When it comes to selling a home, there is a lot of pressure on the seller to partner up with a professional real estate agent. But what if you want to go solo?
Here’s a quick guide on how to sell your house without a real estate agent and why it might not be such a crazy idea after all.
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Why Is There So Much Insistence on Selling a Home With a Real Estate Agent?
Real estate agents need listings to make a living. That said, just because they sell houses for a living doesn’t mean that all of them are good at it.
Although there are certainly some talented real estate agents out there, many sellers get stuck with an agent that is uncommunicative and lacks salesmanship.
No one wants to pay a percentage of the sale price for a real estate agent that didn’t make much of an effort.
The average commission for real estate agents is somewhere around 6%. That 6% might not sound like much at first, but let’s put it in perspective.
The commission on the sale of a $500,000 home would be $30,000. That’s a lot of cheddar!
How to Sell Your House Like a Pro on Your Own
Selling a home independently takes gumption. Your first step should be to determine the value of your property.
Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a real estate agent to tell you how much your house is worth. All you need to do is have an appraisal.
Your next step should be to prepare your home for showings. The key to preparing your home for showings is to stage it.
Staging your home may require renting a storage unit.
You will want to reduce the amount of furniture and make everything appear more spacious.
There are many how to stage a home videos that can help you do it well.
When buyers see a home that is cluttered, they won’t be able to visualize the true potential of the property.
Some sellers try to cram all of their clutter into one or two rooms or spread it out all over the house in hopes of making it less noticeable.
Unfortunately, this tactic seldom works, which is why it’s so important to rent a storage unit instead.
Once your home is free of clutter and is staged to sell, it’s time to officially put it up for sale.
If you want to skip all the decluttering process, you can also sell your home directly to a real estate investor like The Local House Buyers. Investors typically buy houses in as-is conditions, which means they can get rid of your unwanted stuff.
You may need an official appraisal to know what to list it for. However, you can also look at what houses are selling for in your neighborhood and discover a price range that makes sense.
Sellers have a vast array of online tools that can make it easy to market your own property without a real estate agent.
Start out by listing it on major sites like Zillow and work your way down to smaller platforms. You could also produce flyers to send to potential buyers.
Finally, you will need to organize and host an open house event.
When you schedule your open house, make sure you have advertised it heavily and gotten the word out.
You will want to put signs at the junctions of your neighborhood and main roads. Then use more signs to lead people toward the house.
Invest in a High-quality ‘for-sale’ Sign
While it’s important to take lots of high-quality pictures of the interior and exterior, you also need to invest in a high-quality for-sale sign.
Since you won’t have a for-sale sign from a real estate agent, you will need to find an appealing sign on your own.
If you expect your home to be a big earner, get a custom for-sale sign made for you. There are, of course, the conventional black and orange or red and white for sale signs that you can find at the store.
Using Social Media to Sell a Home
If you aren’t going to work with a real estate agent, you will need to market your home on social media.
You can market your home on social media by joining real estate groups and posting links to your home’s listing on property apps.
Also, be sure to tell your friends and family that you are selling your house by owner and ask them to share a few posts to spread the word.
Handling the Paperwork
The final step is to handle the paperwork. Once the staging and marketing have paid off and you have an offer, you will need to manage the paperwork to close the deal.
You can easily facilitate the paperwork by working with a closing attorney or a title agent.
Voila! You’re ready to sell your home on your own!