Here are the five steps to selling a home on your own.
How do you sell a home successfully on your own in today’s market? There are five steps to keep in mind.
First, consider seeking guidance for all the documentation involved in the home selling process. There are a lot of documents to keep track of to ensure your home sale is compliant. You’ll have to sift through a multi-page seller’s disclosure statement, for example. You’ll also have to ensure your buyer has a pre-approval statement with appropriate conditions, and structure the agreement of sale to ratify the offer. All of these things have to be done to ensure the sale is executed properly and produces a legally binding contract. If you haven’t done this type of thing before, consult a local real estate attorney so they can help you.
Next, consider your pricing strategies. One of the things you can rely on an agent for is a comparative market analysis (CMA) to better understand comparable properties and what your home might sell for. Since you won’t have an agent to provide this for you, hire an appraisal service to do the job. It’ll cost some money, but you’ll get valuable guidance when it comes to pricing. You may want to get two appraisals just to have multiple opinions. If they give you two different numbers, you might be able to average them out to set the right price.
After that, think about your home’s marketing exposure. One of the main things you hire a real estate brokerage for is to show your property to as many eyes as possible through high-quality marketing. If you’re doing this yourself, know that professional photography is a must. You should stage your home and take high-quality photos of it to present it in the best light possible. Also, make sure it’s present on consumer websites. You’ll have to manually add your home to these sites, make sure the signage is nice and bright, and include a phone number that stands out. It should stand out as much as possible to real estate brokers so they can show it to their buyers.
“There are a lot of documents to keep track of to ensure your home sale is compliant.”
When you hire an agent, your home gets put in front of the 35,000+ agents who belong to our MLS and all of their buyers. Without that demand, your home might fetch a lower price than what you’re looking for. I know that’s not what you want, so you need to show your home to as many people as possible.
Also, consider the negotiation aspect. If you don’t know much about negotiating, it might not hurt to take a class on it. One of the reasons you’d ordinarily hire an agent is that we ask the right questions to a potential buyer to learn their motivation and use that as leverage to collaboratively come to terms with them. We give them what they want so you can get what you want. It’s up to you to think about how to collaborate, ask the right questions, and listen for answers as part of your negotiation strategy.
Finally, remember to monitor the contract-to-close process. You’ll work with a title company or local attorney to do this, and you may have to pay them hourly so they can take you from the execution (or ratification) of the contract to the signing of the deed.
If you have questions about this topic or would like a free copy of the Dave Hooke Team’s 125-step listing process, don’t hesitate to call or email me. I’d love to speak with you. If you ever get frustrated, my team and I are just a phone call away!
