Selling a house through a real estate agent can be a long, tedious, and costly process, mainly because you have to repair your home (if it’s old) and pay an agent commission when you close the sale.
Some homeowners prefer to sell their homes by themselves and to ask for cash offers from individual buyers and real estate companies.
While listing your house for sale by owner (FSBO) helps reduce closing costs, the process is not as easy as you think. So, if you plan to sell a home in San Diego, you need to know the ins and outs of selling a house yourself.
How Does For Sale By Owner Work?
For sale by owner is a home-selling approach in which you, the seller, list your home for sale on your own. No real estate agent is involved in the process, anywhere along the line from start to finish.
Since independently selling a house can be a bumpy road, you have to prepare for the task ahead. This doesn’t imply that selling a home on your own is dangerous or a bad idea–it just requires some forethought and preparation.
According to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report, 11% of FSBO home sellers complete the sale without engaging a real estate agent, and most of these sellers are millennials in urban areas.
If you want to be part of this successful group, you have to learn to sell your home like a professional. Below are some tips for selling a home on your own.
Understand The Pros And Cons of For Sale By Owner
Before you decide to list your home as for sale by owner, be sure you understand the benefits and setbacks of this approach. This will help you avoid surprises and disappointments in the future.
Benefits of FSBO
- No agent commission: FSBO eliminates the need to pay an agent commission at closing so you walk away with more profit.
- Manage your listing: You have control over different aspects of your listing, including the price, marketing strategy and listing details.
- Control over home viewing: Since you manage the sale, you have complete control over the viewing schedule, helping you avoid surprise visits and last-minute inconveniences.
Setbacks Of FSBO
- Lower sale price: Working with an experienced real estate agent increases your chances of garnering a higher profit because they have the experience, local expertise, effective marketing strategies, negotiation skills and social networks needed to maximize real estate transactions. You lose these opportunities when you go it alone.
- Long, tedious process: FSBO requires your solo handling of all tasks, including paying the closing costs. This independence can prolong the closing.
- Higher risk of costly errors: If it’s your first time selling a house without an agent, you are highly susceptible to mistakes, some of which can be costly. For instance, you might price your home too high or too low for current market conditions.
Set The Right Listing Price
If you believe that the benefits of FSBO outweigh the possible setbacks, go ahead and set a listing price. Although it’s human nature to want to make as much money as possible from the sale, don’t overprice your home. Otherwise, you run the risk of having your home sit on the market longer than you expect.
Learn to set the right listing price by doing a comparative market analysis. Check available public records, recently sold filters on various online platforms, and home-pricing tools.
You can also get an appraisal from a professional appraiser. They will analyze your home and consider local market trends, recent comparative sales, and details about your house to create an attractive listing price.
Prepare Your House
If you are selling an old house, don’t forget to improve its curb appeal by giving it some tender, loving care before listing. In other words, make sure your home is in perfect condition. It should be thoroughly cleaned, decluttered, upgraded, repaired, and properly staged.
Do Proper Marketing
You have to market your home yourself if you’re not working with a professional real estate agent, who would normally take care of that for you. You can hire a professional photographer and marketer to take appealing photos of your house and post them on different marketing platforms.
Create flyers, ads and signs to let potential buyers know that your home is up for sale. You also need a professional content creator to draft an appealing message for you.
Hire An Attorney
Selling a house by owner means that you have to review and complete all of the documents involved in the transaction. Unfortunately, some forms contain legal and real estate jargon that only a qualified real estate attorney can interpret. So, you have to find a good real estate lawyer to help you deal with the paperwork, especially when signing a contract and closing the sale.
Final Thoughts
Finally, understand that you can avoid some of these steps by selling your home to a reliable cash buyer like Trusted House Buyers. We’re a family-owned real estate company committed to helping homeowners in San Diego sell their distressed homes quickly and without hassle. Check us out to see if we’re right for you!