For Sale By Owner – You Can Do It!
Do you need to sell your house? In today’s market, “for sale by owner” may be the best way to sell. Believe me, it doesn’t take a great scientist to be successful in selling your own home. The information in this article can provide you with information on the site that you may not have had before. You can do it by yourself!
Prepare your home for buyers. New paint helps and is inexpensive. Make sure it is clean, clean and clean. The most important and most overlooked thing by salespeople is that you need to get rid of clutter, inside and out. Less is more! Rent a storage facility or hold a yard sale, but clean up the clutter. Less furniture makes a room appear larger. The closest fillers are a real turn-off for buyers who EVERYONE wants a lot of storage space. Get rid of all nick tricks.
We all know how important curb appeal is. Clean up those patios, front and back! Remember, an appraisal has images of the backyard and the front. I know this sounds silly, but a junk backyard tells the insurer a lot about your home’s interior and routine maintenance. A buyer may overlook it, but the appraiser and lender cannot.
Next, do a home inspection. An inspector will check the structure and systems of your home. You may find things you are not aware of. It is best to find and repair these problems before the buyer’s inspector does.
Make sure you price it right. Spend the money to get a professional appraisal done by a HUD-approved appraiser. Don’t trust a real estate agent’s market analysis. These are rarely accurate and many times an agent will simply blow smoke telling you what they think you want to hear.
Go sit down with your local mortgage broker. It has a large amount of knowledge that you should take advantage of. Most mortgage brokers have free FSBO programs that will help you tremendously. It is important that you know what your costs will be based on the type of loan that the buyer purchases. Did you know that a VA loan could cost you a lot more in closing costs PLUS home repairs that are probably not required by other loans? Will your home qualify for an FHA loan without making expensive repairs? If you are on a tight budget and need every penny possible from the sale of your home, you may want to negotiate in the contract that the buyer get conventional financing.
A mortgage broker will also teach you the critical areas to watch for in the sales contract. It can even provide you with blank contracts and other required state mandated disclosures when you sell your home. Most brokers will even create your startup brochure and more importantly your financing options brochure. Prospective buyers want to know two things: how much will my payments be, and how much money do I have to pay plus the closing cost.
You must list your home on a “For Sale by Owner” website. I want to warn you here. Many of these sites try to charge you a lot of money for things that do not or will not help you sell your home. Home buyers do NOT spend hours searching for “For Sale by Owner” websites. They work with real estate agents, read the newspapers, and drive through the streets of the neighborhoods they want to live in.
The advantage of listing your home on the Internet is that you put the URL in newspaper ads, brochures, and on your yard sign. Then when a buyer stops by your home or sees your ad, they can go online and see pictures, services, and the price. If your home fits their needs and their budget, they will call you. If not, it is less annoying for you. It can be very frustrating to leave lookey-loo at home week after week. Don’t you really just want really interested buyers on your doorstep? There are many free FSBO websites on the net. Check it out.
All that said, the rest is just common sense. You can sell it yourself!