How to Sell your Home without the use of a Real Estate Agent
By Mark J. Donovan
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Choosing to sell your home on your own is a tantalizing solution over using a real estate agent. You can save up to 6% on real estate commissions by selling your home on your own. For sale by owner has its own set of problems, however, so you need to do your homework upfront and be flexible.
Another concern to think about before attempting to sell your home on your own is dealing with strangers. Think long and hard about your willingness to invite strangers into your home and work with them. For some people this can be quite intimidating. Also keep in mind that letting strangers into your home can set you up for legal liabilities if in the event they get hurt while taking a look at your home. This issue is one of the main reasons most people choose to go with a real estate agent to sell their home. |
If you do sell your home on your own you’ll quickly see why real estate agents charge the commissions that they do. Selling a home is not an easy task and takes much more time, and money, than most people realize.
| For Sale by Owner Advice
Prior to putting a “For Sale by Owner” sign in your yard make sure you do your homework on local and state real estate laws first. In addition, read up on the best practices for selling your home on your own. I would highly suggest going to a few open houses on other homes listed on the market to see the techniques professional real estate agents use to lure home buyers to the property and to entice them into making offers. One of the most important things you can do to help sell your home is to neaten and clean it up before plunking the “For Sale by Owner” sign in your yard. |
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For example, make sure the outside of the yard is picked up of any children toys and messes and that the lawn is neatly mowed.
On the inside of the home de-clutter it. Remove excessive furniture and personal pictures. This enables prospective home buyers to better envision the home as their own when walking through the home. Also, if minor repairs or painting is required, do them prior to putting your house up for sale.
| Prior to putting your house on the market make sure to also enlist the services of an escrow agent and mortgage bank. They can help you with the information you’ll need to properly accept a deposit from a homebuyer and to help a buyer proceed with a mortgage. Also make sure to talk to a lawyer prior to listing your home so that you know how best to protect yourself and property while allowing strangers into your home. They can also generate a purchase and sales agreement for you.
Determining the Listing Price for Your Home Prior to putting the “For Sale by Owner” sign up you also need to do a market analysis to see what price you should list your house at. |
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Like professional real estate agents you’ll need to find out what houses that are similar to your home have sold in the past several months in your local area.
By comparing their list and sale prices, as well as the features of the homes, you should be able determine a fair list price for your own home.
| Keep in mind that if you list your home too high you’ll waste money on advertising. In addition, for many prospective home buyers you only get one shot to pitch them your house.
You may also want to have a real estate agent or two do an independent competitive analysis of your property. This way you can decide too if you really want to go down the path of attempting to sell your home on your own. |
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To attract potential home buyers you’re going to need to advertise your home in local newspapers and on the internet. Just placing a sign in your yard is not sufficient. Also make sure to place advertising fliers on store bulletin boards in your local area.
To conclude, selling your home on your own is not easy. It takes a lot of work and the right mind set to work with strangers and market your own home. If you are up for the challenge, however, you can save some sizeable amounts of money going this route in selling your own home.
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