If you could keep most of the profit from selling your house, why wouldn’t you? This is a question many American homeowners ask themselves when they list their properties on the market. Now, instead of using a full-service real estate agent, savvy homeowners are learning how to sell a house by owner and embracing easy alternatives to the typical real estate sale.
If you’re considering joining these homeowners, saving four figures and more every time they sell a home, this complete guide on how to sell a house by owner should help you get started. The steps and tips outlined in this guide can also help you if you want to know how to wholesale real estate.
Step-by-Step Guide on How to Sell a House by Owner (With Tremendous Success)
If you want to achieve success when selling your home without the assistance of a real estate agent or brokerage, you should avoid diving into the process without the proper preparation. Thankfully, this comprehensive guide ensures you can sell your home for the above asking price.
It’s also important to note that many of the steps when completing a sale using for sale by owner websites are the same as those you’d complete when using a full-service real estate, with the primary deviation being that you control the process and, by extension, the cost of selling your home.
Step 1: Prepare and Budget For the Home For Sale
Before you sell your home, complete significant repairs that may be off-putting for buyers and will be revealed during the inspection. You can also spend money on refreshing the property, deep cleaning, regrouting, painting, and focusing on the lawn. homes for sale in Tennessee. Now that you have considered moving. Tennessee can be the perfect destination for your new home. You will find many homes for sale in Tennessee that will break your budget in this emotional state.
These are the same steps a full-service agent would recommend you complete before listing your property.
However, they may also suggest some cosmetic renovations. These aren’t necessary when completing an FSBO sale, as purely aesthetic renovations are subjective and may not appeal to a large portion of buyers.
During this step, you should also budget for repairs and other costs associated with preparing your home for sale so you don’t spend more than necessary to secure a lucrative sale.
When developing your budget, include the cost of repairs, cleaning, professional photography, and the flat fee MLS payment.
Step 2: Prepare Documentation For Sale
To save time and avoid stress later in the process, prepare all necessary documentation to sell your home.
- Property disclosures
- Preliminary Title Report
- Covenants, restrictions, and HOA or POA rules
- Lead-based paint disclosures
- Warranties on work completed on the home and appliances used within the home
Any document relating to your ownership should also be unearthed and digitized, to make it easier to relinquish this information when necessary.
Want to know about the paperwork involved while selling your home? Check out paperwork for selling a house without a realtor.
Step 3: Have Your Home Professionally Photographed
Once you have your documentation, get your home professionally photographed. Most flat fee MLS will allow you to upload between 20 to 24 images of your property on their most value-intensive pricing option. However, you may need to do some research to determine how many photographs homes in your price range and neighborhood have on websites like Zillow. Doing this will give you a better perspective on how many photographs your home will need.
Nevertheless, depending on the number of photographs you choose, you could spend anywhere from $200 to $400 on HD property photographs.
If you’re shocked by the cost, consider: that you’d spend far more on photographs when hiring a real estate agent; however, these costs are hidden as they aren’t paid upfront unless you decide to cancel the real estate contract without a sale.
Step 4: Find a Suitable Flat Fee MLS
This is the most critical step in an FSBO sale, as the success of your sale rests on the flat fee MLS you choose to list your home.
Ideally, you want to find an MLS that is:
- Versatile: Your flat fee MLS should enable you to determine the level of assistance you receive and the features you can access.
- Cost-effective: The service should provide value for the price they’re requiring you to pay.
- Supportive: The flat fee MLS should offer support in the form of features available to you as a seller and assistance from a dedicated support team.
- Feature-Rich: Your flat fee MLS should provide features that make it easier to find a buyer for your home.
As FSBO sales have become popular, the number of companies offering such services has as well. But of the hundreds available, only about a dozen operate nationwide, and even among these, fewer offer exceptional services.
Houzeo ranks among the best flat fee MLS companies for inexperienced and experienced sellers, whereas FSBO.com is ideal for seasoned sellers. You can check out Houzeo reviews to know more about them.
Step 5: Select an Attractive Buyer Agent Commission
Another critical step in this equation is choosing the buyer agent commission. When using a full-service real estate agent, you don’t get to decide on the buyer agent commission. Instead, your agent will determine the commission. Typically, this is 2 percent or 2.5 percent depending on the area, meaning the remaining 4 percent, or 3.5 percent, you spend on commission goes to your listing agent.
When you forego hiring a full-service agent, you have the responsibility to choose a buyer agent commission.
You’re already saving upwards of four figures in listing agent commission, you don’t want to be too stingy with your buyer agent commission, only to delay the process and end up selling below market value.
Therefore, you should aim to offer the same commission as a listing agent would to a buyer’s agent — between 2 and 2.5 percent — if you want your home to be inundated with serious potential buyers, you could consider listing at 2.75 percent or 3 percent.
However, if you want the ability to gain control of the seller’s agent commission, you need to list it on Houzeo.
Step 6: Negotiate With Potential Buyers
If you’re not using a service like Houzeo or Beycome – only available in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, California, Illinois, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Connecticut – you’ll need counteroffer forms during the negotiating process.
Thankfully, both Houzeo and Beycome offer these within their packages, with Houzeo digitizing the forms, making receiving offers, and countering offers straightforward.
Step 7: Complete Closing
During closing, you’ll have to comply with several state and banking requirements to ensure the deal doesn’t fall through. This is where having a closing coordinator — the kind Beycome offers on their website — will come in handy.
Beycome isn’t the only website to offer this convenient service; Houzeo also offers a virtual broker that assists at closing so that you’re not overwhelmed by the kind of steps you need to take.
Contemplating how to sell a house by owner can be daunting; taking action on selling your home is even more nerve-wracking. These steps are designed to help you navigate this uncertainty with greater confidence. Who knows, after perfecting the FSBO sale format, you could start searching how to wholesale real estate.
