The value of a home doesn’t remain steady, even when the market does. The longer a home stays on the market, the more its price depreciates - with one study showing that your house could drop $6,000 in value after its first month listed. That’s why it’s important to hit the ground running and ensure that you have your house perfectly positioned for sale. Here’s what you can do to get your home sold faster.

1. Use a Flat Rate Multiple Listing Service

There are a staggering number of different online platforms for selling your home, but there are also local listing services that serve as the lifeblood of the local real estate market. A flat rate MLS will handle all of the listings for you, and they also often offer services and resources to optimize your home for sale. A few - like HomeLister - won’t even charge you until your home is sold.

1. Find the Ideal Price

You shouldn’t take the first lowball offer made on your home, but you should be realistic about what you can actually expect. Fortunately, those same listing services can serve as a barometer for what property in your area is worth. Seriously evaluate the appeal of your home, and compare it to other houses on the market. If you’re looking to sell your home fast, pricing your home a little lower than the average can really draw in buyers. Just be cautious about listing your home too high above the average, or you may find yourself getting filtered out of the search results for a majority of potential buyers.

1. Know When to Drop the Price

Figuring out when to budge on your price is one of the most nerve-wracking choices when selling a home, but that’s why it’s important to come in with a plan. Set a deadline for reevaluating your price along with an estimate of how much you might lower it. Treat the former as an absolute, but be flexible with the latter. Depending on the responses you see hosting tours of your home, you may want to adjust your initial estimate one way or the other.

1. Be Strategic With Maintenance

Curb appeal is important to get prospective buyers into the home, and no one’s going to want to invest in a house that has a leaky roof. At the same time, you don’t want to sink so much money into maintenance and repairs that you end up with a loss on your sale. Prioritize the most important issues, and then put your attention into the kitchen and the lawn. The latter will help establish a good first impression, while the former can offer one of the best ways to improve the value of your entire home while minimizing your cost.

1. Be Responsive

Just because you’re a private seller doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be as professional as a real estate agent. MLS services like HomeLister offer dedicated scheduling and messaging apps along with tools for hosting virtual tours. Explore every avenue possible, and be sure to accommodate both private visits and open houses. Open houses can draw in a lot of people at once, but private tours allow you to make your pitch more personal and directly address the interests and concerns of a prospective buyer.

1. Use Your Network

There’s one thing that can dramatically decrease the time between first listing your home and putting it up for sale: selling it to someone you know. Don’t be afraid to use social media and real-world connections to reach out - and encourage the people you know to signal boost your listing. If you’re wondering “How do I sell my home?” the answer is this: with a lot of hard work. But the tips above can give you the guidance you need to make the process as smooth as possible.