10 Tips to Sell Your Home Faster in a Slowing Market

2. Concentrate on curb appeal.

Home-selling basics, such as sprucing up the property so it pops when home buyers drive by or view pictures online, are even more important when there are fewer home shoppers. A fresh coat of paint, landscape upgrade and a crisp, clean look go a long way towards sending a message to a buyer that your home is well-maintained. “It has become more important to get your home in shipshape condition,” says Zillow’s Tucker.

Little fixes, such as fixing runny faucets, hard-to-open windows and other small quirks like drawers that don’t close properly, will also go a long way to reassure buyers that the house is in good condition. “These are a very traditional tips, but the news is they matter again,” Tucker says.  

3. Staging the sale.

With home buyers scarce and stretched financially, sellers must work harder to give buyers a reason to make an offer. “And staging is a critical way today to reel them in,” Dutton says. Styling and furnishing the home in a way that will appeal to the most buyers is necessary in a more competitive market. “When a home is staged to look pristine and move-in ready, this gives home buyers the impression that they won’t have to spend much more money on fixing it up. This perceived cost-savings can make a big difference to budget-conscious buyers today.”

Another option: Virtual staging, or using computer software to add furniture to an empty room, gives the buyer a sense of the property’s potential, adds Houwzer’s Allison.

4. Choose renovations wisely.

Doing a big kitchen re-do or bathroom renovation may not pay off at sale time. “The fact is most upgrades will end up costing more than you’ll ever recoup when you sell,” Dutton says. One upgrade that will pay off, however, is refinishing or replacing hardwood floors, Dutton says. Homeowners spent an estimated $3,400 to refinish hardwood floors and got back $5,000 at resale, says Dutton, citing a 2022 study by the NAR and National Association of the Remodeling Industry. Similarly, homeowners spent around $5,500 installing new hardwood flooring and got $6,500 back when they sold the property. Other cost-effective improvement projects that will deliver a decent return on your investment include adding stone veneer to the exterior of the home and installing a new garage door. Surprisingly, a mid-range kitchen renovation isn’t a worthwhile investment. The average cost is $80,809, but it only recouped $45,370, or 56.1 percent of the investment, at resale, according to Remodeling magazine’s 2022 Cost vs. Value Report.

5. Timing is everything.

Despite talk of recession and the real estate market softening, there are pluses to trying to sell your house sooner rather than later. For one, you have an opportunity to make the transaction before a recession strikes and even more buyers disappear. What’s more, the inventory of homes now for sale remains tight, which increases the chances that your home will be scooped up by a buyer in the market who has limited choices. In the fall and winter “you don’t have the tire-kickers going around visiting every open house like you do in the spring,” says Allison. “They are more serious buyers.”

6. Consider offers with contingencies.

With buyers gaining more power in a slowing market, you may have to again accept contingencies, such as the buyer getting approved for a mortgage or the sale hinging on a property inspection, says Tucker. “Buyers have more negotiating power,” he says. So be prepared to trim your ask price a tad in the event the buyer finds a problem with the roof or a plumbing issue.

7. Make sure the mechanics work.

Make sure that the key mechanical systems of the home, such as the air-conditioning, plumbing, electric, hot-water heater and appliances, are all in working order. “Buyers can be a little pickier right now,” says Allison. “They want to know that things are well-maintained.”

8. Paint makes a house “pop.”

One of the most cost-effective projects, whether you do it yourself or hire a professional, is painting. A fresh coat of paint “can make an incredible difference when selling a house,” Dutton says. A strategic “pop of color” like red on the front door or painting tired kitchen cabinets a fresh white can catch a buyer’s eye, she says.

9. Be willing to negotiate.

If you don’t have multiple buyers, there’s a chance you might have to negotiate the price with the one buyer on the hook to get a deal done. And that’s OK as the housing market moves away from a seller’s market to one in which the buyer has more leverage when it comes to terms of the final deal. Trying to get last year’s higher prices on your house now will likely result in you not getting a deal done and having your home sit on the market longer. “It’s a little difficult for sellers to wrap their head around,” says Allison. “But the numbers don’t lie. Pull the (most recent) comps.”

10. Sell as-is.

If you need a quick sale, consider selling the property as-is to an investor or developer, says Josh Stech, cofounder and CEO of Sundae, a real estate marketplace that connects homeowners to a network of investors. These deals can get done quickly, as they are typically all-cash deals with no contingencies and no reason to spend the time and trouble of listing your house and getting your home ready for sale.

The good news is that in a slowing housing market, home prices don’t drop as dramatically and quickly as stock prices do. And that gives sellers a window of opportunity to sell their home at a still-strong price ahead of any more potentially serious price decline. Despite slowing sales, the NAR expects the median home price to increase by 1 percent in 2023. And real estate pros stress the housing market is not in danger of suffering a crash like it did back in 2008–09 during the financial crisis.