You want to sell your Portland house, and you want to get top dollar.
Excellent!
But “What do I need to do to sell my house in Portland“?
Here are some tips on how to get your home ready to sell if you’re looking for top dollar that the market will bear:
*NOTE: These instructions are if you’re looking to get full retail value for your house sale. 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 Portland house fast for a fair value in a win-win sale that’ll save you time and expense.
1) Clean, clean and clean. To impress buyers, it’s important to maintain a high level of cleanliness even in vacant houses. Buyers are looking for a home that is move-in ready, so make sure all surfaces are wiped down and floors mopped. Windows should be cleaned to maximize natural light, carpets vacuumed if they haven’t been recently replaced or professionally cleaned and any stains patched up or removed. Additionally, spot treat walls and have the entire area scrubbed if necessary. If a house was recently vacated, it’s important to get a professional exterminator to make sure the home is free from pests and other unwanted critters.
If you’re a slob, consider finding somewhere else to live while you show your house. Maybe you can bribe your cleanest friend to trade houses with you? Seriously, keeping everything immaculate really helps buyers feel comfortable in your space. Nothing stops people faster from buying faster than feeling grossed out.
2) Cultivate a cohesive, neutral style. You don’t have to paint everything off-white. In fact, some subtle colors can really help change the perception of spaces – for example, a soft yellow will help brighten up a dark kitchen, while a deep dark blue or green will help a bright bedroom to feel like a calm place to sleep (but be careful, dark colors will also make rooms feel small).
Spend the money to get high-quality paint and professional help. Subconsciously people will pay more money for a property with just the right colors and very neat lines – it makes the home feel better built, even though it’s just paint.
Optical illusions are real, and psychologists study this stuff. Don’t believe me?
Look it up. And don’t neglect the outside and just do the inside, or anything else that’s unbalanced.
3) Fix or replace anything that’s broken. Yeah, it might feel like a waste of money to spend an extra couple hundred bucks on a dishwasher that someone else might just 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 to hide neglected maintenance from the purchaser – and of course you don’t want to be guilty of fraud.
Make sure you stay in compliance with all the laws.
It’s often a good use of money to hire a home inspector to come through before you put the property on the market. If you ask in advance, they’ll often charge you a tiny rate to come back after you’ve done a bunch of minor repairs and deliver you a clean bill of health. Prospective buyers love to see an independent report on the condition of the house – it makes them feel very comfortable with the purchase.
4) Make only necessary improvements. The biggest mistake people make when getting their house ready to sell is over-improving. They often spend too much money on customized frills that can’t be recovered in the sale.
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.
It’s important to know what improvements will produce a return on investment to avoid wasting money.
5) Get expert opinions. You should definitely 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.
6) Have a really great marketing plan. Again, great brokers earn their value by doing this work and spreading the advertising expenses across many clients. It’s pretty 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 the time listening to what the best brokers do to sell houses in Portland – just to educate yourself on the options.
7) Get a cash offer. We buy houses all over the Portland area, and we do all the work so you don’t have to deal with any of this stuff.
——————————————-
Don’t Want To Do The Things Above Yourself? But Still Want To Sell Your Portland Oregon House Fast?
Although everyone desires to maximize their profits from selling their house, not everyone is willing or able to meet the requirements to sell it at full retail value to a direct buyer. Doing the repairs, cleaning the property up, upgrading the property, marketing the property… those all take money and can take lots of time. Fortunately, that is where a real estate investor or home buying company may be able to help.
Real estate investors and home buying companies specialize in purchasing houses as-is with cash. This means there is no waiting for banks and lenders to approve financing, nor do you have to put in any repairs or cleaning yourself – they can purchase the property just as it is. This makes the closing process incredibly fast and easy, and can provide much needed relief to seller in a hurry.
Doing the repairs, cleaning the property up, upgrading the property, marketing the property… those all take money and can take lots of time. So you need to make sure that you have the resources available to be able to do all of these things in order to get your property ready for sale. This can include money, time, and manpower. You also need to consider how much work you want to do yourself versus relying on professionals. It is worth it to hire professionals if they are going to get the job done more efficiently and better than you could yourself.
If you have the funds to do these things... AND you can wait the 3-9 months it takes to sell houses in this market… then you’ll be better off financially to do those things then list it 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 can’t wait months to sell your house… then you may be a perfect fit for our local Portland house buying service. You’ll submit basic info about your house over here on our website, we’ll evaluate your house, we’ll make you a fair all-cash offer on your house, and you can decide if it’s a fit for you.
Then we can close FAST (often times within 7 days) if you need us to.
Take a look at what we’ll pay you not to do anything versus the time, expense and hassle involved with doing it on your own.
So if you’re still asking “what do I need to do to sell my house in Portland“… now you have 2 solid options.
Either…
- Fix the property up and get it all nice and ready with the steps above to sell it at top dollar
- Let us do all of the work and we’ll make you a cash offer on your house in AS-IS condition. This saves you time, money, and gets the hassle off of your hands.
If you need to sell a property near Portland, we can help you. Our experienced agents have been helping people to buy and sell their homes in the area for over two decades. We have the local knowledge, expertise and resources to maximize your profits and minimize your costs.
We offer a range of services for buyers and sellers, including free home evaluations, virtual tours of homes for sale, access to current market data, personalized marketing strategies and financial advice from our in-house mortgage professionals.
We understand how important it is to get the best possible outcome when selling a home, and our team of professionals will work hard to ensure you get the price you want. We offer free market evaluations, so we can accurately assess your property’s value and provide an estimate of what it could be worth on the market. We also offer advice on how to best stage your home, as well as marketing support to help you list your property in the most effective way. Our agents are experienced negotiators and will work hard to get you a great price for your property. Contact us today to learn more about our services and to begin the process of selling your home. We look forward to hearing from you!
We buy properties like yours from people who need to sell fast.