How to Sell Your Home Yourself: A Short Guide
Selling your home is something that you will have to do perhaps only a few times in your life. And unless you know a local realtor who sells your home for free or on commission at a deep discount … it can be a real headache and costly process for you too.
So … you came to this page on “How To Sell Your Home On Your Own” for a few reasons I guess …
- You have little or no equity in your home, so you cannot afford a real estate agent’s commissions.
- You have equity, but you want to try to save money by selling the house yourself before hiring an agent.
- You’re in foreclosure (or on your way there) and you just need to sell fast without incurring thousands in broker commissions
- You can’t wait for the months and months it sometimes takes to sell a home in your area, so you want to try to sell it faster.
Wherever you land … there are ways to sell your home yourself on your local real estate market.
Since 2013, the housing sector has seen a significant recovery. Selling your home right now will definitely pay off if you do it right. In most cases, it’s about using smart marketing strategies and being realistic about your expectations of what you want to accomplish with this sale.
This article will provide you with some guidelines to help you sell your home yourself.
How to sell your house yourself: let’s dig deeper
Know the real estate market well
The first and most important step is to conduct market research in your neighborhood. This step involves visiting various home marketing sites (Zillow, Eppraisal, Redfin, etc.), calling a real estate agent or two to see how much your home is worth, or reading up on the various pricing techniques on the market. Proper homework on these topics will allow you to come up with an appropriate price for your home and will also help you avoid making certain sales mistakes.
If you don’t want to bother trying to find the value of a home yourself… contact a local cash home buyer. They will be able to give you a fair and honest appraisal of what your home is worth in its current condition. And most cash home buyers can make you a fair cash offer on your home within 24 hours, giving you the option to sell quickly (most cash home buyers can close in 14 days).
Assess the market
This step is almost similar to conducting market research, only in this case, it is tied to your neighborhood and similar homes. Are there many houses for sale in your neighborhood? If so, what is the average for which they are trading? Are there many foreclosures in your neighborhood? That can lower the price of your home.
Evaluate the house
As a seller, your home must be in top condition or fit to sell at a good price. Identify certain unique characteristics in this regard and emphasize them during marketing. For example, a home with garage parking may be more attractive to buyers compared to one with driveway parking.
Also, does your house require repairs? Does it need to be repainted inside or out? How is the state of the roof? Is the landscape in good condition? Is the house out of date at all? (You know, those popcorn roofs. All of these things can make the house more attractive or less attractive depending on the buyer … which changes the price they are willing to pay.
After all this … come up with a fair selling price for your house … it’s not that high, it will take you 12 months to sell the house … but it’s attractive, so you get a frenzy of buyers who are ready to buy. buy it quickly.
Use photos or videos
Buyers are obsessed with the media. Taking home tour videos and using the videos to advertise will allow you to reach a wider market. In fact, these videos are considered more transparent than taking photos. However, this shouldn’t stop you from using the latter option as it is more affordable compared to video.
So take some great photos. Take a picture of every room in the house to help show it off. Take a photo of the house from the outside at a few different angles … people want to see the house before they get to see it. So having great pictures of your home online could be the difference between getting the right buyer quickly … and waiting months and months to sell.
Get Your Home “Featured” on the Local MLS and Market It
You can find real estate brokers with low or no fees these days who will charge you a few hundred dollars to list your home on the local MLS. This puts your home in front of all real estate agents quickly (so be prepared to pay those “buyer” agents a 2-3% buyer broker fee if you plan on enlisting their support in helping you find a buyer.
Post ads in the local newspaper, sign on the roads, and host an open house.
Does this all sound like a lot of work to sell your home yourself?
Can be.
And in the end, many homeowners think they are saving money and time promoting the home themselves … when in the end it costs them more money to go that route.
When selling your own home, here are some things to consider …
- If you are not a good marketer or are not ready to spend a lot of time marketing your home properly … selling it yourself may not be your best option.
- If you don’t do a good job preparing the home and marketing materials … and working with buyers to really build the value of your home in their minds … you can actually sell the home for 3-8% less than you can get for the same house that an experienced person will market the house for you
- Too many sellers never think about maintenance costs or opportunity costs … every month that their home doesn’t sell means another mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. If your mortgage payment is $ 1,500 / month … and $ 1,300 of that is interest … if it takes you 7 months to sell your home … that costs you an additional $ 9,100 (not to mention the taxes and insurance that paid during that time). So if you could sell that house more quickly … would it make sense for you to give a buyer a discounted price today so they can close quickly and move on? Something to think about.
A local cash home buying company can offer you a quick offer at a fair price.