How to Sell Your House Fast

In this article

• Clean and declutter
• Pick a selling strategy
• Set an attractive price
• Invest in minor repairs
• Stage and add curb appeal
• Use professional photography
• Create a listing strategy
• Time your sale right
• Be flexible with showings

There’s nothing easy about selling a home, but once you’ve made the decision to sell, you can increase your home's marketability, decrease your time on the market and attract strong offers by adopting a few tried and true tactics. Here's how to sell a house fast. 

1. Clean and declutter

The first step is to make your home's interior appeal to as many buyers as possible. To do that:

• Get a storage unit and pack away any extra belongings or large furnishings that make rooms look crowded, small or messy.
• Organize the closets. Buyers are looking for storage space, so they're definitely going to peek in closets, storage areas and pantries. Don't cram extra belongings into closets — leave enough open space to give the impression that the home has plenty of storage. After all, 65% of buyers surveyed for the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2024 said that ample storage was extremely or very important.
• Personal belongings, like family photos, keepsakes and religious items, distract buyers and prevent them from picturing themselves living in the home.
• Do a deep clean on every room of the house, including baseboards, kitchen cabinets, bathroom tile and carpets. Since you're short on time, consider calling in some professionals.

2. Pick a selling strategy

When deciding how to list your home, there are two conventional sales options — selling for sale by owner (FSBO) or with a real estate agent — and a few alternatives.

Hire an agent

The upside to hiring a professional real estate agent is that they are market experts and know what it takes to get a house sold quickly in your area. They'll streamline things like contract prep work, negotiations, signing and closing. Agents typically charge a commission for their work, but commissions are negotiable. 

How your agent markets your home can have a big impact on the speed of the sale. For instance, your listing is more likely to go pending in the first 14 days if your agent uses Showcase, a free, exclusive package of features offered by select Zillow partner agents. Showcase features 3D tours and interactive floor plans that provide richer insights into a home’s layout and features. Listing your home on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) can also speed up the sales time. 

Sell FSBO

A benefit to selling on your own is that you save on agent commissions. Sellers typically pay a commission to their agent, and buyers may ask you to pay their agent’s commission as well.  Commissions are negotiable, but if you want to avoid them by selling on your own, you need to be prepared to negotiate like a pro.

Be ready to research the market to set a price, evaluate offers, negotiate concessions with potential buyers, meet escrow timelines, juggle contract paperwork, and consult an attorney to make sure all forms are filled out correctly. Half of sellers in a 2024 Zillow survey reported having at least one offer fall through, so you may have to go through the process more than once. Knowing the ins and outs of the process is especially important if you need to sell your house fast.

Alternative ways to sell your house fast

If you want to completely bypass the preparation it takes to sell your house in a hurry, consider these alternative strategies:

• Get a cash offer. There are numerous reasons why selling to an investor or iBuyer may be a good fit, but there are potential trade-offs to keep in mind. 
• Sell to a developer. This is usually only an option if your home is a teardown and/or on a large lot.
• Sell at an auction. Depending on your circumstances, you may be able to sell quickly by auctioning off your home.

3. Price to sell

Even if you're selling in a sellers market, where there are many buyers competing for fewer homes, selling your house fast isn't a guarantee.

You can help speed up the selling process by pricing your home competitively. Overpricing will lead to more time on the market, and ultimately, you may end up selling at that lower price anyway — it'll just take you longer to get there.

You may even want to price your home a little lower than comparable homes in your area to drum up interest and cause a bidding war. The effectiveness of this strategy depends on the state of your local real estate market and how homes are selling in your area. If you’re working with an agent, they can do a full market analysis to gauge the most competitive price based on the dynamics of your local market, and craft a good pricing strategy. 

When setting a price, you also may want to consider the price points that the majority of buyers search for within your area. For example, if you list your home for $399,000, it'll show up in search results for anyone that's looking for homes under $400,000. But price it at $405,000 — just $5,000 more — and it'll never show up in their search results. 

Set a timeline for a price reduction

Before you list, take a hard look at your timeline and decide on a day to lower your price if you haven't received any offers. You can decide how much to discount it if and when that day arrives based on the feedback you receive from home tours. But it’s important to have a date in mind, and act quickly when that day comes. The longer your home is on the market, the lower your odds are of selling it for listing price.

Consider sales incentives

If you know your home is going to be a tough sale, either because of some unusual feature or because you're selling in a slow market, it can sometimes be worth offering incentives to potential buyers to sweeten the deal. Examples include upfront repair or improvement credits, paying the buyer's closing costs, or offering to include things like appliances, which aren't always included in a sale.

4. Handle any quick repairs

While you don't have time for major renovations, it's still important to take care of any easy fixes that might deter potential buyers:

• Patch up spots where paint is peeled or scratched.
• Fix loose tiles.
• Repair loose door handles.
• Tighten leaky faucets.

You may also want to invest in a few minor upgrades that add value could make your home show better:

• Apply a fresh coat of paint inside.
• Install new hardware on kitchen and bathroom cabinets.
• Swap out old or outdated light fixtures.
• Purchase matching (newer) appliances.

5. Stage and add curb appeal

No matter your timeline, every seller can benefit from a weekend spent sprucing up their home's interior and exterior. After all, making a good first impression with buyers is crucial. According to the Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2024, sellers who said they made improvements before selling most commonly painted the interior of the home (46%), followed by bathroom upgrades (42%) and kitchen (38%) improvements.

Pack up and hire a stager

Staging is a common tactic in real estate sales, especially if you're looking for ways to sell your house fast. Staging helps define spaces and makes rooms look larger. If you want to speed up this process, put all of your belongings in storage. A professional stager will bring their own furniture and decor, arranging it in a way that highlights your home's best features and makes it feel warm and welcoming. You can also virtually stage your home in your listing to give online shoppers a feel for your home.

Create curb appeal

Your home's exterior is the first in-person glimpse potential buyers will have of your home, so it's important that it looks welcoming, well-maintained and tidy. Here are some tips to make your house sell faster with good curb appeal. And when speed is key, consider hiring a professional landscaper to make quick work of these tasks:

• Trim hedges, shrubs and overgrown tree branches.
• Clear walkways and paths.
• Clean windows and doorknobs.
• Sweep away spiderwebs and debris from the front porch.
• Replace broken lights or mailboxes.
• Paint the front door.
• Plant flowers.

6. Hire a professional photographer

It may seem faster (and cheaper) to snap a few pictures of your house on your phone, but poor listing photos could make your home sit on the market longer. If you're using a full-service real estate agent, they may even include the photos as part of their services. Check to see if your agent or photographer offers a 3D virtual house tour. The tours are quick to capture and improve listing page views on Zillow. 

Before images are taken, make sure your home has plenty of light. Open the blinds, replace old lightbulbs or update fixtures, and let in as much natural light as possible. This is also a best practice for listing appointments.

7. Write a great listing description

Once you have chosen a listing price and your house is in order, you'll want to create a listing description that will help you sell your house faster. This is especially important if you're selling on your own. If you are using an agent, they will probably write the description for you, but it's still important to know what makes a good listing description.

• Highlight your home's best features in the listing description, using effective keywords that'll stand out to buyers.
• Include anything that makes your neighborhood desirable, like the school district, proximity to public transportation, or local restaurants and parks.
• Include a sense of urgency: "All offers must be submitted by ," for example.
• Use your professional photos.

Where to post your listing

If you're selling FSBO, you can upload your own listing to Zillow. Sites like Zillow also allow you to post 3D tours or virtual walkthroughs, which can give buyers a good sense for the layout of your property. If you're using an agent, they'll post to your local Multiple Listing Service or MLS, which will pull your listing into all of the major real estate search websites, including Zillow.  Research found that homes listed on the MLS sold for 17.5% more than homes listed on private networks known as “pocket listings” or “private listings.”

If you don't have an agent, you can pay a flat fee to an agent to upload your home to the local MLS on your behalf. In this case, you'll be listed as the point of contact for all inquiries.

Additionally, whether you're listing your home with an agent or going the FSBO route, you can post your listing on social media (via friends and family or with paid placements), as well as place flyers and signs around your neighborhood.

8. Time your sale right

According to Zillow, the best time to sell your house is generally in the second half of May.  Homes listed during this time frame sold six days faster than average and for an average of $1,600 more. 

The peak selling time varies a bit based on your local real estate market, so check whether you're in a buyers or sellers market if you need to sell your house fast.

9. Be flexible with showings

When selling your home quickly is the goal, it's important to be as accommodating as possible with showing requests. While last-minute showings can cause a scheduling scramble, it could be harder to sell your home if buyers can't see it for themselves. If you can't or won't accommodate buyers' schedules, your home is at risk of sitting on the market longer.

Hold an open house

A well-timed weekend open house is a must for selling your house quickly. It's the easiest way to get multiple buyers through the door. Make sure to prepare accordingly — clean the home, arrange fresh flowers, offer a few treats, and prepare flyers that buyers can take with them after their tour.

Private showings

Buyers requesting a private showing may have never seen your home before, or they could have attended your open house and are returning for a closer look. As mentioned earlier, it's important to be as accommodating as possible in showing your home, even if it means keeping your house tour-ready around the clock.

If you're listing your house FSBO, be prepared to host your own tours. If you're working with an agent, they should either do a tour for you or leave a lockbox for the buyer and their agent. If at all possible, the seller should avoid attending the showing — it can make buyers uncomfortable.