The prospect of a lengthy stint on the market is never a happy one. Whether you're selling your home to start the next chapter of your life, upgrade to a larger home, or just to get out of dodge, you probably don't want to spend months dealing with showings and waiting on a bed of nails for the offer to come in. If you're looking to sell your home quickly, your best bet may just be to market it toward landlords. Here's what you need to know about making your home attractive to real estate investors.

Make Sure the Price is Right

The bottom line for a real estate investor is whether he or she can make money on the investment. If you're looking for absolute tippy top dollar, marketing to real estate investors may not be for you. If, however, you're looking to get out from under a mortgage and make a quick sale, nothing is more attractive to an investor than a well priced home. That means when you're getting your home ready for market, don't spend a fortune on upgrades. High dollar upgrades make your home more attractive to residential buyers, but when an investor walks in and sees new granite counter tops they may just turn right back around. 

Don't Bother with Staging

You don't need to waste your time with fluffing pillows. You don't need to buy new knickknacks. You don't even necessarily need to make costly cosmetic repairs, like refinishing hardwood. A real estate investor is an expert at spotting diamonds in the rough. If your home has a great footprint, they don't need to see it rocking feng shui and modern gunmetal grey colors to know they can make money on it.

Make Your Advertising Dollars Stretch

Don't spend money advertising in the wrong place. Sure, the local newspaper might net you a candidate or two if you were marketing to residential buyers, but many real estate investors don't bother with local papers, and instead focus on the MLS, or multiple listing service, which is an online collection of all available properties advertised. Sites like Zillow and Trulia are part of the MLS. Most MLS sites are easily searchable and allow investors to filter by asking price, number of bedrooms, and square footage, which makes finding the right investment much easier and faster than sifting through the classifieds, so make sure your Realtor is listing your home on the MLS.

Do Some of Their Legwork

Real estate investors have often happened across many of the pitfalls that exist in real estate transactions. You can make your home attractive to investors by having done some of their due diligence for them. Dig out proof that the house has a clear title. Provide your Realtor with your mortgage documents so he or she can easily ascertain whether there are any problems with your mortgage and selling the house before the end term. If possible, fork out the money to have a professional inspection done, and provide proof that any problems reported by the inspector have been fixed. Having all those documents ready to go will make the sale go all the faster.

Marketing to real estate investors is very different from marketing to the general public. In some ways, it is less work for you, and can be a smoother process. Now is a great time to hook a landlord for home selling, since average rent prices are trending up all over the nation. Investing in real estate has become attractive to many people because of that trend. Are you ready to get your slice of that pie?

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