So you want to put your
home up for sale by owner or FSBO for short. Employing a full service
agent can be costly, but so can selling your home by yourself. It is possible to sell your house by owner to
save a bit of money, but it is important to be aware of the costs of your new
venture. It is costly to put a home on
the market. Marketing costs, hiring a
real estate attorney, preparing the home, and showing your house all add up
quickly! Mistakes and overlooked steps in the selling process can cost money, thousands
more than it would cost to hire an agent.
There are options besides hiring full time
Realtor. Instead of hiring a full cost agent, there
are discount brokers out there who work for lower commission rates than most
realtors. Another option is to use a
listing service to post your home on the MLS, multiple listing service, which
is the primary database used by Realtors to search homes for sale in the area. There are multiple web sites as well where
you can list your house for a flat fee. FSBO.com
is a good place to start, but there are several which a simple internet search
will display.
Set a realistic price! When
buyers see a sign in the yard of a house for sale by owner, often they do not
know what they are going to find. Is this
home going to be drastically higher than the comparable homes in the area, or is
this home the “golden opportunity home,” listed far less than it is worth. Unfortunately, many people do not research
comparable homes selling prices, and after calling on several homes which are
for sale by owner, buyers get discouraged.
I worked with one buyer who refused to waste her time on any homes for
sale by their owner because the first handful she called on were outrageously priced
Look at your county assessor’s
web site for comp prices by your home and research the prices of other homes
for sale in your area using Zillow.com, Trulia.com or Realtor.com.
Get some help.
Hire a real estate attorney! Save yourself a lot of agonizing over
documents trying to figure out what to do.
Additionally, let them ensure everything is in order and accurate. This will save you costly mistakes and a lot
of time.
Selling a
home is a full time job. To sell your home quickly, there is a lot of work
which needs to be done. Fortunately, the
internet ends a lot of the legwork with the touch of a few buttons. It is also a good idea to put your home on
craigslist.com and even ebay.com.
Additionally, you will need
to put up a sign with flyers of professional photographs and enticing
descriptions. When describing your home
in the ads and on the flyers, be brief and to-the-point. Browse through ads in the paper and find the
ones which stand out to you. What grabs
your attention, and makes you want to view their home? Now, just write a similar styled description
of your own homes features.
Be careful of what lurks in the shadows.
Unfortunately, not all the people you encounter will be courteous and
pleasurable to work with. One way to
weed out any undesirable inquiries is to get the phone number of the interested
party. Invent a reason to contact them
to be certain the number is a working number.
Screening will also be necessary to determine who can actually afford
the home. Many people just start
shopping for a home with no information on what they can afford.
There are a lot of
questions to ask yourself when deciding if you want to go the, for sale by
owner, fsbo, route. Educate yourself on
the process and experiences of others, and you might find it is not worth the
hassle. Are you going to be saving
enough money to account for all the time and effort it takes?