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There are several reasons why you may need to sell your home quickly. For example, a job change may require a speedy relocation to another city, or you may have purchased another property and don’t want to be stuck too long with two mortgages.

Here are some tips that can help get the sold sign on your front lawn sooner:

• Be realistic with price. If you set the listing price higher than the current market value of your home, then you’re not going to get many, if any, viewers. You want the list price to be attractive, which means listing at the current market value.
• Get things fixed. You probably don’t have time for a major renovation. So just make sure everything in your home is in good working order. Deal with any obvious maintenance issues, such as a leaking faucet or a gate hanging precariously on one hinge.
• Ensure your home shows well, inside and outside. Eliminate clutter. Trim hedges. Make sure every room has adequate lighting. Imagine that a special guest is visiting your home, and clean up and prepare accordingly.
• Be flexible with viewing times. You want as many potential buyers as possible to see your home. So, don’t restrict viewing times to just Saturdays. Make sure your home is as “available” as possible for showings. This may cause you and your family some inconvenience, but the reward will be selling your property sooner.

When you walk into a nice hotel room, what do you usually notice first? It may be the large, often beautiful picture hanging above the bed. You’ll probably find a smaller, equally attractive picture hanging in the bathroom. Often there will be at least two more adorning other walls.

That’s no accident. Hotels know that pictures are the simplest, surest way to make a good-looking room look great.

The same thing holds true when preparing your house for sale. According to home staging experts, hanging a few quality pictures can transform the look of just about any room – even a washroom!

Chances are, you already have pictures hanging in your home. Do you need more? That depends. If you have a room that seems dull, and there is open and empty wall space, try adding a picture. You don’t have to buy one or hang one – just have someone hold up an existing picture. If the look of the room improves, consider adding a picture in that spot.

Pictures don’t have to be expensive; they just need to be of good quality. Many retailers sell good-looking, nicely-framed pictures at affordable prices.

Most real estate experts agree that being too emotionally attached to your home can lead to poor decision making, such as over-pricing the listing and making hasty choices based on feelings rather than facts.

Of course, removing emotion from the home selling equation is easier said than done. After all, it is your home. It’s only natural to be emotionally connected to it. So, how do you ensure that emotions don’t get in the way of selling your house quickly and for the best price? Here are some strategies:

• Think of selling your property as a business transaction only. Focus your emotions on the new home you’ll be moving into soon.
• Stow as many personal items as possible, such as trophies and family pictures. Turn your home into an attractive product.
• If a buyer makes a negative comment about your property – “I hate the deck color.” – don’t take it personally.
• Avoid judging offers to buy your house based on whether or not you like the buyer.

Finally, whenever you make a decision during the home selling process, ask yourself: “Am I making this decision based on fact or emotion?” If the answer is “fact” then, chances are, you’re on solid footing.

Ideally, you want to be the only buyer who makes an offer on a particular property. That way, assuming your price is acceptable to the seller, you’re almost certain to close the deal.

But, it doesn’t always work out that way. In the case of highly desirable homes, it’s very common for there to be competing offers.

So, what do you do if there’s a competing offer on a home you really want?

First, don’t panic. Just because there are other buyers interested in the property doesn’t mean you won’t get it. There are many factors that influence a seller’s decision to choose one offer over another.

For example, sellers are generally skeptical of offers from buyers who do not have a pre-approved mortgage, or have not yet put their own home on the market.

Conditional offers based on these factors are often a red flag. Most sellers will readily accept an offer conditional on a satisfactory home inspection. However, if there are other more stringent conditions – such as an offer conditional on the buyer selling his own home for a particular price, or an offer conditional on arranging satisfactory financing – many sellers will be reluctant to accept the offer.

Deciding whether to stay in your current home or look for a new one is tough. So tough in fact, that there is a reality TV show about it!

If you’re struggling to make that decision, here are some tips that can help:

• Find out the current market value of your home. This will give you a clear idea of how much your property is likely to sell for in today’s market.
• Find out how much you can afford to invest in a new home. This is calculated, in part, by how much of a mortgage you qualify to receive.
• Determine whether your current home still suits your needs. Do you need to move up to a larger place? Downsize to a smaller property?
• Figure out whether this is the right time to move to an area that you’ve always dreamed of living in.
• Assess whether your community has changed in a way that you don’t like.
• Decide whether you are still happy where you live. Is it time for a change?

Imagine coming across a “Home for Sale” listing on the internet. It’s in a community you’re seriously considering. You and your family are excited. You can hardly wait to view the property and see if it could be your next dream home.

Then, there’s a problem.

When you contact the agent, she says the homeowners are busy people and won’t be able to show the house until next week. Even then, the only time available is at noon on Wednesday, when you’ll be miles away at work. How about viewing the property on Saturday? Forget it. The homeowners are having company over that day.

Chances are, you’ll lose interest long before you ever get a chance to see that property!

This may sound a little extreme, but it does illustrate an important point.

If you don’t make your home readily available for buyers to view, many simply won’t view it, and your property may not sell.

That doesn’t mean you have to be inconvenienced each day by a steady stream of buyers stomping through your property. However, you do need to be flexible.

When buyers become interested in your home – by seeing the listing online, for example, they want to view it as soon as possible. The longer they have to wait, the more likely it is that another property will capture their interest.

They may even make an offer on another home before they get a chance to see yours!

This is traditionally the time of year in which people set goals for the year ahead. But, unfortunately, most people who set goals – especially New Year’s resolutions – never achieve them.

How do you beat the odds? Here is the rundown of what the most popular experts advise.

Tony Robbins recommends that you, “Decide what you’re absolutely committed to achieving, take massive action, and notice what’s working or not. Then, keep changing your approach until you’ve achieved what you want.”

Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup For The Soul series, says, “Write your goals down in detail and read that list every day. Then ask yourself, what can I do today to move closer to achieving one of my goals?”

When you’re feeling discouraged, motivational guru Zig Ziglar provides this simple truth: “You do everything better when you’re thinking positively than when you’re thinking negatively.”

And, although most are not superstar authors, social scientists who study goal achievement recommend that you focus on no more than five goals at a time, and mix performance goals such as “Lose 10 pounds” with learning goals such as “Learn how to cook five new nutritious meals.”

So, set a goal and achieve it. This is your year!

When you purchase a new home, the most exciting day is closing day. That’s the day you take possession of the property and, in most cases, move in. But the process isn’t necessarily over. There are still some important details to take care of in the weeks and months after the move.

For example, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re getting all your mail. Ideally, you will have made arrangements with the post office prior to your move to have your mail redirected to your new address. However, that service will eventually expire. Here’s a tip: Introduce yourself to the new owners of your old property. Ask them if they wouldn’t mind holding any of your mail that has been inadvertently delivered to them and you’ll make arrangements to stop by periodically to pick it up. Chances are, they won’t mind.

Also in the weeks after the move, you should take care of any repairs or other maintenance issues that were identified before you purchased the home. In the busy days leading up to moving day and in the excitement of settling in, these issues are easy to forget. You don’t want them to become bigger issues later on.

When you’re buying or selling a home, there are so many details to look after that it’s easy to miss something. One thing you don’t want to forget is insurance.

Once your property has sold, you’ll need to contact your insurance company to let them know the date that ownership of your property will be transferred (the “closing date”). They’ll arrange to cancel your insurance once you’re no longer the owner of that property.

If you’ll be taking possession of your new home, and leaving your current property vacant for a period of time, you’ll need to make sure both properties are insured. This may also apply to a condominium even if the unit is completely empty. (Contact your insurance company to ask about continuing liability coverage while discontinuing the insurance on contents.)

When you purchase a new home, don’t leave the insurance to the last minute. Contact your insurance company right away. Make sure they are aware of all the features of the new home that may reduce your premiums, such as alarms, and wired-in smoke detectors.