A successful home selling experience is not a guarantee. However, if you prepare for the house selling journey, you may be better equipped than others to reap the benefits of a quick, profitable home selling experience.

Now, let's take a look at three tips so you can set yourself up to succeed during the house selling journey.

1. Identify Your Home's Strengths and Weaknesses

Your home has served you well for many years, yet your residence still has flaws. Fortunately, if you allocate time and resources to identify your house's strengths and weaknesses, you may find ways to improve your residence before you list it.

Consider the buyer's perspective – you'll be glad you did. If you take an objective view of your residence, you may be able to identify assorted home problems and correct them right away.

Also, it may be beneficial to conduct a house inspection. Following an inspection, you'll receive a report that outlines any underlying problems with your house. You then can use this report to prioritize home repairs and upgrades.

2. Establish a Competitive Initial Asking Price

As a home seller, it is important to do everything you can to establish a competitive initial asking price for your residence. Thanks to a home appraisal, you can gain the insights you need to price your house appropriately.

During a home appraisal, a property expert will evaluate your home and various real estate market data. Next, this property expert will provide you with a property valuation. With this property valuation in hand, you can set an aggressive initial asking price for your house.

Maintain flexibility with your home price, too. And remember, if you upgrade your home before you list it, you may be able to receive multiple homebuying proposals at or above your residence's initial asking price.

3. Collaborate with a Real Estate Agent

For those who want a helping hand throughout the house selling journey, it may be a good idea to hire a real estate agent. Because if you have a real estate agent at your side, you can receive comprehensive support at each stage of the home selling journey.

A real estate agent is happy to teach you about all aspects of the house selling journey and ensure you can plan accordingly. He or she can help you identify your house's strengths and weaknesses, price your home appropriately and much more. Plus, once you list your residence, a real estate agent will set up home showings and open house events to promote your property. And if you receive an offer to purchase your house, a real estate agent will help you analyze this proposal and make an informed house selling decision.

If you want to take the guesswork out of selling your home, you should start preparing today. By taking advantage of the aforementioned tips, you can plan ahead for the house selling journey and set yourself up for a successful home selling experience.

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The market’s hot in your area and you want to sell your home, but your everyday life is busy. How do you find the time to prepare your home while still living there or plan a move and keep all the other plates spinning and balls juggling?

Prioritize, Plan, Put it in place
If you’ve lived in your current home for very long you may not be able to estimate how long it will take to get organized and ready. When fitting it in between everything else, you must prioritize so that you can focus on one thing at a time. In general, consider these five or six categories and the focus on just one: maintenance you can do, upgrades or repairs that require a professional, discards or trash, items to sell or give away, furniture and belongings to store, necessities to keep on hand.

Maintenance
You’ve been putting it off, but you know the gutters need cleaning or a couple cracked cover plates need replacing. These are items you can do yourself, you just need to make time to do them. Once you’ve made your list, take stock of supplies, tools, and parts you need. Plan a single trip to the hardware store on your way home from work to minimize time lost. Pick the easiest one, the one that you can do in a single evening. Do it right when you get home before other priorities interrupt you. Then on to the next one.

Upgrades or repairs
Some repairs—and many upgrades—are best when done by a professional. When your house needs to shine, a less than stellar repair job, uneven paint, or a visible patch could detract from your sale price. If you don’t know a qualified contractor for your needs, ask a family member, friend, or neighbor, or utilize one of the contractor's lists available online, or check with your local hardware store contractor’s desk for recommendations.

Discard
Let’s face facts, most of us keep far too much stuff. The first to go should be items that are no longer useful. Get all the trash out of your garage, attic, closets, and drawers. If it’s broken and not easily repairable, let it go. Contact your trash service to find out when the next bulk pickup day is or arrange for extra service. Having a date creates a deadline and may motivate you to do it quickly. Get the whole family on board to help.

Sell or give
Place items on Craig’s List, Offer Up, or Facebook Marketplace if you can. But remember, your time is a valuable commodity so taking the time to sell objects online or at a yard sale could have diminishing returns. If your neighborhood has a community sale date, box items up and set them aside for that one day. Otherwise, give your items to charity. Be sure to list all the items you give and get an acknowledgment receipt from the charity. The IRS has tables of fair-market value for well-cared-for and useful items, so pass the list along to your tax preparer.

Store
If you have extra furniture, collectibles, or seasonal items, it pays to put them in storage while your home is on the market. Cluttered and overfilled homes tend not to show as well as those with more streamlined furnishings.

Organize the necessities
What you can’t get rid of or store—those pesky necessities of life that keep your home operating smoothly—organize! That way, when your real estate professional calls, your home is ready to show at a moment’s notice.

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The process of selling your house may seem endless at times. Fortunately, there are many things that you can do to speed up your home selling timeline, and these are:

1. Conduct a House Inspection

Although a home inspection usually is requested by a buyer after a seller accepts an offer to purchase a house, you may want to conduct this evaluation before you list your residence. In fact, performing a home inspection now may help you identify assorted house problems that otherwise could slow you down later in the home selling process.

During a home inspection, a property expert will examine your residence both inside and out and offer an inspection report. Then, you can use the inspection report to prioritize various house improvement projects.

A home inspection ultimately gives you the insights you need to update your house to match buyers' expectations. As a result, a house inspection can help you quickly discover the best ways to improve your house and ensure you can reap the benefits of a fast, profitable home selling experience.

2. Analyze the Housing Market

The housing market fluctuates, and a market that favors buyers today may favor sellers tomorrow. Thankfully, a seller who performs a deep analysis of the housing market can differentiate between a buyer's and seller's market and prepare accordingly.

Take a look at the prices of available houses in your city or town that are similar to your own residence. This housing market information can help you understand the price range for comparable houses and enable you to establish a competitive initial home asking price.

Furthermore, check out the prices of recently sold homes in your area. This housing market data can help you determine whether you're about to enter a buyer's or seller's market.

3. Collaborate with a Real Estate Agent

You know you want to sell your house as quickly as possible, but there are many problems that you may encounter during the home selling journey. But if you hire a real estate agent, you can get the assistance you need to seamlessly navigate the home selling journey and optimize your home sale earnings.

A real estate agent will meet with you, learn about your home selling goals and offer a personalized home selling strategy. Plus, he or she will promote your residence to prospective buyers and set up home showings and open house events. And if you receive an offer to purchase your residence, a real estate agent will present this proposal to you and provide a recommendation about whether to accept, reject or counter it.

In addition, a real estate agent possesses comprehensive housing market expertise. If you have concerns or questions as you sell your house, a real estate agent can address them.

Don't wait to sell your house. Instead, reach out to a local real estate agent today, and you can receive the help you need to accelerate your home selling timeline.

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Moving groceries is not the most ideal of situations. You’re left worrying about spoilage, spillage and, let’s be honest, having another thing to move. Lighten your moving day load by planning ahead of time so that you have little to nothing left in your fridge and pantry to take with you.

To do this well it’s important to start at least a month before the move. Start by cleaning everything out - the pantry, your fridge and your freezer chest if you have one. Get rid of everything that is expired, stale or you just aren’t going to eat.

Take inventory of what’s left and categorize this list much like you would when creating your grocery list. So categories could be: meats/proteins, frozen vegetables, toaster/microwave items, desserts, dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, sauces, condiments, and snacks.

Next, it’s time to get creative and meal plan around these ingredients supplementing with items from the store occasionally as needed. The idea though is to do as little shopping and use up as much as you can with your meals for the month ahead. If you feel stumped on how to use what you have on hand utilize recipe websites that can pull recipes based on the ingredients you input into their system.  

Write down the meals you plan into your calendar or day planner. If you use an app for planning you can write down the recipe and set a reminder to it. Apps like Trello, Evernote and Asana are all free and perfect for this.

A few meal ideas:

Use ingredients to create items that are more stable, like baked goods, to take with you. Make homemade pizzas, soups, stews, salads, omelets and casseroles. The beauty of these types of dishes is the variety of ingredients you’re able to use in them. Be playful and make hybrid meals - spaghetti on pizza, taco omelets, a buffalo chicken rice bowl, french fries in a casserole (similar to hotdish, a Midwestern classic).

Hectic. Chaotic. Busy.

Moving week is many things, but there is one thing it is not - the time to cook elaborate or the creative dinners you’ve been eating throughout the month to use up items.

Plan this week well ahead of time, if not first, and make it all the easier by planning freezer meals you can just pull out and heat up.

Cooking items to keep out as you begin packing:

Salt and pepper

Cooking spray or oil

Spatula and a pan or two

A chef knife

A mixing bowl

Enough cutlery for everyone

Enough plates, cups, and bowls for everyone

Sponge and dish soap

By using up all your items as much as possible before the move you are creating the perfect opportunity to start over with your pantry. As you clean out items take note of what your tossing and steer clear of those when restocking or note to buy a smaller package to avoid future waste.

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