Tips for a Successful “For Sale by Owner” Deal

If you need to sell your home soon due to a relocation, expanding family, need to downsize, or some other reason, you’ll probably go straight to some realtors to chat with them about what your property might fetch on the market and what fees they charge. 

For some people, it feels more appropriate to try and sell the home themselves, without a realtor. If you decide to go down this path, it pays to know some of the top tips for a successful “For Sale By Owner” deal.

Research What Other Homes are Selling For and Their Inclusions

Start by researching other homes for sale in your neighborhood or that have sold recently to see what prices comparable properties are asking and fetching. While you can read a lot of data online, it also pays to go through as many open homes as possible because this will give you a feel for places, and you can see the quality of the design, room sizes, and the types of inclusions. It also pays to chat with realtors about how the market is currently performing.

Once you’ve educated yourself on the current state of the market and compared your property to others that have recently sold or are currently listed, you’ll have a much better idea of roughly what to expect for your home and what list price to put on it a. You don’t want to do yourself a disservice by positioning your home as too expensive to generate enough interest or, conversely, too cheap and missing out on extra dollars as a result. Research will help you get the balance right.

Get Your Home as Presentable as Possible

Next, spend plenty of time freshening up your home and making it as presentable as possible. While you may not have the time, money, or energy to do extensive renovations to bring your home up to date in certain areas, and it may not be worth the investment anyway, there are likely to be some jobs you can do to help your home look its best for potential buyers.

For instance, you may want to swap out ancient appliances, paint the home’s interior, get repairs attended to, focus on some landscaping, and replace dated light fixtures, door handles, and other fittings. Consider the type of buyer you’re hoping to attract and the key features they’re after, and set your home up accordingly. For instance, if you know many buyers in your suburb are looking for a home office, you might set a guest bedroom up with a desk and some shelving to show how it can also be an office or take advantage of an otherwise underutilized nook by installing a desk in it. 

In addition, it’s best to declutter your home so it looks bigger and fresher and it’s easier for people to imagine putting their own belongings inside. Plus, consider having a stager help decorate the home if needed to show it off in its best light. Keep tones neutral to suit all different tastes and put away lots of personal items of your own, such as photos and the like, which might distract potential buyers. 

Market Your Property Effectively

Of course, one of the most vital parts of selling your home yourself is working out how to market it appropriately. When you go down the “For Sale by Owner” route, you don’t have the typical agent resources available to you, but you can still have a strong marketing push. Get quality videos and photographs made up to help display your home online and create brochures that homebuyers can take with them from an inspection. 

You may want to consider paying to get your home added to an MLS (multiple listing service) so as many people as possible learn your home is for sale and can contact you to come and check it out, plus you might advertise in local papers and magazines or on other real estate and general websites. 

Keep in mind when listing your personal details for people to contact you on that this does make the information public. It’s wise to download quality security software onto all your devices to help keep hackers and scammers at bay. You can utilize a Trend Micro trial to test out a market-leading product from a trusted brand or investigate other offerings available to you. In addition, it helps to set up the firewall that is likely already pre-installed on your computer, as it will add another layer of defense against those who try to break into your systems via the internet. 

Other tips for selling your home successfully yourself are to run plenty of open homes, qualify buyers, negotiate carefully, and know your bottom line you’ll accept for the sale. 

Also, it’s often worth paying to utilize the services of an attorney or other expert to help with some aspects of the transaction and property transfer, etc. Follow these steps, and you’ll hopefully be celebrating a home sale in no time.