The decision to sell your home can be exhilarating, confusing, stressful, and depressing all at the same time. Selling it on your own can double that anxiety unless you have a plan. Help alleviate some of those reactions by doing your homework before you make the life-changing decision to move.
I spent over 26 years in the real estate industry and for much of that time I helped people sell their own homes with no commission even though I was a real estate agent. Of course, I expected them to flop and inevitably list their house with me on the MLS. That’s the first thing to expect, agents will call with ghost buyers. Give yourself time to find them yourself.
The funny thing about real estate is that it is the most expensive investment many people will make in their lifetime and everyone thinks they are experts in the field because they own a home. This overconfidence has humiliated many potential owners for sale.
Most people these days would like to at least try to save the high real estate fees associated with selling through a real estate agent. In fact, almost 25% of home sellers try to sell privately for at least a couple of weeks. Only 5% eventually sell their own houses; a surprisingly pathetic number actually.
It shouldn’t be that hard and it really isn’t. Not today with the power of online marketing. Gaining exposure for your home has never been easier or less expensive. Why pay a real estate agent to market your home when you can do exactly what they do from your home PC? Of course, real estate agents do more than market your home. They presumably pre-qualify prospects, show them the listing, and advertise on the MLS to other agents and brokers. Not to mention putting together the purchase offer and negotiating the result. WOW, that’s a lot of work, and yet you can do ALL of this yourself and save thousands of dollars in the process.
You need professional advice on the legality of your sale from your lawyer. You also need your home to look top-notch and organized so that it appeals to the masses. You can find information online for great ideas on how to improve the appearance of your home and make more profit from the sale as a result. Once again, after talking to your lawyer and mortgage lender for legal and mortgage details, everything else can be found virtually on the Internet for easy selling.
Let’s talk about marketing your home and attracting buyers. These days you definitely need to have an online presence as most people start their search here. Depending on the value of your home and assuming you’ve set your price, you’ll need to decide what your target market would be. If you are selling an affordable average size family home, then your prospect pool should be larger. This means local traffic from local advertising.
If you are not prepared to spend some money to sell privately, you should go to a real estate agent immediately. You’ll need a professionally done sign, newspaper advertising, some cosmetic home improvements (don’t go overboard) and you’ll need that all-important online exposure.
There are many websites that advertise homes privately, but you want to make sure you are targeting local viewers to your online listing. Make sure the website you list your home on has a local web portal for your area. This means that buyers are more likely to find your listing in search engines when someone enters Yourtown+homes+for+sale, their search results will be targeted to your local market, making it easier for them to find your listing. It’s even better if the website publisher takes the time to optimize their listing for search engines.
Good real estate websites are the ones that make it easy for you to introduce your home to quality buyers, provide information to help you with your sale, and offer you the ability to maintain your listing yourself. What an advantage it will be if you can keep your listing looking like new with new photos uploaded and the ability to add or remove certain bits of information, such as price changes and open houses!
Plan carefully, and when you think you’re ready to move on with your sale, take a close look at your plan of attack again. There is always something else to consider. As you prepare yourself and your home for sale, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to sell your home yourself.
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