If you’re eager to buy a new home to take advantage of the current deals available on the market, you’re probably eager to sell your current home first. Easier said than done. TRUE?

Actually, it doesn’t have to be that difficult or painful. There will be some work involved, but isn’t it worth it to end up in a house you really want to live in at a bargain price? You have to sell your house first for this to happen, so just smile and bear it.

Whether you’re selling luxury real estate on Marco Island or condos in downtown Minneapolis, here’s how you can increase your chances of selling your home fast, just like we did.

1. Move 50-60% of your furniture and ALL of your clutter to storage

I know, this is a huge pain, but it works. It is just as difficult to sell a cluttered house as it is to sell a vacant house. You want to go with the look of the model home, or some reasonable approximation of it. Few, if any, family photos should be on the wall. Generic illustrations are best.

The other day my wife and I were choosing paints for the rooms in our new house and we commented that promotional photos near paint displays make every home look good. That’s because the consumer thinks he’s selling her a palette of paint, but he’s actually selling her a nicely furnished room. It is the same with your house. The buyer often thinks that he is objectively looking at the house itself, but too often he is only looking at a well-furnished room. Give that to them.

How do you do that with children? Well, we have seven of them, so if we can do it, you can do it. Keep the house relatively clean and create a to-do list so that when there’s a showing appointment you can quickly “get down to business” to tidy up the place.

2. Clear the premises for all exhibits.

I’ve seen houses where the seller is present, and it’s not a comfortable environment to soak up the features of the house. It’s distracting, and I never remember the details of the house when that happens. Face it: You are a distraction to potential buyers, and if you want to get an offer on your home FAST, you need to get rid of all distractions, including YOU. Period, no exceptions.

3. Use a full-service real estate agent, not a discount broker

I don’t say this because I like to pay 6%. I say this because a good agent really is worth 6%. It is the cost of doing business. The bottom line is that you need to have an agent who has some skin in the game to close the deal.

The house my wife and I bought was a short sale, and the loss mitigation specialist (also known as the bank’s short sale negotiator) for short sales is always paid by the hour. As a result, they have no skin in the game: they won’t gain anything if the deal goes through, and they won’t lose anything if the deal falls apart. There are a lot of things that can (and will) go wrong in a real estate transaction, and you need to have an agent there to see you through to the end, because that’s how they get paid.

4. Do not try to take out all the money you invest

Anyone who has an emotional attachment to the money they put into the house is probably not going to get their house sold in a down market. Why? Because unless you’ve owned your home for 30 years and have a lot of equity, you’re probably going to lose money on the sale. You should realize that you stand to earn more buying your next home at these affordable prices than you’ll save by waiting to “pay back” your investment. It will never happen.

5. Price your house below the competition

A corollary to the above advice is that you don’t want to price your home at or above the market price in a declining market. I realize that everyone is “hoping” there is a fund in place, but hope doesn’t sell a house. The price does.

A house in the neighborhood we just moved out of had been on the market for the five years we lived there. I never saw the inside of the house to see how it was holding up, but they did try to use a discount broker and constantly asked for at least $15,000 over what the market would currently bear. They followed the market down for five years, losing at least $90,000 in the process, about 40% of their peak value.

That’s a lot of money to lose. Don’t make that mistake. Price your home right the first time.

6. Be willing to lower your price if your original expectations are too high

When we listed our house, we found a comparable house that was almost equivalent to ours and priced it just below that. Two weeks later, we checked the prices of all the houses in the neighborhood and found that we were still overpriced by $10,000. That’s a lot of money, but if we hadn’t lowered our price, we’d still be there today. Instead, we are in the house of our dreams.

You can do the same. It gets more challenging if you’re underwater on your mortgage, but the same principles apply. You cannot change the market, it is best to face reality and take what the market offers you. Hopefully, your dream home awaits!