Selling home on your own, definitely has its appeal. Both buyers and sellers agree that real estate agent’s commissions are very high, and that they would rather deal with the other party in person, than through real estate agents. Unfortunately planting a “House for Sale” sign in your front yard is not enough to get you a decent buyer, since there are plenty of other work home seller need to take care of, before finding the right buyer. In this article we listed 5 most important things every seller needs to consider before entering the independent sales labyrinth.
Promoting Your Offer
Number one reason why people are hiring real estate agents for selling their home, is for the network of interested buyers they have. When selling your home by yourself, you are the one who needs to spread the word. The best way you can do this is by copying strategies of real estate agencies and filling the gaps, by:
- Making your offer creative and packed in well-designed commercials;
- Commercials depending on the budget should be aired on local TV and radio stations, posted on various real estate websites that are targeting local, state-, nation, and worldwide audience, shared on social networks, posted on billboards, newspapers, handed over on leaflets, etc;
- Spreading the word, in your circle of friends and asking them if they know somebody who’s interested in buying a property in your area;
Following Current Market Trends
Real estate brokerages inform their customers about the current market trends. They also inspect the property and give suggestions that helps them to determine realistic price for property in question. Most real estate brokerages have advanced software that makes market analysis and provides them with realistic price range for each real estate. Without the software you will need to do this by yourself. Check prices of other similar homes, both sold ones and those that are waiting to be sold. If this doesn’t do the trick, you can always hire an appraiser who will appraise the exact worth of the property you are trying to sell.
Be Ready for Negotiation
Real estate agents are great negotiators and they are able to soften both buyer’s and seller’s demands in order to earn their commission. Negotiating by yourself can be a huge drag and can cost your both time and nerves. It might happen, that you don’t negotiate with the seller directly, but with the hired broker or solicitor that is representing him/her. These are experienced negotiators who give plenty of promises and suggest things that sound appealing and reasonable at first, but are contrary to your interest. Learning some advanced negotiation strategies is definitely one of things you should do before, starting the home selling process.
Legal Issues
Part of the process that includes signing contracts and closing can be the most hazardous to sellers’ interests if they are not familiar with basic legal terms and laws that regulate property transfer. Most real estate brokerages hire legal experts to inspect the contracts, and if you are selling on your own, you need to have some kind of legal guidance, which you can get by hiring solicitor or conveyancer or by learning a lot about laws and procedures involved in the property transfer process. You can find all that online, and if you get stuck, you can always ask experts from Think Conveyancing or some other agency for legal advice.
Time
Selling your home on your own is not impossible, but it will definitely steal a lot of your time, so before deciding for this step, you need to determine the time’s worth and whether it will be repaid by commission money that you are going to save. Same goes with energy and the fact that you will hardly be able to be as effective as real estate agent in all 4 tasks we mentioned above.
Although saving commission money sounds very appealing, only certain real estate is worth selling this way. So before you plant the “Home for Sale” sign in your front yard, calculate whether this process is worth your time, energy and money you will spend for promotion, appraising, legal help and all other expenses that may come up.