So, you’ve decided to sell your home. Congratulations! Before you start playing with a mortgage calculator to see how much you can afford on your next home, you’ll want to know how to sell your current home fast. Ideally, you’re looking to list your home, generate interest quickly from potential buyers, and in a perfect world, a bidding war will ensue and you will get more than the asking price for your house. But before all of this can happen, you’re going to want to spend some time gathering a team of people who can help you along the way.

Whether you’re a first time or experienced seller, having a talented team of professionals on your side can mean the difference between a quick and stress-free selling experience and one that isn’t. So before you put your house on the market, here are seven key people you’ll want on your team to help sell your house fast.

  1. Real Estate Agent 

Selling a house can be a complex process. That’s why the first person you’ll want by your side is a real estate agent. The job of a listing agent is to guide you through the entire home selling process. This can include necessary house preparations and repairs, pricing the home correctly, setting up the staging, executing a strategy to promote your home, negotiating with the buyer, and closing on the home.

But to do all of this you don’t want just any agent – you need the right agent for you. So, how do you choose a real estate agent? Well, you’ll want to find someone who will super-serve you, sell your house fast, and for the most money. So it’s important that you do your research and read reviews to make sure you’re choosing the best person for this important role.

  1. Home Inspector 

It’s true that buyers are typically going to have a home inspection conducted before they agree to purchase the property, but what if you were to beat them to it? Hiring a home inspector to do a pre-listing home inspection is a proactive approach to getting your house ready to sell and it offers some advantages to sellers that you may not be aware of. With the pre-listing inspection, you can find out the exact condition of your property, what issues and repairs need to be addressed beforehand, fix them, and then focus on the next task of selling your home fast.

Also, knowing the condition of your home can be an asset during the negotiation phase. As you may already know, buyers often use their home inspection as a way of getting concessions from sellers, such as asking you to drop your list price. If you’ve already addressed these repairs, it is less likely that anything new will come up and impact your negotiation.

  1. House Cleaner

Having a home that is fresh, clean, and inviting for potential buyers is crucial when selling. If buyers are interested in your home, they’ll open closets, explore cabinets, and they might move furniture around. The difference between inspecting a sparkling clean house and a place that hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned can make or break a deal. That’s why your home needs to be spotless from top to bottom. Although you can clean your house by yourself, hiring a professional cleaning service might prove helpful during what is likely to be a very busy time for you. Also, professionals have experience with the thorough cleaning needed to sell a house. They will use high-quality products and equipment to deep clean your entire home – even the nooks and crannies that you didn’t know existed.

It’s also important to consider the timing of cleaning your home. You don’t want to wait to hire a professional cleaner after your home has been listed. It is something you should invest in before your home is on the market, so the listing photos can reflect your clean and decluttered home. You should also consider having your home cleaned regularly while it’s on the market. It could take some time to sell, and if you’re living in it during that time it may be extremely difficult to keep it in pristine condition.

  1. Home Stager

Staging is one of the most important parts of the selling process. Contrary to what many may think, home staging is about more than just preparing a house for sale. There’s an art and a science to staging a home that goes above and beyond simply cleaning and decluttering a space. Staging is about making the home look larger, brighter, cleaner, and more welcoming. It is about selling a lifestyle that buyers will experience if they own the home. In fact, research shows that 83% percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.

Professional stagers know exactly how to showcase a space using furnishings, color, artwork, and accessories. They are able to offer prospective buyers a glimpse into how each room can be utilized. When all is said and done, a home stager will be key in helping you transform your space to appeal to the greatest number of buyers, which can help sell your house fast.

  1. Real Estate Photographer

The key to successfully listing and selling your home quickly is the photos. Today, more than ever before, online browsing is a critical part of the home buying process. Buyers can tour your entire home without ever leaving their couch and if they aren’t sold on the images that they see online, they will move on. That’s why having professional real estate photos of your home is so important. You may think you can take some of these photos yourself, but research shows hiring a professional photographer can help homes sell faster and for more money. Just remember, the better you represent your house online, the faster it will sell.

In addition to traditional real estate photography, consider adding in aerial photography – which can show off your entire property, a scenic view, and the surrounding area. Maybe you’re selling a home with a large plot of land in Dallas, TX. An aerial shot can easily put into perspective the full scope your home has to offer.

  1. Painter

Painting your home before you sell it may sound like a hassle, but homebuyers may be turned off by your turquoise bathroom, or your teenager’s darkly colored bedroom. Hiring a professional painter to give the inside and/or the outside of your home a fresh look with neutral, bright colors will be more appealing to a wide range of homebuyers, both in-person and online. It may also help sell your house fast when your property is one of the nicer looking available homes on the market.

  1. Handyman

There will be few things more off-putting to a prospective homebuyer than touring a property with chips taken out of the walls, broken fixtures, or loose floorboards. So before listing your home, you’ll want to make sure you’ve made the necessary repairs and renovations. Sure, there will be projects you can easily complete yourself, but what if you don’t have the time with everything else going on or a repair project is over your head? That’s where a handyman comes in. A handyman, or handyman service, is a skilled jack-of-all-trades who can help you handle a wide range of repairs in your home.

Additionally, before you can sell your home, it will likely need to go through a home inspection. A professional home inspector will give you a home inspection report, which is usually a list of any issues needing attention. Handyman services can be extremely helpful for addressing problems on that list and making sure any repairs are done up to code.

Selling a home and navigating the housing market can be a stressful experience. But having the right people on your team during this journey – all working together to help sell your house fast – can make all the difference. So before you list your home, consider bringing these seven people onto your team as their advice, expertise, and guidance can help be invaluable during the selling process.

Originally published by Redfin