Watch the news, and you’ll see fevered reports of a cutthroat housing market. The media is practically shouting again about multiple offers, high demand, and record-setting prices.
So where’s your contract?
We’ve consulted local experts and gathered the top tips to sell your house fast in San Antonio for the best value. With the right resources and preparation, selling your San Antonio home quickly could be easier than you think.
Keep in mind: anyone can write a cash offer, even if they’re borrowing money to purchase the property. Should the buyer’s financing fall through while selling through a traditional real estate agent, you’ll have to start the sale process all over again. Lenders sometimes require 45-60 days for approval, and many times the application does not reach an underwriter until the final few days of the process. What if the loan is not approved and you’re already 45 days into the sale? Talk about wasted time, money, energy, etc.
Here Are 6 Tips on How to Sell Your House Fast in San Antonio, TX, or the Surrounding Area without Sacrificing Value
*NOTE: These instructions consider the full retail value of your home. However, if you don’t want to do the things below (or don’t have the time or money to do the things below) you can still sell your San Antonio, TX house fast for a fair value in a win-win sale that’ll save you time and expenses.
1) Get Good Help
Just like before, there are novice agents and investors rushing into the booming market trumpeting that they know what they’re doing.
But they don’t. They’re getting hit hard with the nuances of financing, deal structure, and evaluation. Seriously, chances are good that real estate is your biggest investment—don’t trust just anyone’s advice.
If you want great results, partner with the pros. You should find at least a few decent real estate brokers who will help you price your property, but be honest with them. If you’re going to market the property on your own, don’t make enemies by lying about your intentions. Great brokers are rare, but they make more money for their clients than they earn.
2) Don’t Make Too Many Improvements
Too often, we see over-improved properties—those where the owners have gone too far. Even with the best of intentions, exceptional craftsmanship, and true artistic talent, it’s incredibly challenging to exceed what the market is paying. Plus, most buyers want to add their own custom touches. Get rid of all the clutter and think “neutral”.
Make only necessary improvements, and don’t spend too much money on customized frills that can’t be recovered in the sale. It’s important to know what improvements will produce a return on investment to avoid wasting money.
Bonus Tip: Paint is about the only safe investment. It’s easy to overspend on almost everything else, and it’s easy to get ripped off by unscrupulous contractors.
3) Do Make Necessary Improvements
Although some people are the fixer-upper type, “ugly” homes typically scare buyers. Show that you’ve been a responsible property owner by making your home presentable.
Gaps in the trim or plates off of the switches won’t do. Before listing, consider a professional home inspection to show off your healthy home report. This goes a long way toward establishing confidence in your buyer that they’re making a good purchase.
It might feel like a waste of money to spend an extra couple hundred bucks on a dishwasher that someone could pull out and replace again, but really, quite a few buyers will get a home inspection and use the opportunity to negotiate with you. As the seller, you’ll often end up paying more if you try hiding neglected maintenance from the purchaser—and of course, you don’t want to be guilty of fraud.
Bonus Tip: Make sure you stay in compliance with all laws. If you ask in advance, home inspectors will often charge you a tiny rate to deliver a clean bill of health after completing minor repairs.
4) Style and Design Matter
Curb appeal is just as important as the inside of your home, so don’t neglect one part of the property to improve another. Give buyers a cohesive impression of your great style! You don’t have to paint everything off-white. In fact, some subtle colors can really help change the perception of spaces; a soft yellow will help brighten up a dark kitchen, while a deep dark blue or green will help a bright bedroom feel like a calm place to sleep (but be careful, dark colors can also shrink rooms).
Paint the walls, update the landscaping, and most of all—clean, clean, clean. Even vacant houses get dusty and dirty, so keep it up! Nothing short of gleaming perfection will impress buyers. If you’re not a total clean freak, consider finding somewhere else to live while you show your house. Maybe you can bribe your cleanest friend to trade houses with you? Keeping everything immaculate encourages buyers to feel comfortable in your space.
Bonus Tip: Hire a professional designer or online agency to help tastefully stage your property.
5) Every Home Will Sell; Eventually
There’s no magic formula, but there’s no substitute for experience.
Develop a great marketing plan. Again, great brokers earn their value by doing this work and spreading the advertising expenses across many clients. It’s relatively expensive and time-consuming to start from scratch on your own, but if you’re already a marketing expert you’re ahead of the pack.
If you’re not, spend some time listening to what the best brokers do to sell houses in San Antonio.
6) Pricing Makes a Difference
If you’re getting a lot of showings but not a lot of offers, you might not be too far off in price. However, you might need to make some adjustments to your strategy.
If the phone’s still not ringing after your best marketing efforts, it’s likely that your current asking price is too high. Take some time to reevaluate your asking price and consider if it reflects the true value of your property. Look for areas of your home that can be improved to justify the increased price tag, or lower the price and see if offers improve.
Bonus Tip: Get a cash offer. We buy houses all over the San Antonio area, and we do all the work so you don’t have to deal with any repairs, upgrades, or marketing efforts.
Don’t Want to Do These Things Yourself? Still Wondering How to Sell Your House Fast In San Antonio?
Avoid having the buyer pull out at the last second because of financing and sell your house fast in San Antonio to an investment firm like Texas Home Buyers Group.
Often, qualified investors have access to multiple lines of credit with public and private lenders that are secured by other assets. That means we can close quickly, and we don’t have to wait for approval on a bank loan. You get your sale done and cash in hand fast.
The best part? We’re qualified investors, and we have no problem providing access to bankers, title companies, and other references who can verify our ability to close on the loan.
While everyone wants to get as much as they possibly can from their home sale, not everyone can do the things required to sell it at full retail value to an end buyer; cleaning, marketing, and making repairs and upgrades all take time and money.
If you have the funds to do these things AND you can wait 3-9 months ( or potentially longer) for your house to sell, then you’ll be better off making necessary repairs and listing on the MLS (the main property listing service that real estate agents use).
If you don’t have the funds to do these things AND you can’t wait months to sell your home, then you may be a perfect fit for our local San Antonio house buying service.
If you still have questions about selling your house fast in San Antonio, TX, here are 2 great options:
- Fix up your property and sell it for top dollar on the MLS.
- Accept a cash offer on your home AS-IS and we’ll do the work for you. This saves you time, money, and home repair headaches.
If You Want to Sell Your House Fast in San Antonio, TX, We Can Help!
Give us a call anytime at 210-910-4468 or fill out the form below!
Not located in San Antonio, TX? No problem! We buy homes across the US.