In this article, you will learn the steps you need to sell your home for top dollar in 2015. The market has changed, so make sure you are ready for it.
I recently wrote about a couple that sold their home on their own in three days. They listed their home for sale on Friday, had an open house on Saturday, and had a signed contract on Sunday. More than likely, you are not going to get these same results. But you can get similar results. The point is, you do not need an agent in today’s market to sell your home on your own.
What did these sellers do?
The sellers I'm referencing did two things exactly right. First they priced their home fairly for their market. Second, they made sure their home made a great impression by staging their home. You can get the full Case Study here.
Where do I start when selling my home on my own?
Before putting your home on the market for sale, you want to do three things to prepare.
- Find a great Real Estate Attorney (3 hours). Hiring a real estate attorney before you start is a great idea. This person is going to be your single most important team member. Your attorney will be able to advise you on what you need to do and cannot do throughout the whole process. You can check out my article on how to hire a good real estate attorney and listen to my interview of Zach Roth, a Real Estate Attorney to learn more information.
- Clean up the place (16-48 hours). This is the part that really sucks and you need to do it even if you do hire a real estate agent. Although if you can find a real estate agent to do this part for you, it may be worth hiring them. :-) You are going to need to make your home look great, both inside and out. I’m not talking about making your home look great to yourself. You need to make it look great to your potential buyers. This includes getting your yard in shape enough to win yard of the month, getting rid of the toys in the yard, and any old lawn furniture. Inside the home, you need to deep clean the entire house, paint rooms that need it and declutter your home. If you are like most Americans, you need to get rid of about half of your stuff.
- Take some great pictures (4-8 hours). In 2015 a large number of your buyers are going to find you online from a site like Zillow.com. These sites allow you to post a ton of pictures so make sure you take advantage of this. You should have 30+ pictures posted.Post them on facebook and ask your friends to vote on which one to use. Don’t forget pictures of the community pool and park and the views from your home.
To take great pictures, follow these tips. Take your pictures on sunny days. Use a tripod if you can. You can even use your phone, just get this cheap attachment for the tripod. Take the pictures from eye level. Take lots of pictures from different angles. Note, these are Amazon Affiliate links. I get compensated if you buy them, and it does not cost you a dime more.
Time to List The Home For Sale
Now that you are prepared, you are ready to get your home listed for sale and tell the world about it.
- Price your home in the sweet spot (2 hours). There are many ways to price your home for sale. The two best are to order an appraisal which will cost you about $400 or do a self-appraisal. A self-appraisal can be done by recording and analyzing the homes that have sold in your area and the homes that are currently for sale. You can find complete step-by-step directions on how to price your home for sale using my free Home Value Estimator System. After two hours of research, you will know your area better than any Realtor®.
- Put out a sign (15 minutes). Put out a For Sale By Owner Sign. Make sure your phone number is visible on the sign in front of your house. Put signs out pointing to your house from the nearby main intersection. You can find cheap signs at your local hardware store.
- Write up your home (2 hours). You need to write up your listing and create your disclosures for your home. Make sure your write up focuses on the benefits of the home. Instead of saying you have a garage, say plenty of room in the spacious garage to park 2 cars and store all of your tools. In your listing, make sure you note that you are willing to work with buyer’s agent. That means that you will pay the buyer’s agent a 2-3% in commission. If you are not a wordsmith, don't worry about it. Check out my Case Study to see how a very simple write up sold a home fast.
- List your home for sale online (1 hour). The number one place you want to list your home for sale is Zillow.com. This is the most popular site out there when it comes to real estate. You can go directly to Zillow or you can go to www.fizber.com to list your home for sale on your own. Fizber will automatically list your home on Zillow and many other sites for free. Yes, for free!
- Should I list my home on the MLS? No, not at first. You are selling your home to save money so I don’t want to see you spend any more money than you need. Start with the free listings and if you don’t get the traffic you expected or want from the free sites like Zillow, then purchase the MLS listing. To list your home on an MLS service, it will cost you between $200 and $800 depending on your provider. If you need to sell your home really fast, then consider it.
- Schedule an open house (6 hours each – 2 Hours of preparing and advertising and 4 hours for the open house). If you are comfortable with doing this step, an open house can bring in some extra traffic, especially house hunters who are casually looking. If you have a WOW factor in your home, then an open house may spur some additional traffic and offers.
- Tell your friends and neighbors (1 hour a week ongoing). You have an army of people willing to sell your home if you just give them the proper incentive. Offer a cash “reward” if someone refers the person to you who buys your home. Depending on the price of your home, this can be anywhere from $500 to a few thousand dollars. Make it worthwhile for them. Tell your friends online and offline. Also don’t be afraid to walk your neighborhood and tell your neighbors as well.
- Show your home to potential buyers (2 hours each showing – 1 for preparing the home and 1 for the showing). Now that your home is listed for sale, you are going to receive phone calls from potential buyers and agents. Make sure you ask plenty of questions of the buyer while you have them on the phone. These questions should include, are you pre-qualified for a mortgage, where are you moving from, what are your “got to have’s” in your next home, what is your time frame for moving? Ask as many questions as you can because this information will help you later in your negotiation. Make sure to only show your home to qualified buyers and have each buyer send you a copy of their prequalification letter before the showing. Finally, never show a home by yourself. Always bring along a friend for safety.
If your buyer has a realtor, you do not (and should not) be in the house during the showing.
Accepting an Offer on your Home
After you show your home to buyers, you are going to start to get offers. It is a numbers game, so be patient.
Listen to feedback and take it with a grain of salt. For example, one couple did not like that the garage was on the same side of the house as the master bedroom during one of our showings. Well, I can’t do anything about that so I just ignored it.
- Negotiating (1 hour). In many cases you are not going to receive an offer for full asking price. If your home is priced appropriately, then you should expect to get 97% – 98% of your asking price. If someone lowballs you, don’t get offended. Counter back. In fact, always counter back until you hit your acceptable range. Once you are in your acceptable range, stop negotiating and say yes.
- The sales contract (1 hour). Once you have an acceptable offer, agree to it verbally and read back all terms of the agreement from your written notes. Send those terms to your real estate attorney and (s)he will draw up a contract. Make sure get the contract back to the buyer within 1 business day. It is not official until they sign the contract.
- Signed Contract and Deposit (1 hour). Your buyer will send the signed contract and deposit to your Real Estate Attorney and that will get the ball rolling. Most of the work from this point forward is on the buyer.
Once you get a signed contract, your work is almost done.
- Make your home available (3-6 hours). Many individuals will need access to your home and property once you sell your home. These include home inspectors, appraisers, surveyors, insurance agents, and they buyer. The buyer will want access on occasion to take room measurements and see the home again. Be as accommodating as possible.
- Make any necessary repairs (1+ hour). During the home inspection, some items will be identified as needing repair. In my last home inspection, worn insulation on one of the pipes to the air conditioning unit was identified as an issue. The buyer will tell you what repairs they are going to require. Listen and be as accommodating as possible because this is where most deals fall apart. If you download my Case Study, you can see how expert home sellers handled this situation.
- Check in on everyone (15 minutes a week). Check in with the buyer (or their agent), and all the people you have working on the sale of your property to ensure everything stays on track. Although everyone in this transaction has motive to close the deal, no one has more motivation than you. This will allow any roadblocks to be discovered early and resolved quickly.
- Show up to sign the paperwork (2 hours). Closing day is here and now you need to show up and sign the paperwork and get paid. You don’t have to do the closing with the buyer, but you can. You can also expect to receive your check or wire that same day.
Conclusion
Almost all of the steps I mentioned above would be required by you regardless if you were using an agent or not. I highly recommend that you skip the agent when selling your home. On the low end, you can save 3% of your selling price and may even save up to 6%. That is a lot of dough.
Your Turn
Are you ready to start selling your home on your own? Click here to download a Case Study, showing how one couple sold their home on their own in just 3 days.
