Real estate agents don't want you to sell you home yourself (FSBO) because they want you to list it with them so they can make money on the sale of your home. Selling your home yourself avoids paying them their cut of the sale and puts more money in your pocket, right? No agent wants to admit it, but it is true. It is very much possible to sell your home yourself!

First and foremost you need to understand what selling your home FSBO means and be willing to put the time effort and dedication in! Start by educating yourself. Go to your local book store or library and pick up a couple books on selling FSBO. They will give you an idea of the process you are headed into. Beyond that you need to put some time and thought into:

• What you need to get ready to go FSBO
• Pricing your home properly
• Methods of marketing
• Scheduling showings
• Negotiating the sale
• Closing the deal

Each of these are critical steps to selling your home for the best price possible!

After you have gotten your education on selling your home by yourself in, it is time to get all of your resources together. You will definitely need purchase and sale agreements, and depending on your location, should have property disclosure forms filled out. Do some looking around in your area for a closing agent and escrow company to handle the closing paperwork after you have gotten a buyer. Give some consideration to the staging of your home. Is it really ready for buyers to see? There are professional staging people in most areas that can advise you on how to prepare your home to most appeal to buyers. Lastly, be prepared to face and onslaught of real estate agents wanting to list your home. Most will use tactics to beat you down and make you feel like you can't do it on your own, or pressure you into listing. But believe me, if you advertise it, they will call; and send letters; and knock on your door.

For a real estate agent that is taking a listing, the most vital thing that they do is price a property correctly. This too is something that you must do. Research the homes that are in your immediate neighborhood and see what they are selling for. Adjust for location differences like busy streets, power lines, scary neighbors. Does your home have more or less bedrooms and baths than the neighbors? Are all your features up to date? If all the other homes in your area have granite countertops and you have old laminate, it will affect your sales price, as will the dated gold bathroom and red shag carpet. Give some consideration to the way your local market is moving as well as the real estate market overall. In the greater Seattle area where I work, it is very possible to have houses moving up in value very quickly a short distance from homes that are stagnating or even falling in value. If you live in a state where real estate sales are public information, go to your county office and see what properties in your neighborhood have actually sold for. Comparing sold prices to the price of homes currently on the market will tell you a lot about how to price your property. The last factor to give thought to is that you are selling your home without an agent and buyers know that. Most people assume that they can knock 10% off a FSBO's price in comparison to a listed homes price because they know you aren't paying any Realtor fees.

The biggest disadvantage you have in going the FSBO route is lack of exposure. Properties listed by real estate agents go into the local multiple listing service (MLS) and are searched by virtually every agent. As a FSBO you need to overcome that and make sure that potential buyers know about your home. The most obvious tool is a sign. Try to find a local sign placement company that will put a professional yard arm in you yard to hand a sign from. Buyers have been conditioned to look for those types of signs, so make sure yours is on one. When you put your sign up, be sure to put your number on it in BIG numbers. Remember that they need to be able to read it from their car. Be sure to get flyers printed and put some in a holder out with your For Sale sign. Color flyers are best, but black and white will do in a pinch. Where you run ads is a difficult question. In different areas newspaper ads work well, or in areas like mine they are nearly worthless. Most buyers start their home search on line, so consider listing your home on one of the many FSBO websites. Other alternatives are online classifieds and sites like CraigsList. Be sure to spread the word in person as well. Take flyers to any social gatherings, church meetings and so on that you attend. Remember that you are going to have to make up for not having your property in the MLS, so it is up to you to make sure that potential home buyers know about your FSBO property.

I won't lie, this is one place where you will be at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to selling your home yourself. A listed property with a key box is available for buyers to see virtually at any time. Most homeowners have lives apart from selling their homes and have to schedule showings around other activities. Buyers tend to be fickle and if they can't get in to see a home when they want to, will go on to the next property. When you are showing your home, try to stay detached from it and do your best not to go into long explanations about your home. Remember that the buyers are going to want to make this their home and aren't interested in how much you have enjoyed living there. Hovering over the buyers as they inspect your home will generally make them feel nervous and speed them through looking at your home. With all of my clients, I tell them that if their home is being shown that they should do their best to not be there, and if they have to be, then stay out of the way and let the agent that is with the buyers lead them around. Obviously you don't want to leave strangers wandering around your home, but you do need to balance how much you interact with them. This leads me to the last item which is security. It is not common, but it does happen that criminals will visit homes for sale to case the property or even steal items during showings. Try to screen prospective buyers on the phone and determine if they sound like the real deal. Real estate agents have the advantage of screening their clients first and prequalifying them, and in many locations the lock box records what agents have come into your home. This deters criminal activity, and is just one thing that you must consider and plan for.

Remember that the buyers don't see your home the way that you do. You love your home, you have lived there and have ties to it. They don't! When you do get an offer on your property remember to take a step back and enter the negotiation process with a certain level of detachment. The first offer may be way too low. How will you counter? Too high and you might drive them off, too low and you lose money. Consider also how fast they can close, what their financing looks like and what your needs are. The art of negotiating a sale can be tricky. Of course you may get lucky and have a buyer walk in and say “I'll take it!” but most likely you will need to do some negotiations before you reach a deal.

After the purchase and sale is signed around is where more deals are lost than anywhere else. In my experience this is where a good real estate agent really earns their money. Anyone can do a real estate transaction when it goes smooth, but not all of them do. Once you have a signed and agreed upon purchase and sale agreement you need to talk to your escrow company and get things moving. There is title insurance to order, and most likely the buyers will want a home inspection done. Depending on what the home inspector finds, there may need to be some further negotiations as to price and what will and won't be fixed. Few homes come back from the inspections 100% perfect. I have seen many dollars lost and deals crash in flames because of ispection reports that were excessively picky, or not presented to the buyers correctly. The other variable that is will be harder for you to control is the buyer's financing. Many times there are hang ups with the paper work on the buyers end, with documentation that needs to be turned in to the lender and items that need to be verified. Try to stay in contact with the buyers lender and find out how things are progressing. No one likes to find out three days before closing that a vital piece of paper never made it to the lender. Final closing will most likely take place at the escrow company's office. Sign those and you are all done!

Despite all the how to books and friends that have done it without problems, selling your home generally isn't easy. It is very much something you can do on your own, especially if you have bought and sold homes in the past. However done improperly it can cost you significant amounts of time and money. Mis-pricing your home, or not giving it proper exposure can leave you home on the market for extended times and that can make tag it 'shop worn' and actually reduce what it sells for to below what it might otherwise be worth.

Do you need advice on selling your home? If selling your home yourself isn't for you, if you are tired of hearing from agens how stupid you are for trying to sell your home yourself, or are just plain ready for someone else to deal with marketing your property, feel free to give me a call. I will sit down with you and discuss your needs and what my team and I can do to get your property sold!

Jacqueline Cliff - Realtor

Re/Max Champions

19312 60th Ave W

Lynnwood, WA 98036

425-773-3149