Do you really need an agent in order to sell your home? If you have been asking yourself this question, the answer is a simple “no.” However, you will need to know a few things about real estate if you want to make sure your sales goes smoothly.
When you decide to sell your home on your own, you will have to take on all the responsibilities that an agent would normally take care of – not to worry, you can do it. One of the most important things that an agent does is to notify the world of your pending home sale. Before you start to panic, you should know that effective advertising is really a piece of cake. To start, distance your home from your personal self, and start thinking of the house as a place that has four wall and holds stuff.
It may seem strange to think of your house as just “a home,” but this is extremely important. Why? In order to sell your home, you will have to walk through the house and decide which things to remove. Now, if you are still attached to the home, you cannot do this. Once you decide to part with your home for good, you can start to look at your space through objective eyes. Pull down any personal items from your walls, shelves, and tables. Then, make sure that your home is clean from top to bottom, and de-clutter any messy or congested area. After you go through the “sprucing up” stage of selling your home, you will have to decide how much your home is worth – pay attention: this is the most important part.
If a home is overpriced, it won’t sell. If a home is under priced, it won’t sell. That means, it has to be just right. In order to find out how much your home is really worth, visit other homes in your area. See how your home compares to the homes you visit, and then figure out if your home includes anything more, or less, that the homes that you saw. Remember to leave room for bargaining, and you will have the right price in no time. Once this is done, you are ready to get on with that advertising.
Place signs on your front, and back, yard. Place fliers at your local grocery store, make sure that a bulletin is tacked onto every bulletin board in town, list your home online and on MLS sites (yes, this is possible), and make a point to tell everyone you know about your home sale. Why should you bother doing all of these things? If you go through all of the above steps, hundreds of people (maybe thousands) will instantly know all about your home sale – see how easy that was?
You can sell your home without an agent – in fact, it may even be easier this way – just follow the steps mentioned above. Always take the time to price your home effectively, be sure to advertise all over town (don’t forget the Internet), and take the time to make your home spotless.
Raynor James writes about selling your home
FSBO for FSBOAmerica.org where you can get free 30 day
real estate property listings and avoid paying tens of thousands of dollars in agent commissions.
