There are two ways to sell your home, listing with a broker who charges an average 5%-7% commission is one way, while the “FOR SALE BY OWNER” is the other way, the latter has proven to save thousands of dollars, but the one question that comes to the seller’s mind is: Am I scarifying valuable services that a broker offers to save the commission money?
With today’s technology and a lot of social media platforms, selling and marketing homes has become easier and most cost effective, the most important key for marketing a house is to list the property on your local MLS to be seen by thousands of potential buyers, in order to do so, you need a licensed broker to get you listed on the MLS, and this is where the flat fee brokers play their important role as they will list your home on the MLS for a minimal fee, and you save thousands of dollars on commission.
What is the process of selling your home by owner?
Selling your home yourself is a challenge for some people, in order to be up to that challenge, you need to be familiarized with the process. The following are steps that you need to take when selling your home
1-Determine the price
Homes will sell at market value or less, it is not recommended to overprice your home and have it sit in the market for long time, that will be a negative impact on your asset in two ways; one is that it helps sell similar homes faster, and thus your house loses market interest and qualified buyers, and second you will face appraisal and financing problems that might lead to taking your house off and then putting it back on the market.
To reach the right price for your house, you can either look at comparable sold homes in your neighborhood during the last three months, or more predictably get a professional and educated competitive market analysis from a licensed broker or may be getting an appraisal done.
2-Prepare the home for sale
The first impression is very important when selling your home, so you need to make it a good one. The best way to ensure that great first impression is to do a walkthrough with the eyes of a buyer, and make a checklist of some small DIY projects you need to consider before putting your home on the market that will leave a huge impact on the buyer’s decision, curb appeal, fresh painting, fixing window’s screens, make sure doors locks properly, declutter the entire home to show spaces, leaking faucets ..etc to name few.
3-Marketing
The key here is to have your home be seen by as much buyers as possible, the first and foremost tool that you do not want to miss is listing on the local MLS. The MLS is an essential marketing tool that will capture a lot of traffic. Once your home goes active on the MLS the listing will be syndicated automatically to hundreds of real estate websites that catch a lot of traffic such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com to name few. Other marketing tools you might want to consider
- Yard sign
- Brochures
- Social media
- Open houses
- Community newsletter
4-Negotiation
Likely you will receive an offer presented by the buyer’s agents who are looking for their buyer’s best interest, so you need to have a bit of negotiating skills when offer comes with different terms than what you have anticipated. Sometimes it will make much more sense when you consult or use a broker facilitation services for a small fee the broker who is trained and has strong negotiating skills will put you in a better off position, saving the transaction and get the best dollar amount out of your home.
Check out our Facilitation services
5-Closing
This is the last destination of your journey, once you reach an agreement with a buyer and you have an executed purchase agreement, you need to follow up on few things to ensure a smooth transaction.
- Buyer’s home inspection if any to remove the inspection contingency.
- Buyer’s lender to make sure appraisal order placed on a timely matter.
- Appraiser to make sure appraisal value came at or above offering price.
- Find a title company or closing agency to line up the file with to close your side of transaction.
All need to be done in a timely matter to ensure closing on time.
Now Are you ready to sell your home? Do you want to take control of your assets? Do you want to save thousands of dollars selling your home? If your answers are yes, please visit our website at www.realestatecorners.com to explore our for sale by owner package or our discounted flat fee full service. If you have any questions or need to learn more, please give us a call at (612) 483-1230
