How to Sell Your Home Faster: Lackawanna County PA Real Estate Talk
Your home has been sitting on the market now for a little while, and you’re starting to get nervous. You’re already at the desired price point you want to be at, and you don’t want to reduce it any further, but you want to know how to sell your home faster.
Maybe that’s not your situation at all, maybe you haven’t even gone live on the market yet, but you need to know how to sell your home fast for whatever reason.
A lot of people find themselves in this position one way or another, and real estate in Lackawanna county can go quick if you know what steps to follow.
Continue reading to sell your home in Lackawanna county much faster than you planned!
1. Get Rid of the Junk
You don’t even know how many times I look at listings online and see covered kitchen countertops, clunky-looking entertainment centers, and piles upon piles of old items scattered throughout the house.
No one can sell a house that way. When someone looks at pictures online or comes through for a showing, they need to be able to picture themselves in your home. We see this all the time with real estate in Lackawanna county, so it’s a great way for you to separate your home from the rest.
Here are a few important steps to follow:
Get a storage unit for anything that doesn’t look right in the home.
Organize your closets, which will make them look bigger to prospective buyers.
Remove all personal pictures, art, and family photos from the home and replace them with more neutral pieces of art. Seeing a bunch of pictures from your trip to Cancun doesn’t help prospects picture themselves in your home.
If you have a garage, make sure there’s a car in it and not a bunch of boxes and containers.
2. Walk Through Your Home as a Buyer
Once you’ve cleared everything out and the house looks neat and orderly, you want to get a little pickier. Most prospective homebuyers shopping the Scranton PA real estate market are going to be extremely picky about what they’re looking at. A lot of the homes around here are older, so they’re looking for signs of that age.
While we immediately think about the big things like replacing a roof or water heater, the little things are important too.
Start by walking up the driveway or sidewalk and pay attention to every single little detail. Notice little cracks in the sidewalk, uneven pavers, weeds, condensation on windows, clogged gutters, all of these things.
Once you walk through the front door, pay attention to little issues like missing outlet covers, damaged baseboards, cabinets that don’t close properly, dripping faucets, and all the little things you might ignore because you live there every day.
Keep in mind that the little things will start to add up and make a potential home buyer feel like they’re getting in over their head. You want them to walk in and absolutely fall in love with your home rather than nit-pick all of the things you haven’t repaired over the years.
3. Price Competitively (with a timeline)
Zillow says that 21% of sellers say their biggest challenge is selling their home at the speed they desire. So, this is obviously a pain point for many people, but there are ways to sell your Lackawanna county real estate faster. One of those ways is to make sure you price your home competitively for the market and location.
Neighborhoods in Lackawanna county can vary so much in even a short distance. You can travel ten minutes down the road and find yourself in a completely different environment with a changing demographic as well. It’s always important to keep that in mind.
Understand how your price will impact the speed of your sale. If you’re in a big hurry, you might need to come down a little lower than you planned to get the attention you want. If you have a little more time to spare, you could price your home closer to where you want to be.
You also want to look at price points. For example, if someone searches for homes for sale in Scranton, PA, for 150,000-200,000 - you might want to reconsider your price tag of 202,000 because you’ll exclude yourself from a major price point.
Understand the current market, and your realtor should be able to help you with that as well.
4. Stage Your Home
Selling a home is work, and if you want to get top dollar for it in a short amount of time, you need to be prepared to put in that work. Do things like:
Setting the table
Making the beds daily
Putting out tasteful decorations
Removing personal belongings from sight
Using the expensive towels
The less your house feels like “your house,” the higher the chance you have of selling it faster. Even if you’re still living in it with your family, help them to understand why they might have to keep their toys in one room or why you have to eat at the kitchen counter for a few weeks.
Pinterest and Houzz are great resources to find helpful information about how to stage a home. Many people think that staging means you need to go out and rent all new furniture, and that’s not true. It’s simply making your house “showroom quality” for potential buyers.
5. Take Amazing Photos
What if you’re not even getting a lot of showings? Maybe your issue has nothing to do with the home itself and more to do with the exposure you’re getting online.
More and more people are looking online before they even hire a realtor, so you need to make sure that your home is represented in the best way possible. Virtual tours are popular because they allow potential buyers to take a walk through your home without having to be present. This strategy also helps people who might not live close but are thinking of relocating.
If you’re taking photos yourself for your listing, you need to do everything you can to allow natural light in and make the rooms look bigger than they are. Standing in the corner of a room on a chair or stool is a great way to help that happen.
6. Use Keywords in Your Listing Description
So, by this point, you have your price, and you have some pictures. Now you need to write a great listing description that highlights all the greatest features of your home. This step is especially critical if you’re trying to sell the house on your own.
Even if you’re working with a great realtor, you still want to have a general understanding of how to write a great description, and it all starts with keywords.
People are looking for things like:
Granite countertops
Stainless steel appliances
Finished basement
Garage
Acres
Master bathroom
En-suite
These are buzzwords that you want to have in your listing. In addition to these words, you’ll also want to discuss the school district, local attractions, parks, and more. Your listing description should be exhaustive and make sure to develop a sense of urgency in everyone who views the listing.
7. Be Flexible with Showings
You never want to turn away a prospect, and you’d be surprised how many homeowners behave as if they don’t want to sell their house at all. At Christian Saunders Real Estate, we see this happen a lot.
Unfortunately, selling a home in Lackawanna County is stressful, and it requires you to make yourself available at times you normally wouldn’t. We believe that it’s important to be flexible for the buyers because it will help you at negotiations as well.
Open Houses - Open houses never happen when homeowners want them. They’re earlier in the morning and all throughout the day on the weekend when you’d rather be doing something else, but that’s when they happen.
Private Showings - If someone sees your house online and does a virtual tour, they’ll want to come and look at it in person. If you’re working with an agent, they’ll handle that and can even let the person in themselves when you’re not home. When you try to sell your house yourself, you’ll have to handle the tours.
8. Hire an Expert Team of Agents
We believe that having a real estate agent on your side is not optional; it’s a requirement if you’re looking for real estate in Lackawanna county or trying to sell your home. You need experts who understand the Scranton, PA real estate market, and they’re willing to do everything in their power to help you.
That’s the type of team we have at Christian Saunders Real Estate, and we’ve made a lot of great relationships due to our compassion and desire to see our clients happy.
Thanks for reading!