Should You Sell Your Home Without an Agent?
While most people use the services of a real estate agent, there is another option of selling a home by owner.
Real estate agents are very helpful and in some cases, necessary but if you are thinking about selling your home, you need to keep in mind that for these professional services, you will pay a generous fee. Therefore, to avoid having a nice chunk of your money taken out of the sale price, you might consider putting the house on the market yourself and eliminating the agent altogether.
As you will discover in this article, you can sell your home without an agent and be very successful. The key is to know how! For starters, as you prepare your home and then advertise it, you want to focus on the positive aspects of your home. In other words, rather than pointing out things that most buyers would not care about, make your efforts and advertisement geared toward the extra or special selling points. This might include a fireplace, updated kitchen, outdoor Jacuzzi, new roof, and other aspects of the home that really matter to people.
As the seller, you need might need to invest a little money upfront to make the home ready. This might include adding plants and flowers to the front of the home for curb appeal, laying a new kitchen floor, slapping some fresh neutral paint on the walls, and so on. People will base their opinion on the home with sight so the home needs to look warm and inviting. In addition, if you have tons of knick-knacks or clutter around the house, prior to showing pack up those items so the home is homey but not busy. Clean kitchen countertops sell better than countertops filled with kitchen appliances.
Once the home is ready to sell, you need to determine the price that you will ask for the home. To do this, some research will be needed. Basically, look at comparable homes in the same location as your home and then consider any upgrades you may have made or lower selling points. As an example, if there were three other homes for sale within a two-mile radius the same style and age of your home, see what the asking price is. Then look at your home to see if you have made any significant updates that would allow you to raise the price a bit. Did you put on a new roof, did you add new kitchen cabinets, has an additional room been added on? In addition, look at the property – are they the same size, do you have a corner lot, do you live in a cul-de-sac, does your home feature more mature landscaping?
Once you have this information, you can price the home according. If you are still unsure, you might want to invest in hiring a professional appraiser to give you some solid information as to the value of your home. When selling a house, it’s important not to list too high. Not only will this scare buyers away, but if you do have someone put a contract on the home and then the appraisal comes back lower, you could very well lose that buyer too. At the same time, you do not want to list your home so low that you lose money upfront. Finally, be sure you understand that tax assessments are not necessarily a good way to evaluate the value of a home. Tax assessments are based on a number of criteria that may not have anything to do with the actual property value thereby giving you an inaccurate value.
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When you get ready to show your home, keep in mind that unwelcome smells will turn someone’s interest off very quickly. If you are a smoker, make sure there are now overflowing ashtrays lying around and if you have pets, make sure the hair is vacuumed up and the floors are clean from paw prints. Since you live in the home, you may not even be aware of the smells, which is natural and to be expected. Just keep this in mind as you start to show your home and perhaps set out some fresh potpourri or flowers to ward off some of the offensive odors.
Then, while it might be tempting to avoid saying anything about that leaky faucet or the loose board in the back bedroom, disclosing everything you know shows the seller that you are honest and want to sell on an honest basis. In addition, being honest eliminates you from getting into a situation of liability. If you were to sell your home and not disclose something that ends up costing the buyer thousands of dollars, they could come back on you with a lawsuit to recoup their money and perhaps back out of the deal altogether.
Finally, just as you might be a motivated seller, find out what you can if you are working with a motivated buyer. This could help you during the negotiation process and put you at a better advantage. Knowing what is motivating your buyer will help you know how to negotiate more effectively. In addition, try to find out whatever you can about how much a buyer can pay. If they come to you with a low offer, ask your realtor if they feel the buyer can afford your home and even come up on price. Finally, see if you can find out what the buyer’s deadlines are for closing. Again, this puts you in a much better position for negotiations.
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