Top 10 FSBO Tips to Selling Your Home by Owner

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Top 10 FSBO Tips to Selling Your Home by Owner
by- Alan Kirchain
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By using some simple FSBO (For Sale by Owner) tips and
techniques, the average homeowner can sell his or her own
home without the assistance of a real estate agent,just as
many others have done in the past. Selling your own can be
very rewarding and you can save thousands, but it takes work
and commitment.
Below you will read some simple strategies that can stack
the odds in your favor, greatly increasing your chances for
success when selling on your own.
FSBO Tip 1. Understanding the real estate market.
Getting an idea of your local market conditions makes good
sense. Just like any other product getting a feel of what”s
hot and what”s not can help you make decisions that affect
the sale of your home. Consider your neighborhood and the
features that distinguish it from others. If you”re
comfortable, contact a real estate agent to discuss what the
current market environment is like.
FSBO Tip 2. Timing is everything.
Timing the decision to sell and gauging the current market
conditions could be two of the most critical decisions you
make. If you need to sell your home quickly, the less
flexibility, you”ll be able to have. Conversely, if you”re
not in a big hurry you can sit back and wait for the perfect
buyer. Just remember the real estate market is a cyclical
environment. If it”s a slow period now and you”re in a
position to wait it out then it might be a good idea to wait
for the next upswing.
FSBO Tip 3. Assemble a team of professionals to help you.
While it”s nice to think that you can handle things on your
own, selling a home takes specialized knowledge. It”s more
than just writing up a sales agreement. Depending on what
part of the country you”re in you”ll either need to find a
real estate attorney or a title / escrow company to help
with the legal details. As a rule of thumb, if you”re east
of the Mississippi it”s usually a real estate attorney. If
you”re west of the Mississippi, it”s a title company.
Either way they”ll be an indispensable part of your home
selling process. Another important partner to consider is a
reputable mortgage banker/lender. They can assist in
helping you prequalify buyer prospects. We”ll talk more
about qualifying prospects as you read on.
FSBO Tip 4.How to determine the fair market price of your
home.
This always seems to be a real tricky one. For many home
sellers this typically reveals itself as a major point of
contention. When trying to decide on a price guessing or
basing your asking price on hearsay or nontraditional
methods immediately reduces your negotiating advantage.
Basing your price on what the house down the street sold for
or what media outlets perceives as increased market value is
not the way to get a legitimate price either. There are only
two legitimate and well-recognized ways of determining a
fair market value. One way is to contact a real estate agent
or broker to provide you with a CMA otherwise known as a
comparative market analysis. The best and most accurate way
of determining price comes from a full-blown appraisal done
by a professional real estate appraiser.
FSBO Tip 5. You”re selling a house not a home.
While it”s important to become emotionally detached, you
don”t have to become a robot. After all this is your home,
be objective but don”t be cold. Keep in mind that people
are going to perceive your home differently than you do.
Either way remain positive and ultimately the right person
will walk through the door and buy your home.
FSBO Tip 6. Preparing your home for sale.
Today”s real estate market rewards those homeowners that
place a high-value on neatnessas well as cleanliness.
It not only adds value but alsogenerally promotes a quicker
and more profitable sale. Once again the depersonalizing of
your home helps your prospect with such an emotional
decision. Decluttering the inside of a home is also key to your
preparation. If necessary, rent out a small storage
space and store some household items there.
Just as a side note, having a garage sale is also a
great way of getting rid of items that clutter up the house.
Not only do you get rid of the items but also you make a
little money in the process.
FSBO Tip 7. Start spreading the news.
It should be understood if you”re going to sell your home
and you”re going to do it yourself, the easiest way to get
the word out is to put a sign in your yard. This will
immediately get the attention of anybody that happens to
ride by. Naturally, this is the essence of selling on your
own. Coming up with a highlight sheet to outline the key
features of your home is a must. With the readily available
use of word processing programs putting together a simple
highlight sheet is easy.
FSBO Tip 8. Knowing a few, negotiating skills will get you
a long way.
It”s not necessary to become the next great diplomat. You
will want to keep in mind that it”s necessary to keep your
emotions and personal feelings regarding the negotiating
price of your property in check. When discussing the
selling price it”s important that your calculations and
numbers are correct. This allows you to have greater
flexibility and leverage and you can negotiate from a
position of strength.
FSBO Tip 9. Qualifying buyers and stopping the lookie loos.
So what”s a lookie loo? A lookie loo is a person that
comes to your house and looks in everything. They,look in
cabinets,closets and drawers check everything out but never
make you a serious offer. You need qualified buyers looking
at your home or it”s going to get very discouraging. One of
the best ways of getting qualified prospects is to have them
referred by your mortgage broker/lender. You can also take
the direct approach. If you”re arranging a showing over the
phone, go ahead and ask them if they are pre-qualified.
Don”t be too shy when it comes to your prospects. If you”re
holding an open house and someone expresses interest in your
home go-ahead and ask. Most of the time if they”re pre-
qualified they love to tell you. So don”t worry about
asking, it”s the right thing to do.
FSBO Tip 10. If all else fails go to where the realtors
hang out.
If after a while, you”re not getting the results that you
were hoping for you can always go to the MLS option. This
doesn”t mean that you have to list with a real estate agent
or broker though. As a private party, you can list your
home with your local multiple listing service. Usually
this cost a fee but by doing this you automatically expose
your house to thousands of potential prospects all over the
country. The upside is that you should be able to sell your
home in short order. The obvious downside will be that you
will have to pay co-op to an agent. Only in unique situations
would the cost of co-opting be virtually impossible, due to
low equity or some other extenuating circumstance.
These FSBO tips should give you a solid foundation to
successfully selling your own home. There”s many specific
ideas and recommendations that are beyond the scope of this
article when it comes to pricing, preparing and staging your
home, and all of the items previously outlined. You should
definitely research and prepare yourself for the selling of
your own home process. In the long run,it will make
things easier and could either save you or even make you
thousands of dollars.