For sellers

1. Price it right

Perhaps the most crucial rule for getting your home sold quickly is being realistic about what today's market will bear. "You have to sell the house three times," says Sven Andersen of RE/Max Leading Edge in Winchester. "First to the brokerage community, then to the buyers, and finally to the appraiser. Each of them has to believe in your price, or it can kill the deal." Listing too high, realtors agree, can hurt your chances of selling at all. "If you overprice, and your home stays on the market too long," notes Elisee LaBrecque of Coldwell Banker in Cambridge, "you usually end up selling for less than the house is worth, because now buyers perceive there's something wrong with it. But when they first see it and it's priced right, people say, 'What would it take to get this house?'"
1. Price it right Perhaps the most crucial rule for getting your home sold quickly is being realistic about what today's market will bear. 'You have to sell the house three times,' says Sven Andersen of RE/Max Leading Edge in Winchester. 'First to the brokerage community, then to the buyers, and finally to the appraiser. Each of them has to believe in your price, or it can kill the deal.' Listing too high, realtors agree, can hurt your chances of selling at all. 'If you overprice, and your home stays on the market too long,' notes Elisee LaBrecque of Coldwell Banker in Cambridge, 'you usually end up selling for less than the house is worth, because now buyers perceive there's something wrong with it. But when they first see it and it's priced right, people say, 'What would it take to get this house?''