aside from saving time, one of the greatest benefits of using an FSBO service is how they charge customers. FSBO services generally charge a flat fee versus a percentage fee charged by a traditional real estate agent. Richr is the first and only platform to help FSBO sellers list for free on MLS and their 1% flat sales fee includes both title and settlement.

Work With a Top Real Estate Agent

If you are not up for a cash sale or navigating a sale on your own and want to get the most value out of your home sale, listing the house with a top real estate agent is another option. Most often, homes listed with an agent are sold for much more. However, most buyers in these cases will not necessarily want to offer all-cash for a house. Additionally, the agent will need the experience and expertise to deliver a fast sale.

Ensure the agent you select has experience selling homes under fast sale conditions.

A good indicator is looking at their sales history with days on the market data to see from how long a house is listed until it is sold on average. Additionally, the real estate agent should be an expert on the market in the area in which you live.

When selling any home, particularly a home that needs to sell fast through a real estate agent, there are several actions you can take to make your home more appealing to buyers and speed up the rate of offers received.

• Clean and declutter everything.
• Spruce up the exterior of the home.
• Depersonalize your home.
• Let the light in.
• Remove excess furniture and clutter.
• Consider staging your home.
• Invest in a professional photographer.
• Have a 3D tour done.
• Perfect the entryway.
• Repaint in neutral colors.
• Make necessary updates.
• Be flexible with showings.

Clean and Declutter

No one likes a messy home, so clean the house and make it spotless. Get rid of bulky furniture and remove excess boxes, stacks of junk, and other items. Send items to the storage if you need to do so. Clean off all countertops and make the house tidy and organized before showing the house.

Hiring a cleaning service is a good idea. This can cost around $200 for a 2000-square-foot home and pays off in dividends on returns.

Spruce Up The Exterior

These yard care basics can help you to sell your house faster:

Clean up your front entryway and mailbox for a great first impression.

• Mow the lawn and edges around your driveway and garden areas.
• Pull large weeds and remove any unwanted plants. Be careful to avoid removing the healthy flowers.
• Purchase mulch and use it on any plant beds that need it.
• Skip projects that would cost you time but don’t neglect your outdoors.

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Sell Fast Options to Look Out For

These options may seem like a shortcut, but there are some pitfalls with each.

Short Sales

Short sales are not the same as fast sales. “Short” in this context refers to money – when your lender agrees to sell your home for less than you owe. These deals take longer to close than average sales, with some lasting up to two years. Also, most homeowners are not eligible for a short sale, which requires a homeowner to face foreclosure in a dire financial situation. Also, the lender must agree to the short sale, which does not occur very often.

Auctions

Any homeowner can sell their home at an auction, but there are some tradeoffs. For example, it can take up to 45 to 60 days for a home to close that is sold at auction. Also, as a seller, you have minimal control over the sale price of your home in this situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Sell My House in Five Days?

1. Remove your listing for five days.

Take your listing off the market for five days and list it again. The market online will list it as new again.

2 Provide financial incentives to potential buyers.

There are ways to incentive buyers beyond the house itself. For example, an offer to pay the closing costs for the buyer, an offer of a bonus commission to real estate agents, an offer to pre-pay house taxes, and other motivations can get buyers on the hook.

3. Make the price of your house five percent lower than the most recent sale in your area.

You will want to make sure your listing is slightly below all neighborhood values so you can sell it quickly. You can use a listing website like Zillow to find home prices near you.

Price your house at 5 percent less than the last sale in your neighborhood.

1. Offer a special one-day offer sale.

For one day, place ads on local listing websites like www.craigslist.org to get the most exposure with a reduced price listing for one day only.

2. Make the right first impression.

First impressions matter. Buyers quickly know if they are interested in a house, so work on your curb appeal and entryways. Also, make sure the house is clean and well-lit.

3. Consider creative incentives.

Get creative with your incentives. For example, you can offer free vacations, new repairs to the house, and other unique ideas.

For a fast sale, small price reductions do not do much. If you want to sell quickly by reducing the price, you will want to go in increments of $50,000 to $100,000 to get new buyers’ attention.

Summary

Selling a house is famous for being overwhelming, stressful, time-consuming, but not fast. However, you don’t have to leave your sale to chance. Whether you decide to go with a cash offer or work with a real estate agent, you now know your options for selling a house fast.