Preparing to Sell Your Home

• Preparing to sell FSBO takes more than just getting the home ready; YOU need to get ready.
  
  
• Recognize that if you are to be successful, you must understand the process and develop realistic expectations.
  
  

• Be unemotional about the sale.  Your home has meant a lot to you over the years but your buyer is not looking at the purchase through your eyes. Once you decide to sell your home, it simply becomes a business transaction and you must take the emotion out of it.

Here are a few of the "Must Do's" that have been suggested by many successful FSBO’s over the years.

1. Educate yourself on how long similar homes in your area are on the market before they sell.  You must be realistic or you can become prematurely disillusioned when you think your house should sell in a matter of days, when in fact the market dictates that it will take two to three months.  If you should sell sooner than expected, wonderful.
   
   
   
2. Price the home at its true market value, not what you just think it’s worth.  Pricing should be based on market conditions, not emotion.
   
   
3. Prepare to spend some money on advertising.  You must let the market know your home is for sale.
   
   
4. Understand that you will spend time answering phone calls, setting appointments and showing the home. Your rewards are well worth it.
   
   
5. Be prepared to handle real estate agents.  Know ahead of time whether or not, and to what extent, you will cooperate with agents.  You may decide that you will want to offer a "half" commission (typically 2.5 -3.5%) to an agent if they bring a buyer to see your property who ultimately ends up purchasing it.

Pricing your Home is the key to Success!

Establishing the correct sales price for your home is the most important step in selling your own property. You should begin by making a few phone calls. 

Determine the asking price of similar homes in your area which are currently on the market, and find out how long they’ve been on the market.  Also, find out the actual selling price of similar homes that have recently sold in your area.  Many cities have companies that provide this service, usually called a "market analysis" or "comparable sales report"; it’s an inexpensive way to get started.  Many sellers will interview Realtors just to get opinions. 

Now that you have an idea of value, hire a real estate appraiser.  The cost of a third party professional opinion is money well spent, it is an accurate assessment of the market value of your home and excludes the emotion and wishful thinking of the homeseller.  Also, the appraisal can be a valuable marketing tool when buyers begin to question the sales price on the home.  Buyers are aware; they’ve been looking and generally know what a property is worth.  Buyers will not make an offer on an overpriced home. An appraisal takes the guesswork out of it for everyone.

Overpricing means you will spend time, money and effort and get nothing for it... except discouraged.  It’s a given that your home will sit there, unsold, all because you didn’t establish a fair market price.  Don’t forget that selling your own home gives you a tremendous pricing advantage. 

More than likely the homes the appraiser used as comparables, and even the ones you’ve investigated, probably involved the costs of a real estate agent.  In other words, even though a house sold for $200,000, the home seller netted $10,000 to $14,000 less because real estate commissions were paid.  You can now price your appraised $200,000 home for $195,000, and probably sell it faster.  More importantly, you'll walk away from the closing with more money because of the competitive price.

You must recognize that the successful sale
of your home depends on you.

You must coordinate the process and see it through.  Most of the effort requires no more than making a few telephone calls. 

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