Must Sell House Fast? – Here’s What to Do

Selling your house fast isn’t always easy…

There are numerous factors that will affect how quickly you are likely to receive an offer and whether or not the process will be completed successfully and in good time.

With that in mind, there are many things you can do to increase the chances of a fast, easy sale.

In this extended article, we’ll explain what you can do when you have only a brief amount of time to sell your house.

Tips on How to Sell Your House Fast

Achieving a quick house sale is not always a straightforward matter. Some of the factors that may affect your ability to sell your property may include:

• The current state of the property market
• Your home’s condition
• The location of your home
• Your estate agent’s activities
• The price you are asking for your home
• Whether you have opted to wait for a buyer or to sell your house for cash up-front
• The way your house is presented to the public
• Your circumstances and the circumstances of any buyer (i.e. is there a chain?)
• Whether or not you decide to undertake extra promotional activities

Luckily, you can have a considerable degree of influence over most of the points listed above. You can ensure that your property is sold faster by:

• Choosing a good estate agent
• Giving your house a quick cosmetic upgrade
• Taking great photographs of your house
• Checking in on the people you’ve chosen to sell your house
• Reducing the asking price to sell your house faster
• Promoting your house on social media
• Promoting your house by word of mouth
• Being ready to sell your house
• Being flexible and responding fast to correspondence about your house

Read on to find out exactly how you can approach each of these steps…

Choosing A Good Estate Agent

It’s important to take your time when searching for the company you’ll trust with selling your house. Firstly, you should determine whether or not each candidate specialises in the type of property you wish to sell, and whether they tend to focus on the area in which it is located.

If their priorities and specialisms lie elsewhere, you may find that they are less proactive in promoting your house to potential buyers.

Check out their experience too. If they have been successfully practising for a long time, they’re generally more likely to sell your house quickly without too much stress.

We recommend checking out their profiles on sites like Trustpilot and Reviews.co.uk and reading online reviews. This often gives a good idea of the quality of their services.

You can also ask for recommendations from your friends and connections on social media.

Some property sales experts specialise in quick house sales – and may even be able to offer you a choice between cash up-front and waiting for a buyer. Either way, you may be able to achieve a sale in as little as 7 to 28 days by following this route.

Giving Your House A Quick Cosmetic Upgrade

A clean house with no visible clutter will feel like a blank slate for potential buyers – one on which they can make their mark.

Having too many of your personal belongings on show – whether in pictures or during viewings – can be off-putting and may prevent visitors from being able to visualise themselves living in the spaces.

If your house is dirty or in a poor state of repair, it will also give potential viewers the impression that there is a lot of work to do before it is in a livable condition for them. This may be daunting for them.

To prevent these outcomes, here is a quick checklist you can follow to make your house as attractive to buyers as possible:

How do I make my house look good to sell? Here’s a basic checklist…

• Repaint scuffed walls
• Deep clean and/or refit carpets
• Clean appliances and polish and fix tired or squeaky furniture
• Vacuum and dust
• Remove clutter from all spaces including storage
• Clean windows
• Mow, prune and weed garden (fix and repaint your fence too)
• Clear up litter from the surrounding area
• Add simple decorations

Taking Great Photographs of Your House

Your estate agents may have a go-to photographer that they use when putting together a house’s profile for their website, window and brochures.

It’s a good idea to take a look at their other listings and examine the quality of the images.

If you want to ensure that the images used to promote your property are of the highest possible standard, many agencies allow their clients to take or arrange their own photographs. 

You could hire a trusted professional, but if you have a good amount of experience and a high-quality camera, you could save time and money by taking the pictures yourself once your house is looking its best. Just remember to take the following steps:

• Choose a bright, sunny, clear day.
• Time it so that your house is receiving as much natural light as possible.
• Tidy and clean all rooms, removing clutter.
• Open all curtains.
• Ensure that your camera is on the best setting for the job and is in focus. Always take colour photos.
• Don’t use lenses that warp the image or make a room appear stretched (this will actually make potential buyers suspect that you’re trying to hide how small the space is).
• Take photographs that show the entire room. Standing in a corner or doorway is often best.
• Include pictures of every room in your house as well as your home’s facade from the street, the best view from its windows, any outdoor spaces and any unique or period features.
• Ensure that a floor plan is included.

Checking In on The People You’ve Chosen to Sell Your House

If you feel your estate agents aren’t updating you regularly enough about the progress of your sale, you are well within your rights to “chase them up”.

They will probably be used to sellers doing this – and it will demonstrate that you are serious about selling your home fast.

Ask them if there has been any interest or enquiries regarding your property and, if the answer is “no” or “not much”, check whether there is something that either you or they could do to improve the situation.

If you don’t feel that they are cooperating in a way you’d like, or if there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency, you may choose to take your business elsewhere.

However, you should consider that seeking out and registering with a new company will take more time.

Reducing the Asking Price to Sell Your House Faster

Whether or not you take this approach will depend on your priorities.

Of course, most sellers want to make a profit when selling their home, but a higher asking price may mean that the offers take longer to come in – and you may find that many of them are lower than you’d hoped anyway.

In the run-up to putting your home on the market, the property will be valued and you will be informed of the price range you should be looking at.

Most people choose to list their house at the higher end to start with – as not only might they make a profit this way, but they’ll have some leeway to reduce to price if progress is slow.

You can choose to do this, or you can “price to sell” by listing your home at the lower end from the start.

However, asking a particularly low price may put buyers off, as they’ll wonder why you’re so desperate to get rid of the property.

Promoting Your House on Social Media

Take the time occasionally to share a link to your property’s online profile and include local hashtags to make the post more discoverable.

Your friends – or friends of friends – probably won’t go looking for properties on Facebook or Twitter.

However, many people scroll through their feeds as a way to pass the time, and may know of a friend or colleague who is looking to buy.

This is one of the easiest things you can do to sell your house fast. 

Promoting Your House by Word of Mouth

Whether you simply chat about it at work or you make the effort to attend a property-related networking event, telling people that your house is up for sale is an extremely easy thing to do that may prompt potential buyers to explore your listing.

Being Ready to Sell Your House

If you aren’t prepared for the ball to start rolling, you may miss out on a sale.

Having all the necessary information and paperwork to hand, having a clear-out and taking any additional steps required to be able to move out at a moment’s notice will give your estate agent, your solicitor and your potential buyers the impression that you expect them to work fast.

It’s also likely to ward off time wasters!

Being Flexible and Responding Fast to Correspondence About your House

If you work quickly, the pressure is on your estate agent and solicitor to keep moving forward.

Try not to turn down any viewings at all, and don’t delay in providing any information or filling out any forms required.

Don’t give your buyers any opportunity to back out, and don’t give any third parties permission to slack.

I Need to Sell My House Fast – I Don’t Need to Make a Profit

If the priority is speed, you can choose to list your property at a relatively low price as previously mentioned. However, there is another option besides this.

Specialist companies like Property Solvers can buy your home for cash upfront in as little as 7 days.

Here, you’ll get a secure and stress-free option without legal fees or estate agent interactions.

I Need to Sell My House Fast for Market Value

If you wish to wait for a buyer to make an offer on your house so that you can make a profit, you can still ensure that a sale is secured quickly.

Choosing an expert in express home sales may see your property change hands in less than a month.

Are Quick Home Buying Companies Legitimate?

There are numerous companies that will offer to buy your home for cash so that you can achieve a quick sale.

As with many deals and offers involving finances, this field does have its share of scam artists – but these are thankfully few and far between.

To ensure that your money is safe, however, it’s important to do your research and read reviews.

Check out the past activities of each company you are considering and make sure you ask the service providers any and all questions that come to mind.

It’s also a good idea to check that the company you choose is a registered company that is properly regulated.

For example, Property Solvers is:

• A registered limited organisation
• Registered with the ICO
• A member of the Property Ombudsman
• Adherent to gov.uk money laundering regulations
• Trading Standards approved
• A member of the National Association of Property Buyers
• Subject to an industry-leading Code of Practice
• A five-star company on reviews.co.uk and Google reviews
• Proud to share our customer reviews on our site

Is it a Good Time to Sell a House Quickly?

You can’t always ensure that your house is ready to go on sale at the right time of year.

As a general rule, the best months to sell a house fast are between February and June and then September to November.  January, August and December are usually the worst months.

Of course, people are always looking for property – so if you follow the advice above and continue to be proactive, there’s still a good chance that you’ll sell in good time.

How to Sell Your House Quickly in a Slow Market

Whether due to the time of year or the political or financial state of the country, it’s always possible that property sales will slow just at the time you wish to put your house on the market.

In order to counteract this unfortunate turn of events, you may decide to:

• Investigate other local house prices and drop your asking price to reflect them
• Further improve the appearance of your home
• Sell your property for cash up-front
• Put your property up for auction
• Change your estate agent
• Improve your online listing (including current pictures)
• Consider letting in place of selling
• Take out a bridging loan (if you were intending to sell your existing property in order to afford a new one)
• Wait for the market to improve

While you may not need to take all of these steps, you should consider each before deciding to sell your house at a time when the market is poor.

What Happens if You Can’t Sell Your House?

It’s always important to plan for the worst-case scenario. It is possible that you won’t be able to sell your house fast enough, and you need to think about what you’ll do at this point.

If you wish to sell because you have inherited a property that you can’t afford to run, why not rent that property out in order to cover your costs? You’ll need to factor in income tax for the amount you’ll make, of course.

Should you require a fast sale because you need to relocate as a matter of urgency (say you’ve been offered a lucrative job transfer), you may be able to apply for a bridging loan or another form of temporary financial assistance to cover you in the short-term until your house sells.

To summarise, you can improve your chances of selling a property fast by focusing on:

• The quality of your estate agent’s services and reputation
• The condition of your property
• Any promotional tools used to sell your house
• All progress made by the company selling your property
• How valid your current asking price may be
• How you might promote your property online
• The ways in which you can promote your house in person
• Your own state of affairs and preparations
• Being flexible and quick to respond to queries

By ensuring that you are doing all you can in the above areas, your house sale is far more likely to go through quickly and smoothly.