1. Your Market; knowing your market is probably the most
important aspect of preparing to sell your home. There are many different
markets in our country even though our nation’s housing market is struggling in
general. Some areas or neighborhoods are doing better than others and some are
doing quite well. We are in a recovery status as a nation, hopefully that is
reflective in your neighborhood.
2. Determined your home’s value; you can do this by running a report on homes sold in your area that are familiar to your own home over the past 3 to 6
months.
You can check listings in your area. You can check websites like Zillow.com and HouseValues.com for help in determining your value.
You can check listings in your area. You can check websites like Zillow.com and HouseValues.com for help in determining your value.
3. Timing; this goes back to knowing your
market and determining your value and knowing when is the best time to sell
because a few months can make a world of difference in a fast changing market. If
your area is declining, getting out quickly can be very important if you are to save any
equity, you may have to wait for a while in a recovering market to gain equity.
4. Having Professionals you can call on; Even
though you want to do this task alone or without a Realtor you will need other
professionals. Depending on your state you will need a Title/Escrow company
and/or an Attorney. You may also want to consider an attorney to help you with
your purchase contract or at the very least to review it before you and buyer enter
into it. Getting the forms you need ahead of time and knowing what they contain
is very important. You don’t want any surprises or questions when it comes time
to sign your contracts and forms. US
Legal Forms.com
5. Preparing your home; this step is skipped by
so many and is so important it should be at the top. We all have a tendency to
have blinders on when it comes to our own home. The clutter seems to build mysterious
without our knowledge. Well this is the time to take off the blinders even if
you have to hire someone to help you. Your home may need a professional stager.
But first clear out the junk, oh I mean clutter, if your livingroom looks like toys
r us blew up, box all the toys up or move them to your child’s room and try to
organize them neatly. Remove all personal photos from your walls and replace with artwork
instead. You don’t want your buyers getting distracted looking at your pictures
instead of your home. Then once you’ve
clear out the house now you have to KEEP IT CLEAN! Good Luck with that!
6. Qualified buyers; you want to make
sure you are showing your home to qualified buyers, make sure when someone
calls to make an appointment to see your home you ASK if they are qualified
with a lender. If they are not you should refer them to your mortgage
professional to get Pre-qualified so you know you are dealing with a qualified
buyer. If they are then ask them to bring their letter of prequalification or
fax it to you prior to meeting them. The
last thing you need to a bunch of looky lous wasting your time.
7. Advertising and Marketing; social
media is a great place to start, a website or landing page with lots of
pictures and videos of your home are all necessary. Using sites to market your
home is also an important tool here some sites to take a look at HouseBuyersNetwork and Owners.
8. Open House; now you are ready to open your
house to the public, advertising is in place, you’ve staged your home; you have
your contracts and forms in hand and understand them. Take the kids and dogs/cats to your parents
and show off your home. Hopefully you are a good negotiator and salesman/woman
you will need to be. Buyers are tough!
9. Be prepared for extra costs; with a contract
comes inspections if you haven’t done any yourself you may find added repairs
need to be completed before the sell of your home can close. To avoid the
unknown you could have these inspections done prior, just remember most buyers
will want to complete their own inspections. But if you have already done your own and any
repairs you will be confident in knowing you’ve completed the work needed.
10. When/IF all your efforts fail; don’t
get to discouraged when or if this happens, selling a home is not easy work. You
still have some options. At this point you could list it with a Flat Fee MLS
company but be prepare to pay a co-op fee to the selling agent. But this is still less expensive than listing
with a Realtor. But this way your home is listed on the MLS for all the Realtors to see and market. Your chance for a sell just increased.
I write this article for the FSBO
but my advice to you all is to find yourself a great Realtor because even
though you may save money by selling it yourself it would only take one law suit
to completely wipe you out or make your life a living hell. One mistake!
A great Realtor is worth their weight in
GOLD even at $1680 an ounce. Call one and if you don’t know one call me I’ll
help you find one in your area.
Thank you for stopping by my blog, please
leave a comment and let me know if this article was helpful or if you enjoyed
it.
If you are not already following my blog
please follow for future posts.
Roxy Redenbaugh
ACMC, Loan Consultant
Branch Manager
NMLS#269926
808-637-0011
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