1. Make the decision

The first step is to decide that you want to sell your house, obviously. It’s the starting point of the whole process, and it has a few decisions that flow from it, such as whether you want to use an agent or are selling privately, what price you are looking for, and whether to buy a new home before you sell, or wait until the sale goes through.

Before you decide on an asking price, do some research on the property market in your area. Manage your expectations – if the property market is in a slump, you will not get as high a price as you might at another time. Selling your home should always be your decision, and if you can’t realistically get the price you want for your home, you might be better off waiting until the market improves.

a. BE DECISIVE!

This is very important. Once you have decided that you are selling your home, you need to make clear decisions and stick to them. Every time you change your mind about something, like your asking price or the commission you are willing to pay, you set the process back immensely. If you want to sell your house quickly, make a decision and stick to it.

2. Fix it up

Houses in good repair sell more quickly and for higher prices, because prospective buyers don’t have to figure renovations or repairs into their offer. Make sure that your house is in a good condition before you put it on the market.

3. List it!

Once you’ve decided who is going to sell your home and how it is going to go, it’s time to draw up floor plans, take pictures, and write ads. Agents will usually help with the advertising part of the business, but there are things you can do as well, such as photographing and drawing the plans.

4. Show your home

Prospective buyers will want to see the house before they decide to buy. Usually the agent will arrange to show them the house, but it is up to you to make sure that the house leaves a favourable impression during the showing. A clean and neat home will always leave a better impression than one that is a mess.

5. Get your paperwork in order

Prepare your Vendor’s Statement or Section 32, as well as the Contract of Sale, ahead of time. If you have all the paperwork ready the sale can only go more smoothly. All the above are things that you personally can do to improve the chances of selling your home quickly. Doing these things may not guarantee you a sale, but they will definitely help!

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UncommonGoods’ homepage features a comprehensive gift finder that enable customers to find the ideal items for their family, loved ones, and friends quickly. Their array of options include Price, Department, Recipient, and Occasion categories, with each having subcategories (i.e. the occasion category enables shoppers to select from events, like baby showers, just because, and birthdays, just to name a few).

Another cool feature that shoppers will like about the website is its simple navigational interface. All tabs have a dropdown menu that enables shoppers to select from a particular category to locate the item they are searching for.

UncommonGoods also has a superb customer support; they offer numerous ways for customers to get in touch with someone from the company, including email, phone, and live chat (for shoppers who require answers right away). Their response time is quick, and their customer service reps are very knowledgeable. Moreover, the website ensures security when shopping, as well as offers several shipping methods to make sure you get your item on time, regardless of your location.

The following categories found on the UncommonGoods’ websites are as follows: Home and Garden, Dining and Entertaining, Office, Leisure, Jewelry and Accessories, For Her, For Him, For Kids, and Birthday. Some of the available items are:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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The website features cool categories, such as wear + carry (apparel, accessories, bags, kids, t-shirts, jewelry, etc.), space + place (furniture, lighting, décor, tabletop, toys, etc.), and paper + prints (art + books, journals, and cards + stationery). Visitors of the website can browse these categories or by designer, and with the excellent display of various thumbnails to each item, it is fast and easy to find something that will catch one’s interest.

Some of the items showcased by talented designers on Supermarket are:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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Silkfair has a deep focus on unique, handmade, and one-off items. The website has cool categories, such as personalized, eco-friendly, and vintage, and it offers a unique method to showcase your goods. You can build your own branded and personalized web store, known as a Custom Shop, where you can sell your products in, or you can choose to sell them in a Market Shop, a marketplace environment of sort.

It is also extremely user-friendly for sellers and buyers alike. Due to the website’s amazing content management system, buyers will more than likely spend copious amounts of time interacting with your shop and browsing through your product listings, while sellers will minimize time spent adding and managing goods. The website has some innovative and useful functionality as well, such as a color browser which enables buyers to look for products based on specific colors (this is great for business owners who are searching for merchandise that go well with the brand of their company and brides who are looking for products to complement their wedding motif) and a video app that sellers can utilize to showcase their merchandise in superb detail.

Setting up either a Market Shop or Custom Shop, as well as listing your items is free. The fee for the final sale is 3% of the price (this does not include shipping and handling or sales tax) of every item sold in either of the shop.

All sellers get a Market Shop that shows up in the Silkfair marketplace, and it is free, while the Custom Shop has a shop subscription fee of $24.99 per month; however, this opt-in feature in only optional and comes with a risk-free trial period.

Here are just some of the items that are available on Silkfair:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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The website has classified products into popular categories, such as Shop by Market, Shop All Cards, and Shop for Sale Items. It also has outstanding standard search functionality; just type in the phrase or keyword you are searching for and a thought bubble will appear, with thumbnails of products consistent with the search, even before you click on the search icon.

You can keep yourself updated with the latest sales and news by signing up to one of the 5 email newsletters of ShopHandmade – News, Sales, Promos, Stores, and Biggies.

ShopHandmade is absolutely free to join; meaning, as a seller, you can have your handmade products listed and sold without having to pay a commission or listing fee. This is made possible by sponsors. Rather than charging sellers a commission or listing fee, every page has a different online company sponsorship. In the future, there may be a change in this scheme, so it is recommended to grab the opportunity now while it is free. The only drawback, maybe due to the site being free, is that seller features are extremely restricted. Your shop can be customized by writing an interesting introduction for your shop, uploading a banner, and establishing a blog via ShopHandmade, but it has no shop analytics, leaving you with no way to monitor the most excellent keywords or phrase to incorporate in the text of your shop or track your shop’s visitors.

While based in WA, ShopHandmade has sellers from all over the world promoting handmade items in their website. Due to the sellers being diverse, the choices are also varied. You can find a lot of things here, from crocheted beanies to digital scrapbooking materials to handmade Christmas knick-knacks.

Here are some of the items sold on ShopHandmade:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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Working together with National Geographic, Novica offers a wide selection of more than 2,000 master artisans’ work from around the globe to give you a single location to purchase without having to travel. The website has an amazing collection of items that you simply won’t find anywhere else, and every piece for sale comes with its own story, as well as details about the country where it originated.

Novica allows buyers to find the ideal gift or hard-to-find item due to the website’s instinctive search functionality. As opposed to other websites being stressful to shop at because of the various unorganized options, Novica has truly wonderful categories and subcategories, enabling buyers to easily and quickly browse through the plethora of items for sale and find the right one. You can see the photos and descriptions of items listed on each page, including profiles of artists whom you will be purchasing the piece from. This feature provides buyers an exceptional shopping experience.

Novica Live is another cool feature of the website. It is an excellent resource if you want to become a consultant, host a party, or just learn more about the offerings of their artisans.

So, if you are searching for unique and handcrafted items, décor, gifts, etc., Novica is the online store to visit.

The categories listed on the website are Home Décor (with subcategories, such as area rugs, furniture, home décor, mirrors, vases, and many more), Jewelry and Apparel, Paintings, and Special Features (with subcategories, like Valentine’s Day gifts, gift cards, gifts for mom, gifts for dad, corporate gifts,  and wedding collection, just to name a few).

Some of the items being sold at the Novica website are:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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MadeItMyself has the ability to be a sort of a social networking site, since you can add family members and friends by typing in their email address, and then be informed when they buy an item or put up a handmade product for sale.

It has a comprehensive category list, and each segment is suitably populated; however, the actual inventories loses merits for just showing images in thumbnail sizes, which you need to click to make them bigger, making your browsing experience a bit more difficult than it should be. In addition, the search functionality is somewhat narrow. Even if you do a specific keyword search, the website will still generate the entire product lists, and although you can check out the various artisans, you cannot specifically browse by location, seller, or item color.

The selection at MadeItMyself is divided into more than thirty categories, which include accessories, around the house, art, bags and purses, bath and beauty, books, candles, ceramic and clay, clothing, dolls and miniatures, earth friendly, food, for babies, for pets, furniture, glass work, handmade supplies, holidays – seasonal, jewelry, kids creations, metal work, music, needlecraft, paper print products, photography, plants, quilts, supplies, this and that – misc, toys, weddings, and woodworking.

Some of the items currently available at MadeItMyself are:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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Visitors can browse the website for items by categories, by searching the “popular searches” section found on the homepage, and by using the search box. The homepage also showcase featured items and new arrivals.

The items’ pricing is based on the seller and can either be in Canadian or U.S. dollar; however, there isn’t a huge difference when it comes to the amount, but it would be a good idea to monitor the exchange rates.

With their tagline: “Creativity without boarders”, iCraft will surely have a place in the hearts of buyers who are fond of handmade merchandise. The website is also an excellent place to sell one-of-a-kind handicraft pieces to online shoppers without the need to shell out a substantial amount of business capital and exert a lot of effort, and aside from showcasing handmade items online, sellers can accept custom order requests as well.

To get set up, iCraft charges sellers $25 Canadian dollars, and after that, they can sell (for free) up to 5 pieces each month. Packages offered are starter, professional, and elite, with prices ranging between $5 and $150 Canadian dollars per month.

Some of the categories featured on iCraft include jewelry, clothing, bath and body, crafts, artwork, home décor, and toys and games.

Here are some of the ready-made items offered on the website:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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Established in 2008, Folksy deals with contemporary British craft goodies, and even introduces designers, hobbyists, and professionals to the general public, where they can showcase their works of art and allow their business to grow. Folksy claims to be a far superior host than expensive boutique stores and galleries and promotes handmade merchandise and small-scale production.

Apart from featuring categories for men, women, children, weddings, and others, the website has a special section as well – “Gifts under £25”, which is an excellent place to check out, particularly if you only have a limited budget, but still want to get something unique. If you are the type of person who likes to “buy” rather than “make”, then you can look around by category, by practices, like drawing embroidery, ceramics, etc., or by materials used.

The selling aspect is limited to the United Kingdom only, so it is excellent website for Anglophiles, though buyers from the U.S. may need to get in touch with sellers for shipping costs, since most item listings only specify UK postage costs. As for listings, each cost £0.20, and for each sale, there is a 5 percent commission.

The various items available include clothing and accessories, such as handbags, satchels, blouses, dresses, jackets, cardigans, shirts, shoes, hats, lingerie, items for babies and children, hair accessories, and many more; jewelry; homeware; art, such as drawing and illustration, paintings, sculptures and ceramics, etc.; cards and stationery; and a whole lot more.

Here are some photos of goodies offered by Folksy:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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Offering a blend of handcrafted items and vintage finds, DaWanda has a focus on shopping with not just options through keyword and standard category search, but also shop extensive newest trends lists, showcases, and exclusive features chosen by staff.

PayPal is an accepted mode of payment by majority of sellers, or buyers have the option to purchase DaWanda vouchers that can be utilized to buy products on the website.

The website’s features worthy of noting are the Facebook “Like” button, Twitter share options and the “Gift Detective” tab found on the lower left-hand side of the home page, which allows buyers to post a gift question for sellers and other users of the site to answer.  Another cool feature of the websites is the “pinboard”, where users can make wish lists or themed collections.

DaWanda has a lot of items that can be purchase, including fashion items, like blouses and tunics, coats, dresses, jackets and outerwear, etc.; accessories; bags; jewelry; items for men; baby and children’s items; paper and stationery; home and living items; art, such as drawings, illustration, prints, sculptures, mixed media, and more; supplies, like art supplies, crafting fabric, beads and gemstones, cooking supplies, carpentry supplies, etc., vintage items; and items for occasions and celebrations.

Here are some of the cool and cute items that can be found on the website:

Vanessa Ravenswood is a home furnishing / interior décor fanatic and online shopaholic! She is at her happiest when she is surrounded by creative, colorful and inspirational products (works of art!), well that, a comfortable couch and her 6 month old bischon fries. No matter where you are in the world, you she is a strong believer everyone needs a place to decorate and relax. Visit my Google + Profile

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