8 tips to sell your home fast

1. Hire a top-notch sales agent.
"You need a good agent, an agent who knows your neighborhood"

2. Price it right.
The No. 1 thing that will sell a house quickly is price. "If you price it right, it will sell. If you price it wrong, it won't sell."

3. Create an adjustable sales plan.
Come up with a sales strategy, but make sure it's flexible. What's your initial asking price? How long will you insist on it before making a reduction? How much of a cut will you accept? What about after that?

4. Clear out the clutter.
"Get the clutter out of it," ." It will make your home more inviting to buyers. "After you thought you got out the clutter, take out more. Get it spare, open and fresh."

5. Offer incentives.
Incentives can help shorten the sales cycle, but be careful. Agents are divided on how much they help.

"I think it can be a fine line between wanting to sell a house quickly and having it look like it's a fire sale," Greenwood says. If prospective buyers get the idea that you're desperate to sell, they will try to get you to accept a bargain-basement price.

Roulac, however, believes that adding premiums can help speed a house sale. A popular incentive offered purchasers is closing-cost help. You also can encourage your sales agent: Offer a higher commission for a speedy sale or give your broker show tickets, a meal at a fine restaurant or some other perk if the property moves quickly.

6. They buy houses, don't they?
What about those "cash for homes" ads you see on matchbook covers, billboards and late-night TV? Agents say houses sold this way are heavily discounted. You will sell your property quickly, but it will go cheap, probably at a price that really won't make you happy. "If it's too good of an offer to be true, it is too good of an offer," says Re/Max's Innes.

7. Ask for company help.
If you're relocating because of a job change or company transfer, you may be eligible for home-sale help from your employer or a relocation company representing your employer.

"An appraiser would appraise the property and the buyout would be for the suggested fair market value less a sales fee," he explains. "The company would then put the home on the market with a local real estate professional."

8. Rent it.
If time runs out and you've got to get out of Dodge without selling your home, consider renting it. Just be sure to strike a deal with the renters so your home will be available for showing. For example, if a home such as yours normally rents for $1,000 a month, offer a discount (say $750) in exchange for the renters making the house accessible for showings to potential buyers.

The downside of renting a house that you're trying to sell is that its condition probably won't be as pristine as you or buyers would like.  "Let people move in six months and pay rent and then close," he says.