5 Selling Home by Owner Tips

          

1) Set a Fair Price

Be sure to do your homework on the market value of homes similar to yours and in your neighborhood.  If you had to choose, are you more concerned with selling quickly, or getting the most money possible? What would you pay for the house if you were the buyer? Someone else -- a neighbor, friend or relative -- may point out advantages or disadvantages about your house that you hadn't thought about. Third-party views will help you start thinking of your house as a commodity, with positive and negative selling points. Then you should decide on a price that you feel is competitive and consistent with what other houses in your area have sold for.  You may want to consider offering a "Finders Fee" to any realtor who is looking to find a home for a client.  Real estate agents browse this site but would only consider your home for their client if they are going to receive a finders fee, a small percentage of the sale.  You can state in your listing whether agents are welcome.

2) Do Your "Fix-Ups" Before Selling

Unless your house is nearly new, chances are you'll want to do some work to get it ready to market. The type and amount of work depends largely on the price you're asking, the time you have to sell, and of course, the present condition of the house. If you're in a hurry to sell, do the "little things" that make your house look better from the outside and show better inside. Paint rooms that need it and remove or replace any worn-out carpets.

3) Show Your House Off!!

Make sure your house looks as clean and spacious as possible when showing it to potential buyers. Remember, people may look behind your doors -- closets and crawl space doors as well as those in the bedrooms and bathrooms. So get rid of all the clutter; have that garage sale and haul away the leftovers.  After you've cleaned, try to correct any cosmetic flaws you've noticed.  Finally, as with the outside of your house, try to make it easy for prospective buyers to imagine your house as their home. Clear as much from your walls, shelves, and countertops as you can. Give your prospects plenty of room to dream.  It is also a good idea to plan and schedule OPEN HOUSES to draw in potential buyers.

4) Advertise Your Home

There are 3 key areas that will help you sell a home by owner.  The first is a simple sign in your yard or window.  Signs are highly effective within your immediate neighborhood and increase the visibility of your home for sale.  We offer the option to add a professional sign package with every new listing on CanadaHomesForSale.ca.  The second is advertising in a newspaper.  Newspaper advertising is effective but is also very expensive, commonly about $100-130 per week.  The third option is obviously listing your home on the internet.  CanadaHomesForSale.ca offers you a 6 month listing service where you can have full details of your home, complete with pictures, for a fraction of the cost of newspaper advertising, where you would only get 3 lines of text.  So what is the best option?  For a truly effective advertising campaign we suggest a combination of all three advertising choices.  Add the Sign Package to your listing submission, Add a Listing to CHFS.ca and put in sporadic weekend ads into a newspaper.  Or even better start a complete advertising campaign through our FSBO Package.  This combination of all three advertising medias will maximize the number of people who will see your house for sale and increase the opportunity for selling it.

*IMPORTANT - When adding your home to CanadaHomesForSale.ca be sure to take the best pictures possible of your home.  Take outside pictures on a bright day, use different views to your advantage.  The pictures will often make or break online home listings.

5) Be Prepared to Sell

If you have potential buyers looking at your home be sure that you have all of your paperwork in order and be prepared finish the transaction if the buyer is interested.  Seal a deal before things can change!  You should have hired a lawyer or notary public to advise you on legal matters and to conduct the real estate transaction.  They will also provide you with all the forms necessary to sell your home.  If accepting an offer from a potential buyer, only accept written offers, preferable on the forms provided to you by the lawyer or notary public.  If you are going to accept an offer, or make a counter-offer, be sure to have the lawyer or notary public review what you are going to sign.  Once that is complete - Congratulations!!