How to Sell Your Home in St Louis Fast For the Best Price
There are dozens of reasons why owners hurry to sell their St Louis homes. Some rush to list their homes on the MLS when a seller’s market is particularly hot and they know they will receive a number of acceptable offers. Others push for a quick sale because they plan to start a job in a new city and must relocate. While many homes sit on the market for weeks, others speed through closing. The difference between a quick sale and an extended stay on the market could be as simple as a few alterations to your home or your marketing approach. From furnishing your home to making minor updates, follow below for seven tips to help you sell your St Louis home fast.
Seven Tips for Selling Your St Louis Home Fast
#1 Furnish Your House
First on our list of tips for selling your St Louis home fast is to furnish each space with neutral, streamlined furniture. Furnishing your home before selling is one of several incentives sellers regularly offer buyers when trying to achieve a fast sale. In her article “Is It a Good Idea to Sell Your House Furnished?” for Coldwell Banker, Sharon Lee explains why furnishing helps sell homes. According to Lee, “furniture can add impact to photos on your broker’s website, MLS, or printed promotional materials.” Empty rooms have little influence over buyers because they do not “carry any emotional motivation.”
However, fully furnished homes help buyers “feel like they could move in immediately,” encouraging a fast sale and quick closing. CORE real estate broker Elizabeth Kee agrees. Quoted by Kelsey Mulvey in an article for Realtor.com, Kee notes that “‘selling a furnished home can sometimes maximize the value.’” If a home is furnished appropriately, those furnishings “‘can act as a no-cost staging of the home to help the home sell faster.’”
How to Furnish a Home for Sale
When choosing furniture for your home, be sure to consider the area, the demographics you are trying to attract, the period of your house and the style of your home. Lastly, reach out to a realtor if you need help picking pieces. Kee tells Mulvey that “‘any good real estate professional will help you to be able to determine if selling your home furnished is a good strategy in your market...and what furnishings should stay, go, or be supplemented.’” While more than two thirds of buyers agents believe home staging helps sell houses, it might not be as practical as filling your home with purchased furniture when trying for a quick sale. Keep in mind that some home staging companies in the St Louis area do allow sellers or buyers to purchase furniture used in staging once the sale has closed.
#2 Make Minor Updates
Next, making minor updates could help sell your home faster. Cosmetic updates such as those to landscaping, exterior paint and kitchen cabinets will likely help the most. This is because these types of minor updates improve a prospective buyer’s first impression of the home. As such, Zillow’s guide “Preparing to Sell: How to Sell My House Fast” recommends that homeowners “invest in a few minor upgrades that will make your home show better.”
Zillow suggests “taking care of any easy fixes that might deter potential buyers.” These include “patching up spots where paint is peeled or scratched,” “fixing loose tiles,” “tightening leaky faucets” and swapping out dated light fixtures. Sellers might also consider replacing old appliances with newer models and installing stylish hardware on doors and drawers.
#3 Determine Whether You Should Hire a Local Realtor or List FSBO
Third on our list of tips that help homes sell faster is determining whether to hire a realtor instead of listing FSBO. In her article “Selling Your Home Solo to Save Money? You’ll Actually Make Less Than You Think” for the National Association of Realtors, Amanda Riggs explains how to make this decision. Riggs notes that sellers who list their homes FSBO might be able to sell their homes faster, but “FSBO makes less money on their home sales than buyers who work with a real estate agent.” Whether you choose to hire a realtor or list FSBO depends heavily on how much time and energy you have to invest in marketing your home.
Riggs writes that sellers must commit to “creating yard signs, listing their homes online on multiple websites and spreading the news through word of mouth.” They must also invest in “putting out classified ads, displaying on social media, hosting an open house, and registering with the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) database” in order to sell quickly. If you have listed your home because a new job is carrying you to a different city or because your bank plans to foreclose, you might not have time to invest in marketing your own home.
#4 Seek Developers or Wholesalers Who Will Pay Cash
Finding the right buyer is key to selling a home quickly. Traditional buyers can be very motivated during a seller’s market -- as demonstrated in the 2020/2021 market. However, in a buyer’s market, homeowners must compete for attention. Marketing your home towards a developer or wholesaler could bypass this, though it might result in a lower sales price.
Selling to a Developer
In her article “I Need to Sell My House Fast, What Are My Options?” for Homelight, Christine Bartsch explains. Bartsch writes that “large house-buying companies that either flip or rent out homes at scale” are often willing to pay all cash. Smaller “mom-and-pop investors who only purchase a few homes per year” also offer cash for homes they can renovate and resell. Unfortunately, notes Bartsch, “over the past 40 years, cash buyers have paid 12% less on average than a buyer getting a mortgage.” As such, homeowners must decide “whether the trade-offs are worth a potentially discounted price.”
Hiring a Wholesaler
In addition to selling your home to a developer, hiring a wholesaler is another option for achieving a quick sale. Writing for Forbes in his article “5 Ways to Sell Your House Fast,” R.L. Adams explains how wholesaling can help homeowners. For those unfamiliar with the process, Adams writes that “all the wholesaler does is put your house under contract and flip it to a cash buyer.”
Placing your home under contract to a wholesaler is “certainly faster than attempting to list it with a traditional agent.” The only difficulty sellers might face is finding a wholesaler with whom to work because “they often find you” rather than the other way around. R.L. Adams suggests joining “Facebook Groups or LinkedIn to source cash buyers by searching for ‘cash buyers real estate’ or other similar terms.”
#5 Find a Professional Cleaning Service
Fifth on our list of ways to sell your home faster is to hire a professional cleaning service. Most cleaning services will conduct a far more thorough deep-cleaning of your home than a DIY job, ensuring that your space makes a great first impression on the buyer. Consider having the outside of your home tidied as well. Pressure-washing the exterior, removing debris from the walkway and cleaning up the yard can all improve a prospective buyer’s first impression of your home. Just be sure to have the space cleaned prior to listing so all marketing photos display your home in its best state. Also be sure to clean the home a few days before your first showing to ensure any lingering chemical smells have a chance to dissipate fully.
#6 Put Your Stuff in Storage
In addition to cleaning, homeowners hoping to sell their homes quickly should declutter, remove personal items and place unnecessary items in storage. Trulia’s Seller Guide “How to Sell Your House” places specific emphasis on storing furniture, yard equipment and other items that could distract prospective buyers. Remove items like “holiday decorations, baby gear, seasonal clothes, and that bread maker you’ve never used but can’t let go” from view.
Also remove excess furniture -- such as a second couch in your living room -- as too many pieces could make the space feel small and cramped. Trulia recommends “investing in temporary outside storage” instead of renting space in a commercial storage unit. Having a portable storage unit delivered to your home “makes moving day a cinch” by keeping all your things together.
#7 Offer Incentives to the Buyer
Lastly, consider offering incentives to prospective buyers when selling your St Louis home. Offering incentives is particularly effective in a buyer’s market when housing supply is robust and buyers are wary. In her article “6 Tips to Sell Your Home Fast” for Investopedia, Jean Folger writes that “buyers are looking for a deal, particularly in a down market, so do your best to make them feel that they get one.”
Homeowners can offer to cover the closing costs or they can “offer a transferable home warranty...which provides discounted repair and replacement services for household appliances and systems.” According to Tara-Nicholle Nelson in an article for Forbes, homeowners can also offer to buy down a buyer’s interest rate or provide a credit towards HOA fees. Sellers can also bypass the buyer entirely, offering incentives to the buyer’s broker instead.
By furnishing each space, making minor updates and offering incentives when necessary, homeowners can sell their homes quickly for a reasonable amount.