Carol Weir William Raveis 203-650-3351
e-mail: carol@homebear.com website: www.homebear.com
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Selling your home yourself requires an extensive commitment of time and effort to market your home, qualify buyers, negotiate well, and stay objective with potential buyers.
If you can do all that, read on:
Set your price by researching on the Internet, looking at other home prices in your area, and visiting the county tax records office to see what the homes actually sold for.
Attend the LITTLE IMPROVEMENTS = BIG RETURN Seminar and make sure your home is in the best shape inside and out.
You might want to invest in a few books and/or videos to support your efforts.
Set your advertising budget. Most people who sell their homes themselves spend between $1,000 and $2,000.
Create a color fact sheet, including a photo and necessary information about your home. Color increases visibility of the fact sheet and perceived value of your home.
Put a prominent FOR SALE sign in the yard.
Display your fact sheet at work, in local supermarkets, and at other high visibility locations.
Run daily and Sunday ads in the real estate section of your local newspaper.
Send letters to every real estate office in a 20 mile radius.
Create a small website and list the web address on all materials about your home.
Return all calls to interested buyers promptly.
Make appointments to see them as quickly as possible. If they're seeing your house, they're also looking at others.
Be available days, nights and weekends to show you house.
Constantly monitor the market and be ready to adjust to the trends.
For your own safety and security, try to pre-qualify buyers before you invite them into your home. Ask questions over the phone, including:
- How will they pay for the home? *
- Can they get a mortgage? *
- Are they pre-qualified for a mortgage? *
- Is their home sold or just on the market? *
- Is the buyer of their home a qualified buyer? *
It's easy to see why the idea of selling on your own is tempting. But saving that commission can ultimately cost you more than you saved. Why?
First, it's an interruption of your personal and business lives. What does that cost you?
Second, you have to spend a substantial amount to advertise. Successful realtors allocate a minium of 10% to advertising. You should be prepared to spend between a minium of $1,000 and $2,000 on newspaper ads, color fact sheets and flyers, signs, postage and your Internet presence.
Third, if you welcome brokers to show your home, you'll have to sacrifice part of the 'saved' commission to them. Add that to what you spend and your savings are hardly worth the effort. Click on the link above to read more about what you're really saving when you list your home yourself.
Licensed realtors are pros at what they do. Think of it this way:
Could someone merely watch a video or read a manual about YOUR job and accomplish what you succeed in doing every day? Absolutely not.
Could you take the place of other professionals you trust in your life? Would you cut your own hair? Would you represent yourself in court? Most likely not.
Good Realtors are home buying and selling professionals with a complex combination of skills and experience, including:
- Marketing *
- Sales *
- Negotiating *
- Qualifying buyers *
- Staging the home *
- Handling objections *
- Developing strategies and plans *
- Managing your contract *
- Getting you to the closing table *
Plus, licensed realtors have resources available to them that you can't touch, including the essential Multiple Listing Service. Without the use of this mass marketing tool, your home won't even be on the radar of the thousands of people looking to buy in your area.
But, if you're willing to invest your time and effort, list it yourself and see how it goes. Give yourself 30 days. Research shows if a home isn't sold within 21 days, you won't sell it on your own.
