If you’re going to sell your home without a Realtor, please take a moment to read some lessons learned to avoid making common mistakes:
1) Do It Yourself Marketing – A yard sign is good, but it’s not good enough. You are most likely to get calls from neighbors who are sizing up the market or from people who want to buy a home but cannot afford your home. Those with poor credit often need professional guidance to get them qualified and it’s a waste of time to show them your property today. If you put directional signs all over town, you will get 25-30 nonqualified applicants for every 1 applicant that may qualify. Unqualified Buyers are not going to help you sell your home. Craigslist is not a practical way to shop for a home making it an unpractical way to find buyers. The Buyers here may be qualified but the odds are slim that they want to live in your neighborhood and less that they want to live in your house. It’s a needle in a haystack.
2) Avoiding Other Realtors to Save Money – Other Realtors are your best shot at selling your home, hands down. They have buyers who are generally prequalified financially to pay your asking price and their buyers are looking for a home that is similar to yours. Other Realtors will not bring you a buyer if you do not offer to pay them a commission because almost every other Seller in your neighborhood will. The 2.5% – 3.0% commission you offer them is worth every penny.
3) Over-Pricing – There is no benefit in overpricing a home. A properly priced home will bring you consistent home showings, which should lead to receiving offers. Even if you secure a contract on an overpriced home, it is very unlikely that it will appraise at the contract price.
4) Slow Start - It’s important that you prepare before offering your home for sale. When you put your home on the MLS, your first two weeks are important because that’s when the most prospects will see your home. First impressions are everything as it’s very hard to get people to come back after they’ve dismissed your home. If a Realtor dismisses your home, you may be losing future prospects as well. This also hurts because your home will start to build a negative reputation the longer it sits on the market. A Realtor who see’s that a home has been on the market for a year without a sale may assume something is wrong with the house. This applys to #3 above as well when a home languishes on the market because it’s overpriced.
5) The Unprepared - Before signing a purchase agreement with a Buyer, you want to prequalify their ability to perform. It’s easy for them to make you an offer but it’s often more difficult for them to get a bank to agree to pay for the purchase. Once a contract has been secured, there’s still a lot of work to be done. There will be inspections, appraisals, and deadlines. The period from Contract to Close should be approached with a lot of communication and preparation.
The Sellers Direct Solution provides you the tools to be successful by making your marketing exposure competative with the rest of the market. To learn more about how, please check out our Sellers Direct information page.
