How to Sell Your House without a Realtor
Realtor fees are expensive. The fees realtors charge on a traditional home sale range from five to eight percent of the sale price – that is a substantial bite into your potential profits. Many would be home sellers are starting to shun realtors in favor of selling their homes on their own. For Sale by Owner or FSBO real estate is a growing field, and selling your home without a realtor may be much easier than you think.
Get Ready
Your first step to selling your home without a realtor is to get ready for parades of prospective buyers. Put away your knick-knacks, clean up your home and apply a fresh coat of paint and consider putting down new carpet. At the very least, have your existing carpet steam cleaned. Do what you can to increase curb appeal and be sure you have all liens cleared on your loan. You don’t want any hold ups or surprises should you get an interested party.
Get Listed
The majority of homes are sold through a multiple listing service (MLS) which is a private data base used by realtors trying to show properties to prospective buyers. Usually this listing is the primary function of your realtor, but you can have your home attractively listed on your own. There are many websites and companies that will list your home for a fee or even for free with certain conditions.
Be sure to include all attributes of the home without vague adjectives such as “beautiful” and “gorgeous.” Take plenty of flattering pictures and include those with your listing as well.
Get Noticed
Being listed in the MLS is an excellent start for being noticed, but you must do your own publicity as well. List your home for sale on internet sales sites and the local paper. Put out a sign in the front yard and have an open house or two. Be sure to advertise the open house with plenty of signs and other attention grabbing techniques. The more people who come through your home, the more likely you are to sell it.
Get Help
When you get an offer on your home, unless you are a mortgage broker yourself, you may consider working with a real estate lawyer or mortgage broker to be sure you’ve dotted every “i” and crossed every “t” come closing. It is possible to handle all paperwork yourself, but do your research very carefully as you can run into serious trouble if you don’t file all paperwork correctly.
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Posted in Business & Finance, Real Estate
