How to sell your home on your own. FSBO
Are you selling your home For Sale By Owner (FSBO)?
You can do it and I’d like to give you some tips to get it done, It isn’t very difficult in this fast moving market where homes are snapped up as soon as they are put on the market. Most FSBOs, find that the hardest part is finding buyers. If and when they find one there is a lot that can possibly go wrong between the contract being accepted and the closing.
Selling a home can be very consuming. Here’s a place for you to find everything you need to know to sell your home on your own. If you decide that you need the services of an agent, give me a call! I would love to have your business and I won’t let you down.
I would love to have your business and I won’t let you down.
Here are tips on how to sell your home by owner:
How Much is a Your Home Worth?
Pricing a home right is part research, and part market timing, and a little strategy. Pricing your home correctly within the range of comparable home sales in the area should get you some immediate offers.
You can always ask an agent’s opinion of value or you can ask a title company to send you comparable home sales.
Make sure you aren’t lured into the seller’s biggest mistake and not price your home right. The first few weeks on the market are crucial to your success because that’s when the buyers’ interest levels are the highest.
Getting Your Home Ready to Sell as a For Sale By Owner
Your home needs to be clean and uncluttered with great curb appeal think “model home.”
Look at your home from through the eyes of a stranger. Get a friend to help look and see what your home might need.
Making repairs before you put your home on the market will ultimately improve your profit. Be careful not to spend so much money remodeling that you may never recoup it.
Home staging can make your home sell faster and for more money. If you don’t want to hire a home stager, think decluttering and even getting rid of most of your furniture. You may need a short-term storage unit.
Pets in the home can make things challenging. We all love our pet’s, but some will leave odors and they can be an issue when showing your home. Something to think about.
Marketing Your Home
Spend some of the money you will be saving by not hiring an agent on advertising.
Number 1. Hire a professional photographer, you only have one chance to make a great first impression. Have them create a virtual tour or video.
Consider drone photography if your property warrants it and advertise all the tour links in your marketing materials.
Today’s buyers are on the internet. Get your message to them by specific targeting. Facebook, Craigslist, and Google are where you want to be found. Create a Facebook page for your home and have all your friends share it.
Your first goal is to get your phone to ring and getting web traffic will make that happen. You’re not going to sell the home online, but getting the phone to ring will get buyers inside.
Be as flexible as possible with showings, and try and get buyer’s feedback.
Sales vary with the seasons, requiring different approaches. In most parts of the country, April through September is usually the best time to put your home on the market.
You may decide to offer a commission to selling agents in which case you may consider putting a lockbox on your house for easy access by agents when you are not home. Remember, most buyers have an agent.
Hold open houses, Saturdays work just as well as Sundays. Homes in high-traffic areas are great for open homes.
When a buyer expresses an interest in purchasing your home, the negotiations begin. You are in a unique position to negotiate directly with the buyer unless they are represented by a buyer’s agent. In that case, you will probably be negotiating the purchase contract with the buyer’s agent.
Purchase Contract For Sale by Owner Negotiation
You can offer to help the buyer write the purchase contract if a buyer is not represented by an agent.
Require the buyer to have a pre-approval letter from a lender to purchase your home.
Make sure they offer some earnest money to show they have a true interest in buying your home.
Have you considered where you are going to move to? You may want to ask the buyer for a contingent offer, that is subject to finding your replacement home. If you haven’t purchased a new home yet making your offer contingent on it is a way to guarantee you won’t be homeless.Give yourself sufficient time to find a new place to live
On the other hand, the buyer might make their offer contingent on the sale of their home. If you structure the deal correctly, you can always bump the buyer out of the deal or force the buyer to remove the contingency if a better offer comes along.
If the buyer’s offer is too low, you can always make a counteroffer, don’t just walk away. Some buyers just want to see how low you are willing to go..
If the buyer isn’t willing to pay your price, you may consider sweetening the deal by offering to buy-down their mortgage or offer to pay some of their closing costs.
What For Sale By Owners Should Know About Home Inspection Negotiation
When selling your home on your own, it may be a good idea to obtain your own home inspection before you put your house on the market. This allows you to know what it needs in repairs and you can fix it or otherwise address those items. You can also offer the buyer a copy of your home inspection report, which the buyer might accept instead of hiring their own inspector. If they are represented by a buyer’s agent, they will advise a buyer to have their own inspection, but unrepresented buyers may often just accept yours.
There will often be some more negotiating after a home inspection. The buyer may ask for repairs or cash discount in lieu of repairs.
The buyer may want to conduct a final walk-through inspection to ensure any repairs negotiated were completed.
Home Disclosures and Lead-Based Paint
State law required disclosures of material facts and a lead-based paint disclosure if the house was built prior to 1978.You must give the buyer a copy of all required disclosures and it’s smart to obtain the buyer’s signature as a receipt.
If you live in a planned unit development such as a condo or homeowners association you’ll need to furnish the buyer with a copy of the homeowner association rules and regulations. If there is a fee charged to produce these documents, it is generally negotiable as to which party pays it.Condo owners will also need to provide a “resale certificate” to the buyer.
It is common for the seller to provide a title insurance policy protecting the buyer, but this can be a negotiable expense between the parties.
It is a good idea to offer to pay for a home warranty plan for the buyer. This way, if something breaks or malfunctions, the buyer isn’t calling you to fix it or blaming you for the failure. If you’d like more information I have a book available to you about selling your home on your own, just give me a call and I’ll get you a
If you’d like more information I have a book available to you about selling your home on your own, just give me a call or fill out the form below, and I’ll get you a copy.