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Do you need to sell your house fast? In many markets around the country, including certain areas of Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland, house prices have started to edge up. This could be a good time to sell your home. Easy tips for a quick home sale include:

1. If home prices in your neighborhood are increasing, do not raise your list price. Having a lower priced home will cause your home to get all of the attention and could ultimately drive up the final sales price of your home through a bidding war. Your ultimate goal is to get the highest possible sales price, not the highest list price. Ideally, you want your home priced at or below other homes in the neighborhood – higher priced homes in a given neighborhood are usually the cause of selling the lower priced homes in the same neighborhood. An interested buyer may first see the higher priced home but will quickly revert to the better priced home.
2. Remain flexible as buyers make offers to purchase your home. Allowing certain concessions can be integral to getting your home sold fast.
3. De-clutter the home by removing all personal items, extra furniture and the not used or wanted. Removing clutter can include these areas: closets, cupboards, linen closets, bathrooms and kid’s bedrooms. Once decluttered, make sure everything remains organized and clutter free until your home sells.
4. Landscape and clean up the yard. If the season permits, plant flowers to bring color to your yard. Keep the lawn mowed and edged and the yard free of household items, such as kids toys and anything else that detracts from the aesthetic appeal of the yard. If you mow the lawn while the home is on the market make sure to remove the grass clippings.
5. Make necessary repairs and renovations to make your house show well. For a list of such repairs please read http://www.expresshomebuyers.com/improvements-to-make-to-help-sell-your-home.html.

If you are unable to do the above things or you are having trouble selling your home, call us today at 1-877-384-3737 or contact us to get an offer in hours from Express Homebuyers.

The common wisdom about how to avoid?

Don’t get in over your head with debt.
Keep an emergency fund of six months salary.
Live frugally.

For the person who is currently treading water in a sea of debt or who is saddled with a home that has declined significantly in value, this advice is hard to follow. Whether you bought too much house or fell behind on your bills due to job loss or illness, you may find yourself in precarious shape and bankruptcy seems like the only viable option.

Bankruptcy may reduce your debt, but it has great repercussions on your credit score, your ability to find a job, and your ability to obtain credit in the future. For some people, it may offer a clean slate, but bankruptcy revisions in 2005 made it more likely that you will still be responsible for paying a portion of your debt. You may have to sell your assets, including your home. While you are paying down your debt, you have the added stigma of the bankruptcy on your record. If possible, you should consider less destructive alternatives to bankruptcy.

Increase your income – In the ideal world, you might prevent bankruptcy by bringing more income into the household. You can take on a second job or more work, have a stay-at-home family member find a job, or tap into savings or 401ks (this is not usually a good idea, but it may be a better alternative to bankruptcy). In the current economy, increasing your income might be tough.

Reduce your monthly income requirements – By squeezing the fat from your budget, you may be able to redirect some income toward other obligations. The things you cut however – the cable TV, the lattes from the coffee shop, the eating out – may only put a couple hundred dollars back into circulation.

Work out the debt with creditors – Creditors may agree to reduce your payments or freeze your interest rates. If you take your problems to a consumer credit counselor, you may find help in negotiating with your credit card companies.

Dump the debt – If the big income drain for you is the house or car payment, shedding these assets may either put your finances in the black or at least stop the bleeding. If you see that you could manage without having to make these payments, proactively selling the house or car can prevent foreclosure or repossession.

What other ways can you avoid bankruptcy?

Are you ready to sell a home fast? Call us today at 1-888-835-4758 or have your client contact us to get an offer in hours from Express Homebuyers.

When you can’t pay your mortgage and you owe more than your home is worth, a short sale may be the best way to sell your home. You may not want to lose your home, and the bank may not want to lose the additional money through foreclosure. If you have the time, the short sale process puts you in a position to recover your life.

How do you do a short sale

The short sale process has a number of steps you must follow precisely. Since the process is time consuming, you must be prepared to wait for each step to complete.

• Establish hardship, which makes the case to the lender that you can’t pay
• List and market the home, with the goal of obtaining a qualified offer
• Prepare a package of documents and submit them to the bank
• Wait for a short sale negotiator to be appointed to review the case
• Submit to a short sale appraisal/BPO
• Receive terms and conditions from the bank
• Negotiate with all parties on terms and conditions.
• Complete the closing process

Other help for housing woes

The many steps of short sale add a minimum of three to six months to the process of selling your house. Along the way, the bank can short-circuit the process at any point if it thinks your hardship is not severe enough or has hopes of making you pay to the original terms. Often, a real estate agent can help you prepare your case and negotiate for you throughout the process.

Some homeowners with loans secured through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mae may qualify for short sale help through the Making Home Affordable program. If the homeowner meets all the criteria and the lender agrees, the homeowner might walk away with $1,500 to help with relocation expenses and debt forgiveness of the balance.

What is your experience with short sales?

Are you ready to sell your home fast? Call us today at to get an offer in hours from Express Homebuyers. Are you ready to sell a home fast? Call us today at 1-888-835-4758 or have your client contact us to get an offer in hours from Express Homebuyers.