Sell Your House Fast in Sacramento with 8 Tips to Attract Remote Techies

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Sacramento is one of California’s fastest-growing cities and added more new residents than San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Jose in 2019. State and federal workers, tech and start-up employees, and chefs excited about America’s farm-to-fork capital flock to the state capital for its laid-back lifestyle and affordable homes.

As demand for homes increases, property prices continue to rise. According to the California Association of Realtors, the Sacramento median home price was $440,000 in October 2020, a significant year-over-year increase from $385,00 in 2019. If you’re looking to sell your house fast in Sacramento, you’ve chosen an opportune time to sell. Now all you need to do is play up your home’s best features to attract the city’s diverse buyer pool and secure a quick sale.

To bring you the inside scoop on how to sell your Sacramento home fast, we spoke with two local real estate experts: top real estate agent Afton Escalante who sells homes 57% faster than the average agent, and Ryan Lundquist, a licensed home appraiser and owner of Lundquist Appraisal Company. We’ll help you showcase your home’s best features, market your home to play up local trends, and tackle other pre-listing preparations to guarantee a lightning-quick offer.

Computers in a house for sale in Sacramento.
Source: (Ken Tomita / Pexels)

1. Stage a home office to attract remote workers

The number of remote workers increased exponentially in the Bay Area during the COVID-19 pandemic; tech employers like Twitter and Facebook have even offered employees the option to remain remote workers permanently. If you want to sell your home fast in Sacramento, stage a bonus room or spare bedroom as a home office to draw in work-from-home employees.

Start with some stylish essentials: a contemporary desk, a leather chair, and a geometric bookcase. Next, add a pop of color with a round rug and reading chair in the corner. Keep accessories to a minimum and store all office supplies and paperwork out of sight to prevent the room from looking cluttered.

 2. Play your home’s pool to your favor

Sacramento boasts 269 days of sunshine and summer temperatures soaring into the nineties. If your backyard sports a pool, play it up to encourage a fast sale.

“People are tending to buy larger homes, and they’re really favoring pools,” shares Lundquist, noting that buyers are prioritizing these features in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maintain a clean pool throughout the listing period. If your pool has a waterfall or other features, turn these on for the listing photos and home showings. Sweeten the scene and stage an entertaining area next to the pool with a pair of lounge chairs, a side table, and an umbrella.

3. Timing, timing, timing: List your home in April to sell fast

According to HomeLight’s Best Time to Sell calculator, homes sold in Sacramento in July sell seven days faster than the yearly average. This trend is consistent with most markets across the country, as buyers with children prefer to purchase a home in the late spring or summer to enroll in their new district before the start of the school year.  Since it generally takes three months from list to close, you should list your home in April to catch the peak selling season.

Curb appeal in front of a house for sale in Sacramento.
Source: (Matt Walla / Unsplash)

4. Nail the ideal Sacramento curb appeal

If you want to sell your house fast, pay special attention to your home’s curb appeal. In HomeLight’s recent Top Agent Insights Report, 76% of agents agree that curb appeal is the number one thing a seller can do to boost their home’s appeal.

“You can make such a huge impact with the quality of your home just by the way that it looks,” says Escalante. “When people walk up that’s the first thing that they really see.”

Hire a professional landscaper for an average of cost of $1,541, or tackle the yard DIY-style. For a beautiful, low-maintenance landscape, plant native flowers and shrubs that require minimal watering — perfect for Sacramento’s drought-prone climate. Add a “pop” of color with Bush California Fuchsia and Penstemon Margarita BOP. Add clusters of rocks in the garden to complete the look.

Escalante advises sellers to pay attention to their home’s exterior face, as well. Pressure wash your home’s siding, driveway, walkway, and entry area. Once you’ve cleaned up the exterior, make your entry pop by applying a fresh coat of paint to the front door. For a pop of color, paint the door a blue shade like Benjamin-Moore’s New York State of Mind or PPG’s High Dive. If you prefer a classic aesthetic, you can’t go wrong with black paint like Pitch Black by Farrow & Ball.

5. Replace old carpet with laminate or hardwood flooring

For an instant interior update, replace worn carpet with laminate or hardwood flooring. Lundquist shares that buyers looking for houses for sale in Sacramento prefer gray or brown tone hard flooring in the common areas, including the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Laminate flooring costs between $0.69 to $3.30 per square foot, while hardwood ranges between $2.35 to $10 per square foot. Tack on $7 to $11 per square foot for installation in Sacramento.

6. Partner with one of Sacramento’s top real estate agents

When your top priority is a fast home sale, you need an expert real estate agent by your side who can help you move through each process as efficiently as possible. Real estate agents manage hundreds of home sales a year and intimately understand what features influence local buyers to purchase homes. An agent can advise on what home improvements, staging, and repairs will add value to your home and get more buyers in the door. They’ll also help you pinpoint a competitive listing price, so your home sells fast, without compromising on sale price.

“Pricing wrong in Sacramento is the easiest way to sit on the market. “We can’t underestimate the value of proper pricing,” Lundquist comments.

But don’t just hire any agent — the top 3% of agents in Sacramento sell homes 82.5% faster than the average agent.  To find the best agent for your sale, plug your home’s details into HomeLight’s Agent Finder. Our system crunches transaction data to match you with three top agents based on stats like their average days on market, list to sale ratio, and client reviews.

Once you review your matches, set up brief phone interviews to go over each agents’ qualifications and to get a feel for their personalities. Hire the agent whose experience you trust  most and who you get along with. You’ll be in close communication throughout the selling process.

An air conditioning unit for a house for a sale in Sacramento.
Source: (John Royal / Shutterstock)

7. Speed through the inspection phase with this proactive plan

Home inspections are notorious snags in the home sale timeline. The report evaluates your home’s condition and points out necessary and upcoming repairs; you can expect your buyer to negotiate for you to complete these repairs or extend repair credits. To sell your house fast, conduct a pre-listing home inspection and tend to any repairs before a buyer is involved. Pay extra attention to the following issues common in houses for sale in Sacramento:

Foundation setting

Older homes in downtown Sacramento may suffer from foundational settling, which can be costly to prepare and delay the buyer’s move-in date while you reinforce the foundation. By hiring a foundation repair inspector, you can nip this problem in the bud.

Termite damage

Termites are common in California, including Sacramento, and can potentially scare off buyers, says Escalante, who guides buyers through a painless pest removal. First, start with a termite inspection. Then pay for their removal ($98 to $960, depending on the severity) if needed. Removal is typically a one-day job and protects your home for up to five years.

Air-conditioning system issues

Due to Sacramento’s soaring outdoor temperatures, a functioning air conditioner is non-negotiable for most buyers. An AC tune-up costs between $75 to $200 on average, while repairs cost $50 to $150 per hour.

8. Sweeten the deal with flood insurance

While the confluence of the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and American Rivers translates to kayaking or stand-up paddle-boarding in town, it also means most of the city is flood-prone. When your home is in a high-risk flood zone, you must disclose the details on the Natural Disaster Disclosure Report/Statement. If your buyer is on the fence about purchasing your home, you can offer to discount their flood insurance costs for a year as an incentive, either through credit at closing or adjusting the purchase price. This concession may be the tipping point for the buyer to move forward with the deal.

Header Image Source: (Nathan Guisande / Unsplash)