Making "For Sale By Owner" A Reality

By Ken Hamric

There is a rising trend in home sale in this country, selling your home yourself. Many home owners have come to terms with the fact that with a bit or education and effort they can sell their homes without the aid of a realtor and save some money on commissions. Now, understand that selling your home yourself does take quite a bit more effort than sitting back and letting an agent do all the work, but the final outcome can be quite profitable if the situation is handled correctly. So let's have a brief look at some of the tactics that the average owner can utilize to sell their home without using a real estate agent.

The first step in this process will be having a complete home evaluation done. In order to be competitive with other homes for sale you will need to know the selling value of your home. This is not what you think the home should sell for but what the market dictates that your home should be sold for. Pricing your home from an emotional standpoint almost never results in success. If you want further confirmation of the proper asking price, have a few agents do a CMA on your home. This is a free service that most agents will provide and will give you a good idea of what you should list the home for.

Now let's consider the marketing of your home. Typically agents have quite the advertising budget for home they list but this can be easily remedied by finding a few good FSBO listing sites and perhaps considering a flat-fee MLS listing. The idea behind the MLS listing is that local agents will have access to your home and it's particulars so it becomes a viable option for their clients and you would be remiss to eliminate ANY clients that may be interested in your home.

If you have thought about holding open houses then make sure you have planned ahead for this event. It will be quite different from an agent's open house as you have the ability to impart much more info about the home, just be careful that you don't get too caught up in the memories and make visitors uncomfortable. After all they will want to be able to form their own opinions on the home and their own memories there if they buy it without having to remember about events good or bad that you told them about. Also, viewers may be hesitant to express their true opinions to you the owner so be open minded and don't take it personally if someone has some negative feedback for you. Take it graciously and use it to improve the way your home shows.

Ken Hamric is a representative of http://www.homesbyowner.com. Homes By Owner is an intuitive site that allows you to advertise your FSBO home in over 900 metro areas of the U.S.
and Canada. Come and check out the largest network of FSBO experts in North America.