Selling your home and buying a new one can become a stressful process, especially if it takes longer than expected to complete. Once you have set your mind on selling your property and buying a new house, it is likely you want to get the process started and completed as soon as possible.
When selling your home takes a long time, or your new real estate purchase is delayed, it can feel like you are stuck in limbo. No one wants to put their life on hold when they are looking forward to making a fresh start and settling down in a new property, as this can cause a lot of unnecessary stress. To avoid this happening, it makes sense to do everything you can to prepare for a fast and efficient real estate transaction. Here are a few ways to help speed up selling your home and purchasing a new one:
Be Realistic
Everyone is a little biased when it comes to their own home. As you have likely invested lots of time and effort to get your home just right, it is only natural you want a reasonable price for it. However, overestimating the value of your home is a trap you don’t want to fall into. Believing your home’s value is more than it really is can set you up for disappointment. Overvaluing your home can also mean that your property takes a long time to sell, as you could struggle to find a buyer happy to pay the price you want.
Of course, no one wants to undersell their property, so selling too low is something you should also avoid. To help your house sell quickly, setting a realistic price is the key to success. Accepting a fair price that realistically represents your home’s value should ensure everyone is happy. It can be helpful to compare your home to similar ones in your area to gain a rough figure of what it could be worth before calling in a real estate agent. Doing this will help you to set your expectations and ensure that your home is priced realistically in relation to other local properties. It is also helpful to have an idea of the cost of similar homes in your neighborhood, as ultimately, you will be competing against these properties when trying to attract buyers.
Prepare Your Home
To achieve a fair price for your property and make people want to buy it, you need to make sure it is in good order. It is wise to start preparing your home for sale as soon as possible to prevent any delays with getting your property viewed by prospective buyers. The sooner you begin working on your home, the less likely you will have the stress and last-minute panic of getting it ready for open house viewings.
Curb appeal plays a vital role in making your home appeal to potential buyers. Adding to your home’s curb appeal will ensure that marketing your property gets off to the best possible start. Improving the exterior of your home will enable you to begin to attract the interest of future buyers right away. There are lots of ways to enhance the curb appeal of your current home, but the main aim of this is to create an excellent first impression. You can improve your home’s curb appeal by ensuring the front yard is clean and tidy, the lawn is neatly trimmed, and the exterior paintwork of your home is fresh. Don’t worry if you don’t have a green thumb; you can still make your outside space look fantastic without lots of gardening knowledge. Weeding the flower beds, mowing the lawn, and adding some colorful container plants can make all the difference to your yard with minimal effort involved.
While the exterior of your home will provide that all-important first impression that appeals to buyers, it is the interior that will really help to sell your property fast. Presenting your home in the best way possible should help to speed up the selling process by allowing viewers to see the full potential offered by your property. Inside your home, it is helpful to start by clearing away any clutter so that your home looks light and spacious; this will accentuate the amount of space on offer and will make it simpler for prospective buyers to imagine themselves living in the property.
Freshening up any areas of tired paintwork is also a great way to make your interior look better and ensure it appears well-maintained. Many home buyers look for homes that require minimal work when they move in. Making your home a fresh, blank canvas can be a really helpful way for viewers to consider how they would use the space and make it easier for them to visualize what it would look like with their furniture and belongings in place. Even something as simple as a declutter and fresh paint can make all the difference and breathe new life into your home, to make it look more appealing.
Find the Best Real Estate Agent
Finding the right realtor to market your property is essential to make the selling process run smoothly. Taking your time to choose the best real estate agent to sell your home is especially vital if you want to secure a quick sell. It is a wise idea to use an experienced realtor that is familiar with the local housing market so that you can benefit from their knowledge of selling homes in the area.
If you want to make selling your home and buying a new one even faster, you may decide to opt for a dual agency approach. Using a dual agency in real estate can mean that you use the same realtor for selling your home as the vendor of the home you are buying. There are pros and cons to the dual agency approach, but when all parties use the same realtor, it can help the buying and selling process to progress faster. Minimizing the number of parties involved in the transactions can prevent the delays caused by going back and forth with questions and negotiations, saving you lots of time.
Decide on Your Requirements
As well as preparing your home to give it the best opportunity to achieve a quick sale, you will also need to consider the next stage of the process; buying a new home. If you are unsure about what you want from your new home, you may find yourself viewing multiple properties and still being no closer to finding the right house. Spending months aimlessly searching for a home can become incredibly frustrating and also wastes lots of your valuable time.
To prevent any hold-ups caused by being unable to find the right house, it is best to decide on your requirements before you start looking. Being unsure of what you want from your next home can result in disappointment, as it is hard to find what you want when you are not sure what that is.
Setting the parameters for your search before you start house-hunting is the best way to end up with precisely what you want and avoid wasting time and effort. Writing out a list of the things your new home must have, i.e., non-negotiables, is an excellent place to start. Your non-negotiables could be things such as the house needing a garage, a minimum number of bedrooms or bathrooms, the size of the backyard, location, etc. These non-negotiables are the things you refuse to compromise on, and your new home must have them. To build an even clearer picture of your requirements, it is helpful to write a list of negotiables, i.e., things you would like to have, but they won’t be a dealbreaker if not.
Finding your new home is far more likely to be more successful, and the whole process should be faster if you know precisely what you want, as you will be able to be far more decisive and in a position to act quickly when you spot the right property.
Get Your Finances Organized
One of the most stressful delays people come across when buying a new home is the financial aspect of the process. Being unclear on your budget and how much you will be able to borrow can cause many problems and may mean the house you want is unaffordable. Calculating your finances accurately in advance and getting approval for the amount you want to borrow will not only make your life a lot less stressful but will also help things move along faster.
Figuring out the potential running costs of your new home and how this compares to your current property will also help prevent you from running into any last-minute hitches and realizing you will not be able to afford the property. Going through your finances thoroughly and preparing any documents you may need to supply when organizing your borrowing should help you stay a step ahead and prevent any hold-ups.
