Selling Your Home Without An Agent

(When selling a home you have two options: you can either sell it on your own (for sale by owner) or hire a real estate agent. )

There are benefits and disadvantages to each way of doing a home sale transaction; it just depends on your specific financial situation.

If you are braving the real estate world without an agent and going the FSBO route, you should make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

A recent article posted on re-articles.com by Alan Kirchain, “Top 10 FSBO tips to selling your home by owner,” gives some helpful advice to anyone looking to sell their home by themselves.

“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. You can sell your own home and save thousands, but it takes work and commitment.”

Obviously, selling a home without an agent is going to take a considerably larger amount of work than just hiring an agent would take.

The first thing you need to do to increase your odds of completing a home sale transaction by yourself much sooner is to understand the market that you are in.

“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.”

Analyzing and understanding your current market will help you to get a good idea of what to price your home at. In today’s market, the price is the most important thing to consider when looking to sell your home.

“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.”

Although it may seem like a grand idea to think you can handle the whole sale by yourself, you are going to need a little help along the way.

“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.”

One other important thing to consider in a FSBO transaction is the way you advertise and market your home to potential buyers. You need to make sure its presence is known or else you won’t have any prospective buyers.

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