Foreclosure is not a pleasant event and it can affect your credit score and make it excruciatingly difficult or even impossible to obtain a home loan for the next seven years. Seven years! To avoid this type of credit catastrophe, one of the best options to consider is selling your home. However, in many situations, you will need to do this quickly to avoid foreclosure. While foreclosure is a process that can take a few months to a year, selling a home can also be a long process, so you should start thinking sooner rather than later: “I need to sell my house fast!” If foreclosure is approaching and you know it, read on to minimize the damage to your financial future.
Decide the price
Since you’ll want to sell your home quickly, you probably can’t sit around waiting for the perfect buyer to show up to pay the price you think you deserve. In fact, it is much better for you to get hit with the money you get for your house rather than get a foreclosure. This will require aggressive pricing for your home and definitely not overvaluing it. To ensure a quick sale, you’ll want to attract potential buyers thinking that your home is a bargain. Look at the final sales prices of other similar properties in your neighborhood that have recently sold and subtract 10 percent from that average to arrive at your aggressive selling price.
However, if you find yourself in the unfortunate state of owing more than your home is worth, you will have to take even more steps to complete what is known as a short sale. To do this, you will have to work directly with your lender to obtain their acceptance of such a sale. While not having the money to make up the difference between the short sale and what you still owe on the house can also hurt your credit, it won’t be nearly as bad as the aftermath of a foreclosure.
Sell my house fast!
Once you’ve priced your home, it’s time to start marketing it. Go online and post your house on all the ad websites you can find. Even if cash is tight, hiring a professional photographer to take pictures will dramatically improve the reception you get from shoppers searching online. You will also want to trade in cheaper things that can make a house look like new. This includes paint, carpeting, and other cosmetic changes that are cheap in nature but can make a big difference to the overall feel of a home. By doing the fieldwork to market your home and price it correctly, you can sell your home quickly and avoid the horror of foreclosure.
