How to Sell my House Without a Realtor
How to Sell My House Without A Realtor
When selling a home, the traditional method of hiring a real estate agent, can be pretty expensive. We have created the “How to Sell my House Without a Realtor” guide. When you sell your house without a Realtor, you can keep more of the profits in your own pocket. Moreover, you will have control over everything during the entire process.
You may be wondering “How to sell my house without a Realtor”
Price Your Property
Before listing a house on any website, do your homework to price the home right. Research your neighborhood to set a competitive price. Use the internet to find out the selling prices of comparative properties. There are a ton of free options like Zillow, Redfin, or even a local Realtor‘s website to find comparable properties. Remember, to get the most accurate value, you should focus on the sold properties instead of the active or pending properties.
Get Listed on the MLS
This is the most comprehensive list encompassing all real estate for sale in the US and is available to all Realtors. In some areas, potential buyers can also look for homes via the MLS. Certain services enable you to list your property for a few hundred dollars. Certain cities will also allow you to list your property on the MLS without being a Realtor. The exposure you get is worth the money you spend on it. If you can’t list your house on the MLS, you’ll want to get it listed on as many websites as possible. You will want to prioritize sites like Zillow, Redfin, and Facebook Marketplace.
Let’s move on to our next step in the “How To Sell My House Without a Realtor” guide.
Promote Your Property
When you have listed your house on MLS or other similar sites, promote it by putting up ‘for sale’ signs. You can also place an ad on Craigslist, or even create social media presence to promote the property. Make sure you promote your listing to your friends and family on social media. Incentivize them to share your listing to their friends. Ask your neighbors who they know that would like to move into the neighborhood. Your goal is to get as many eyeballs on your property as possible. Some online forums will charge a small amount for advertising your property but it costs a fraction of what you have to pay as agent’s commission.
Open Houses
An open house is one of the best ways to promote your home. Announce the date for the open house and post signs in the neighborhood. Walk the neighborhood and invite at least 100 neighbors to the open house. Many of them will have friends who would like to move into the neighborhood. Offer refreshments and hand out brochures with pictures of the home to the visitors.
Capitalize on Your Home’s Selling Points
This is extremely important while creating ad copy for listings, websites or brochures. Include basic information, such as the number of rooms and bathrooms as well as the location, size and notable features of the house. List all the notable upgrades you’ve made since you owned the home. If you’ve renovated the kitchen or bathrooms, it’s easy to see in pictures. If you’ve replaced the roof, HVAC, or sewer line, you’ll want to highlight that in writing.
Let Agents Arrange the Showings
When you have prepared your house for open house events and showings by repairing or renovating, the end result has to be a sparkling house. You can also hire a staging service to arrange the house for showings. Remove all personal items or belongings for buyers to establish an immediate connection.
For showings, place a key in a lockbox and stay in touch with buyers or other agents over the phone, if you are not home. As a homeowner, you should never be present for showings. Let prospective buyers and their agents walk the home in peace. If you are utilizing an agent to show your house for you, with a fee that is not based on the commission on the sale price of the house, verify the agent’s identity before you give out your lockbox combination to him.
Negotiate Like an Agent
Real estate agents negotiate by keeping in mind the interests of both parties. Negotiate on terms that can be changed but do not be too flexible. Negotiations later take the form of a contract, which has to be submitted to the seller. Remember, there are thousands of lines to a contract that can be negotiated to make all parties happy so don’t just focus on price.
You can hire a real estate attorney (required by most states) to review all documents and contracts. The process is finalized when both parties sign the contract.
Take Care of the Rules and Regulations
It’s imperative you comply with the laws in your state related to selling homes. A few laws are universal and are applicable to your home selling deal irrespective of your location. The Fair Housing Act specifies that sellers cannot discriminate against buyers for factors including sex, religion and race.
Take Help
FSBO sellers have made way for several resources and professionals who charge a small amount as compared to a typical realtor’s commission. FSBO websites and real estate lawyers are just a few, to name.
Bottom Line
Hopefully our “How to sell my house without a realtor” guide has been helpful. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and spend hours to get your house sold. You’ll basically be taking on a second job during the selling time. It may very well benefit you with thousands of dollars in savings! Always remember, savings like that aren’t easy to come by. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Follow these steps above and the hours you’ll spend will pay you back when you do finally sell.
If you’re thinking this all might be too much and you might be considering other ways to sell your house without a realtor, call us. We are here to help!