How To Sell Your Own Home – What’s Wrong?

You want to know “Why Can’t I Sell My Own Home?”

Well, there could be several reasons all of which you can do something about. Selling your own home is often muddled by over looking the details. Here is list of reasons I’ve put together using Deane Alban’s book “The Truth About FSBO”

• Your Sign SucksThis may be the single biggest mistakes sale by owner properties have against them. If you’re going to sell your own home you obviously need to get your own “for sale” sign. Since many people are in the saving money mindset when they decide to sell their own home thru FSBO methods they don’t stop to think about what the quality of their sign says about their home.If you’re selling your home you simply can not afford to use a cheap sign. That cheap sign tells prospective buyers a lot of things that simply may not be true. That you don’t really want to sell your home, that you may have skimped on other things in your house, that you don’t know what you are doing, or worst of all that you might be desperate to sell your home on your own. You get the picture.Have a professional sign made.
• House Makes Bad First Impression Before you attempt to sell your own home in for sale by owner market go out to the street and take good long look at the front of your house. Is there paint peeling? Is your lawn nicely manicured? Does the landscaping look attractive?No matter what’s inside or behind your home, or how nice those areas look, no prospective buyers are going to knock on your front door if it looks like it’s about to fall off the hinges. When we are living in our homes we tend to focus on the areas we look at most: the interior or the backyard. When you are selling your home, the front of your house has got to shout: Buy This House!Trim your hedges, paint the front door, replace any worn out light fixtures, repair any broken windows or screens, and remove anything that does not need to be on your front porch like kid’s toys or your husbands work boots. The appearance of the front of your home is known as “curb appeal”. It’s what make buyers want to take a closer look, and if you don’t get them in for a closer look you’ll not sell your home.
• The House Looks Vacant – When your home is vacant, buyers assume you are in dire need to sell your home and will not want to make a fair offer because they are convinced you need to sell and will sell at a lower then fair market price. Especially when you’re selling your home on your own. If possible stay in your home until it’s sold. If you have to move into your new home then leave as much furniture behind as you can to make the house look occupied. Borrow some furniture from friend if you have to and do not use pictures of empty rooms in any of your advertisements. Also leave your curtains and drapes in place and make sure that some one keeps up with lawn.
• The Price Is Too High – One of the hardest things to do when doing an FSBO home is determining what your house is actually worth. Many people have an inflated view of their home because they think buyers will jump at the chance to own all of the remodeling or decorating they’ve done. The truth is that most buyers place no value on your decorating skills and will strip the wallpaper and repaint the house as soon as they move in. If you sell your own home you can afford to have a professional appraisal done. This will not only help you set the correct price for your home, but will allow you to set an asking price for your house that will get potential buyers in to see it. Another way to get a free appraisal is to request a market analysis from a real estate agent. Agents are always on the look out for a potential client and are more than eager to get this for you. Just be prepared when they try to get you as a client.
• You Hired A Friend As Your Agent – Let’s be honest here. Only about 25% of real estate agent really have a clue what they are doing. The rest are part timers or newbies just looking to pick up some extra cash. Just because you have a friend who is is an agent doesn’t mean you should call them up and say “Sell my house.” What happens when you discover they don’t know what they’re doing? Can you fire them? Better not to have gone there in the first place especially when you can learn how to sell your home on your own.
• Bad Marketing – Your home is not selling because you’re doing a lousy job of selling your home. A “For Sale By Owner” sign in the front yard is not enough. You must get your house listed on as many FSBO websites as you can as well as any other local media you can advertise in. All the potential home buyers are not driving down your street. The home I currently live in is in a town within 6 miles of my last home that I hadn’t even been in for 20 years. Now I live there. Think outside your area also. Very outside. A potential buyer could be someone who is moving into the area from another state. Advertise anywhere and everywhere.
• Your House Isn’t Ready – You’re ready to do a sale by owner but is your house ready? Have all repairs been made? Have you clean the gutters, washed down the deck, did whatever repainting needed done? Have you removed all the clutter and junk that may be piled up in your closets. A home needs to look lived in, but also very tidy. It also needs to look ready to move in and even though that potential buyer is planning to repaint everything, they still don’t want to buy a house that looks like it needs to be painted.Remove all personal items from your home and get rid of any junk you have piled up anywhere. Your house needs to look lived in but not look like you live there. Your buyer needs to be able to see themselves living there not see how you lived there. And they do not want to finish remodeling projects that you have started. Either finish them OR tear down what you’ve already done. Here some fast tips to get ready to sell your own home.
• Your selling Plan Is “Selling My Own Home” – That’s not a plan that’s a goal. Before you even start to sell your home you need a plan to market it. Where will you list it? Or you going to try and sell quickly by offering it at a lower price, or can you afford to wait to get the full asking price? Buyers need a reason to pick your house over another. If you can wait for the full price then the house needs to be in top condition before you put it up for sale. If you need to sell your own home quickly then you will have to be willing to take less money and should make your initial asking price lower.
• Not Understanding How Selling Your Own Home Works – Since you are not using an agent, you will need to learn how the whole process works. selling your own home can be simple if you know what to do but not knowing can lead to costly mistakes and having deals fall through because you did not know what you needed to do. But anyone can learn.
• Relying On An Agent To Sell- A listing agent’s number one goal is not to sell your house. Absolutely not. His number one goal is to get your listing. Once it’s listed and they talked you into whatever price they think will work to their advantage, they quickly move on to their next listing.The idea is to get as many listings as possible and then let someone else’s buyer agent come through and talk their clients into buying somebody’s house. Maybe not yours, but your agent doesn’t care. He’s only concerned that one of his listings sells, not whether your home sells. More than likely he will never bring a buyer to your home but once it sells he’ll gladly take his commission. Does that seem fair to you? The truth is that doing a for sale by owner can get you home sold a lot faster for a lot more money and will save thousands in commissions. You just have to know how to do it. And there aren’t many real estate agents out there who are going to teach you how to sell your own house. But you can learn how to do it. You can sell your own house. Click here to learn where to advertise your house for sale.

Til next time.

Information provided by Deane Alban. Deane Alban is an experienced real estate investor and author of The Truth About FSBO – Complete Selling System.

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