Sell Your Home — Fast

IN THIS SLUGGISH HOUSING MARKET, selling your home in a matter of weeks rather than months is a serious success story. Long gone are the days when you could simply stuff a sign into your front lawn and soon get offers for your house. Nope, today you need to work for it. Here are four tips:

1. Hire a Home Stager
A well-decorated home will sell faster and for more money than one that looks frumpy. That's why more sellers are hiring home stagers to do everything from rearrange furniture and paint walls a neutral color to rent artwork. This service can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a small job to several thousand dollars for high-end properties, says Patricia Dugan, a realtor with The Corcoran Group.

And keep in mind, a lovely décor will get you only so far. To really get buyers champing at the bit, you need to highlight your home's storage space as well. That means everything should be clean and organized — closets, bathroom vanities, the garage and basement. It might sound trivial, but your home's sale really could rest on whether your linen closets can comfortably store your towels.

2. Hire a Photographer
Up to 80% of home buyers start their search online, according to the National Association of Realtors. Indeed, the Web has become such an important marketing tool that all the realtors we spoke with encourage their clients to hire a professional photographer, which can cost as little as $100, for their online snapshots. Think of it this way: If someone doesn't like how your home looks on the Web, he or she won't bother to make an appointment to see the property in person. Is that a risk you're willing to take?

While putting photographs online isn't exactly new, there are some emerging trends. Several years ago it was OK to have one outside shot of the house, says Tara Rogers, director of marketing for Real Living, a Columbus, Ohio-based real-estate firm. Now, some potential buyers want to see up to a 10-picture slideshow detailing multiple rooms before they commit to a walk-through, she says. Post small, grainy pictures, and you risk having little foot traffic in your home.

3. Try Marketing Gimmicks
With housing prices flat across much of the country, now is the time to sweeten the pot a little with added incentives. Rather than slash the asking price, a condo owner could offer to pay the maintenance fees for a full year, or ask home owners to provide buyers with a cash rebate that's marketed as a decorating allowance. Nine times out of 10, such gimmicks cost less than it would to drop the asking price enough to attract a buyer with a smaller budget, says Nelson Zide, co-owner of ERA Key Realty Services, a Framingham, Mass.-based real-estate brokerage.

4. Hold Open Houses
The benefits of an open house are debatable. Industry experts agree that they tend to benefit realtors more than home owners. (After all, it's a great way for realtors to get new clients.) But that doesn't mean that they can't work. The key is to hold them at various times of the day and week so that folks with busy schedules can squeeze in a viewing. Real Living's Rogers says her company's agents make sure to schedule open houses on Saturdays, as well as in the evenings so people can stop by after work.

Another technique more people are implementing is to hold open houses at the time of day when their house shows the best. If you have a beautiful garden, show it off during the morning before the flowers start to wilt. If you have a stunning view of the sunset, make sure people get to see the late-afternoon light. In other words, if there's one thing that you love most about your home, be sure to share it with potential buyers.