So, you’re ready to list your house for sale and move on to the next chapter of your life. Show
There’s just one problem: You really, really don’t want to fork over 3% of the sales price — the customary seller’s agent commission — to the professional who helps with the sale. In fact, you’re pretty sure you don’t need professional help at all. You’ve got this. That may well be the case. With all due respect to real estate professionals, selling a house is not rocket science. But it does take work, from setting a realistic price and preparing the home for sale to setting up showings, fielding and negotiating offers, and making sure everything is in order for a smooth close. You can do this all yourself. If you’re successful, you’ll almost certainly save money doing it. But you will need to stay organized and keep your eyes on the prize: a successful and, hopefully, profitable sale. Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations have an average return of 397%. For $79 (or just $1.52 per week), join more than 1 million members and don't miss their upcoming stock picks. 30 day money-back guarantee. Sign Up Now How to Sell Your House Without a Real Estate Agent — Process and CostsIn roughly sequential order, here is what you’ll need to do to shepherd your FSBO home from pre-listing prep to closing day — and roughly how much you can expect it to cost. 1. Get Your Home ReadyStart to prepare your house for sale well before you list it. Begin with a thorough decluttering campaign. The goal is to make it easier for potential buyers to envision themselves in your home, rather than seeing signs of your personality everywhere. Remove anything that contributes to the home’s lived-in feel, such as family photographs. Hide these personal items away in locked closets, storage areas, the garage, or an off-site storage unit. Take the opportunity to sell or give away possessions you no longer need; use eBay, Amazon, Craigslist or an old-fashioned garage sale to offload them quickly. Next, scrub the place till it shines. If you’ve been reticent to spend the money on professional home cleaning up to this point, you might want to make an exception here. (Use a labor marketplace like Handy to find reasonably priced help; Thumbtack estimates the cost to clean a 2,000-square-foot home at $150 to $250.) Prospective buyers can tell the difference between a well-meaning amateur cleaning and a professional deep clean. Now, tap at least one objective source — at minimum, a friend who doesn’t mind offending you, but ideally, someone with real estate experience — to walk through the home with you and identify issues you might overlook. Common projects to tackle before listing include:
Unless you live in a condo, you can’t neglect the home’s exterior, either. If the exterior clearly needs work, such as a new paint job or driveway, address those issues first. Otherwise, your primary goal should be to accentuate your existing landscaping and appurtenances to enhance curb appeal. If you have a traditional lawn, a sprinkling of grass seed or sod application won’t hurt; for flower beds or xeriscapes, fresh mulch and gravel, respectively, should do the trick. 2. Research the Market and Set Your PriceNow it’s time to run an objective analysis of your local housing market and set your home’s list price. The key word here is “objective.” FSBO sellers all too often let emotion interfere with what should be an entirely rational exercise. Your love for your home has no bearing on its market value. Review recent sales of comparable homes in your area to get a sense of where you should price your home. Look for sale prices for homes with similar finished square footage, bedroom and bathroom count, and lot size. You can use the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s HPI calculator to refine your pricing, but don’t take its word as gospel. Don’t bother with a professional appraisal at this stage. You’ll spend $300 to $500 to confirm what you’ve already determined, and the buyer’s bank will send out its own appraiser during underwriting, anyway. With the results of your market research in hand, set a list price that reflects your objectives and time horizon. If you need to be out of the house as soon as possible, perhaps due to job relocation, price it to sell quickly. If you can afford to wait for the right buyer, set a higher list price. In hot sellers’ markets where homes routinely sell above asking price, a lower list price may trigger a bidding war that ends with your home selling for far more than it should. 3. Gather Information and Draft Your ListingNext, gather the information you’ll need to create your listing, including:
4. List Your Home on the MLSYou’re not required to list your home on the MLS, and many FSBO evangelists swear it’s not worth sellers’ time. But an MLS listing is the easiest and probably the most cost-effective way to gain serious exposure for your listing without using a professional broker — and, more importantly, to get your listing in front of buyers’ agents. Listing on the MLS isn’t exceedingly expensive. MLS packages from reputable FSBO service providers such as MLS My Home typically start at about $100 for six months, not including the buyer’s agent commission if there is any. 5. Advertise ElsewhereYour MLS listing — and a yard or sidewalk sign, which you can find for less than $20 online — shouldn’t be the end of your FSBO marketing campaign. Consider also advertising your home on some or all of these options:
6. Hold an Open HouseHold an open house soon after your home officially hits the market. To prepare for your big debut, visit a few open houses in the area, FSBO or otherwise, and take notes. Then, create a glossy sales sheet and make a few dozen copies. Plenty of sellers simply print their MLS or Zillow listings, but consider going the extra mile and adding more peripheral details about the home, such as its backstory, as well as neighborhood amenities, especially those that appeal to your home’s likely buyers — for example, parks and schools for families and nightlife for younger singles. Schedule your open house for a weekend late morning or early afternoon. The typical run time is two to three hours, but feel free to go longer if you want. Assuming your home is already cleaned, decluttered, and staged, your primary responsibility before the open house is spreading the word. Consider:
You need to be present and “on” for the duration of your open house. Dress professionally and devote your full attention to everyone who walks through the door, no matter how serious they seem about actually buying the place. Answer questions patiently and thoroughly. Remember, the goal of your open house is to give the market a positive first impression of your home, and you’re competing against professional agents who do this for a living. Act accordingly. 7. Show Your HomeOnce your open house is in the books, it’s open season for private showings. Buy a lockbox, which you can find for less than $15 at Amazon.com, to keep spare keys secure or install a numeric keypad lock on your front door; you can get a basic multi-code lock from Amazon.com for $50 or less. When buyers’ agents contact you, verify their identities by checking their license numbers against state records. In California, for instance, you’d check with the California Department of Real Estate. You’ll then work out showing times with each agent; evenings and weekends tend to be more convenient for buyers. Ideally, you’d be out of the house — or, at least, out of sight — during the showing because your presence may put off some prospects. Also, remember to keep your home spotless and clutter-free until it sells. 8. Be Prepared to Field and Negotiate OffersWhen you go FSBO, you commit to acting as your own agent. That means fielding and negotiating offers with buyers’ agents who negotiate real estate deals for a living. If that sounds daunting, brush up on these effective negotiation strategies. Above all else, keep two main truths in mind:
9. Retain a Title Company or Settlement AgentListing and marketing your home is straightforward enough to handle on your own, but you’ll need professional help to close the sale. Specifically, you’ll need an escrow agent to help facilitate the process. Depending on your state’s laws and customs, your escrow agent may be a title company representative or a real estate attorney. Use the American Land Title Association directory to find registered title companies or refer to your state’s real estate regulator for assistance. Your escrow agent will be your main point of contact for all closing paperwork and associated closing costs, which the buyer usually covers but which you may agree to split or assume to encourage the sale. In most cases, the buyer will be responsible for performing a title search on the home and underwriting its title insurance policy. 10. Complete the Requisite Legal Paperwork and Close the SaleA patchwork of state and federal laws govern real estate transactions in the United States. No matter where your home is located, you’ll be bound by federal statutes such as the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits sellers from discriminating against members of certain protected classes. Your state real estate regulator — for example, the California Department of Real Estate — is the controlling authority for state-specific legal issues. In most jurisdictions, buyers and sellers use a standard real estate sales contract; FindLaw has a detailed description of what that contract should include. Even if you use a free or cheap form from the Internet — like ForSaleByOwner.com’s Independent package — it doesn’t hurt to run it by a real estate attorney or, at the very least, your escrow agent. Your escrow agent and real estate attorney, if you have one, must ensure that all closing paperwork is in order, because anything out of order could delay or jeopardize the sale. If you’re not comfortable managing everything, consider hiring a fee-only broker to wrap up the sale. Expect to pay $150 to $350 per hour for a qualified real estate attorney, per Thumbtack, or 1% of the sale price for a discount fee-only broker through a clearinghouse like Clever. Final WordNeed even more information on selling your home without using an agent? Read “Check, Check, Sold: A Checklist Guide To Selling Your Home For More Money Without An Agent,” a comprehensive road map to a successful (and profitable) FSBO experience. The potential financial benefit of selling without an agent directly correlates with the selling price. Agent commissions are higher in more expensive housing markets — such as big coastal cities like San Francisco and New York or highly desirable vacation communities with limited housing supply — than in rural areas and smaller cities. But expensive housing markets tend to be more competitive for buyers and sellers alike. That increases agents’ utility on both sides of the transaction — and, for sellers, raises the chances that listing agents’ services pay for themselves. If you’ve made it this far, you’re most likely thinking seriously about selling your home without an agent’s help. And if you decide to go through with it, you can use this guide as a road map. But do take the time to perform one last gut-check about what it’ll take — carefully weighing the pros and cons of selling your own home. How do I sell by owner in Arkansas?You will have to list your house with a Arkansas state licensed flat fee MLS real estate broker and offer a buyers agent commission but you still retain the right to sell FSBO. Flat fee MLS listings are for hands-on sellers that aren't afraid of learning and getting involved with all aspects of the sale of their homes.
Do you need a lawyer to sell a house in PA?Do I Need an Attorney If I Want To Buy or Sell My Home in Pennsylvania? The simple answer is - no - you do not need an attorney to buy or sell a home in Pennsylvania. There is no legal requirement that an attorney be involved in any stage of the transaction.
How do I sell my house by owner in Indiana?5 Tips to Selling Your Home FSBO in Indiana. Accurately Price The Home. ... . Hire A Professional To Photograph Your Home. ... . Write Outstanding Marketing Remarks. ... . Post Your Home For Sale Everywhere. ... . Work With Buyer Agents.. How do I sell my house by owner in Florida?How to sell a house by owner in Florida. Step 1: Address needed repairs and maintenance. ... . Step 2: Fill out your disclosure forms. ... . Step 3: Declutter, clean, stage, and add curb appeal. ... . Step 4: Price your home competitively. ... . Step 5: Arrange for professional photography. ... . Step 6: Market your home to buyers.. |