Remember when you could stack out a For Sale By Owner sign and have people begging to buy your home, most of the time for more than you were asking for. Oh those were the days. Times have changed and now people needing to sell their home face more competition than just other home owners. As homebuilders are building new homes at a record pace. New communities seem to be popping up daily and condos are being built to suit more tenants as families smaller now than ever.

All this competition means sellers and their agents have to educate themselves and know what they are up against before putting their house on the market.

Pricing Your Home
It is a given in the real estate world that a home will, on average, sell for about 95% of asking price. Let's say houses in your area are selling for an average price of $275,000. You feel your house can sell for a maximum of $300,000 but you want the property to sell fast and don't the property to sit on the market for 6-12 months. Many buyers are looking for deals and can sense deals when they read your advertisement in a real estate book or online. If you are flexible, don't be shy with this info. Let people know. Try pricing your house $274,999 to $299,999. This opens the door to buyers and let's them know you are willing to talk. This allows you to also accept several offers and choose the offer that you like best.

Stay Flexible
During negoiations there is one rule of thumb - everything is negotiable. Don't always judge your offers on price alone. Many other factors make up a good offer. You may have a buyer who has excellent credit an qualify for a mortgage at the price you want but may not have a down payment. There are several ways you can put together a win-win deal to sell your house. Maybe you can in excahnge for a slightly higher price offer to pay the closing costs for the buyer.

Stand out from the crowd
It may be in your best interest to clean your home, make minor repairs, paint the interior and exterior, and do some landscaping. This is especially true if you live in an area where new construction is going on or many of the homes have been renovated. Moving is very stressfull and have to fix a house before you move in is even worse.

You can also have your house inspected for termites or share the cost of an appraisal. These are minor things that will have to be done anyway. Taking care of them first is just an added benefit to the buyer.