For millions of people every year, the home selling process is confusing, convoluted, and sometimes just plain puzzling. That’s why so many reasons to hire a real estate agent.
But that comes with a hefty price tag – upwards of 6% of the sale price which can easily equate to tens of thousands. In this article, we’re going to cover all the fundamental steps to selling your property yourself.
Step1 Prepare Your Home For Buyers
At this point, you’ve made the decision that you’re ready to put your home on sale. But that doesn’t mean your house is ready.
So here are 3 ways to put together your home for prospective buyers:
- Clean it
- Fix it
- Stage it
Similar to when you put a car on sale, you’ll want to ensure that your home looks and smells clean. Not only the interior but even the yard. It is also sharp-witted to make basic repairs, such as putting in that new light bulb in the hallway fixture or touching up the paint on your eaves.
Now that your place is cleaned and fixed up, you’ll require to resolve if you want to show the house with or without your recent furniture.
In some cases, mainly if you’re selling a vacant home or a place that was recently renovated, it may make sense to rent furniture to assist the home stand out. This is defined as staging, and some companies specialize in that service. At a minimum, you may want to think about rearranging or removing some items and decluttering.
Step 2: Promote Your Home
You’ll need to get the word out that your property is for sale. There are two kinds of posting every home requires, and I’m not talking just about social media. The first one is a professional-looking For Sale sign posted in your front yard.
Remember, every time an agent lists a home, this is one of those fundamental steps they follow and there’s a good reason why. Put in the same slightest effort and you’ll be successful too. I’ll share a substantial place where you can order one of those signs in just a minute.
The second thing you’ll need to do is post property ads on various real estate websites. That means creating a captivating listing with professional photos and a well-written description that highlights top features and upgrades. Your goal is to allure as many qualified buyers as fast as possible to see your home.
Pricing Your Home
A critical constituent as you prepare to list your home is pricing strategy.
Pricing it too low can allure multiple offers, but some feel that you may lose out on maximizing your sales price. On the other hand, a value that is too high can result in the house sitting on the market.
Step 3: Show Your Home
Now that your home is on the market, purchasers or their agents will contact you to schedule a time to see your house.
Some may rather have a virtual tour using FaceTime or Zoom but most will want to visit that person. This visit is known as showing or viewing. Home pie’s free viewing scheduler makes it simple for both buyers and sellers to coordinate a time and method.
The showing stage is where things get exciting. You can accept your first offer, then another, and maybe another. This is defined as a multiple offer situation, which can be a bit challenging if you don’t have a way to arrange and contrast the offers.
In a traditional process, it can also be arduous and inefficient for purchasers to submit offers as there’s a lot of paperwork involved.
However, when you have buyers submit offers through the Homepage. It only takes a few minutes to dispatch an offer and you can instantly review them on your dashboard. Here you can contrast all of your offers and even counter any terms with just a few easy clicks.
Step 4: Sign the FSBO Contract
You could lease a real estate lawyer to draft a contract for you or try to navigate the contract given by a buyer’s agent.
But if you use Home pie, once you and the buyer agree on the final terms of the sale a purchase agreement is automatically generated with all those agreed-upon terms included.
Step #5: Close Escrow
The final step. This is also known as Escrow.
Escrow is a term aided to describe the period between when a Purchase Agreement is fully carried out and the sale closes.
In some states, this process is managed by a Closing Attorney, and in other states, it is handled by an escrow company. Either way, they help facilitate the transaction by ensuring that the agreed-to terms are met by both sides. They have contemplated the neutral third party in your transaction.
To open escrow, the escrow agent, or attorney will need your fully signed purchase agreement. And that’s when the fun begins.