5 Best Practices For Selling Your Own Home

Selling your own home is something few people attempt. However, it’s a great strategy if you’re looking to minimize fees. When you sell a home without an agent, you avoid commissions. So, you’ll get to pocket everything from the sale. Here are a few tips that can help you to sell yours successfully.

1. Enroll in a Training Course

Above all, we recommend enrolling in a real estate training course. You’ll learn all the ins and outs of the real estate transaction process. When you’re dealing with your largest asset, you don’t want any mistakes. Everything from accepting offers to closing paperwork is taught during these courses. Besides the transition, you’ll also learn about marketing. Learning how to market your home is one of the most important things you’ll ever do. Even competitive markets need marketing. Otherwise, you won’t get the demand you need to sell fast.

2. Do a Comparative Market Analysis

Next, you’ve got to figure out how you’ll price your home. When the price is too high, you’ll hardly get any offers. If it’s too low, you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot. Sure, you’ll get plenty of interest. But, you’ll also be losing out on money. You could lose more during this than you would’ve on commissions.

The easiest way to price your home properly would be to look at nearby homes. However, you’ve got to look at comparables. These are homes that share similar characteristics to yours. By comparing your home with them, you’ll get an idea of what the market will support. You could even test your pricing by putting your home on the market briefly. Then, you’ll see how many offers get sent your way. If there isn’t a ton of them, it might be time to lower the price.

3. Pay Attention to Curb Appeal

Not everyone thinks about how their curb appeal affects the closing price. But, anyone with experience knows it’s incredibly important. Simply sprucing up your home’s exterior could boost its value by 10% or more. We’d suggest getting a pressure washer. Then, go over everything on your home’s exterior. That includes the driveway as well. A nice, clean home is going to look more appealing to prospective buyers. They’ll want to live in the home a lot more. So, they’ll be willing to pay more for it. Even a little landscaping wouldn’t hurt. Try planting a few things around the edges of your property. By adding some color, you’ll really improve your property’s appearance.

4. Don’t Forget About the Sign

Many sellers forget to place a for-sale sign on their lawn. That’s a cardinal error when it comes to selling property. Sure, you might not want to look at it yourself. But, it’s really for the buyer. Plenty of people drive by places before asking for an official tour. If they don’t see a sign, they might assume it’s off the market. Don’t place a ton of them on your lawn, though. Usually, a single well-placed sign is more than enough to do the trick.

5. Learn How to Screen Buyers

The final tip we’ve got would be to screen all your buyers. Many of them won’t be really looking to buy. They’re more like tourists than anything else. Of course, they’d love to waste your whole afternoon by requesting a tour. To cut that out, only offer tours to people with pre-approvals. These are who you really want to see. If they’ve got a pre-approval in hand, they’re a lot more likely to buy. Ask them questions whenever you’re giving them a tour. Their answers can tell you a lot about how likely they are to buy. Don’t waste too much time on people who seem hesitant. Focus all your effort on serious buyers.

Selling Your Own Home Successfully

You might’ve heard that it’s a bad idea to sell without an agent. There’s definitely a chance something could go wrong. But, with proper preparation, selling without one isn’t too hard. Just make sure you’re preparing well ahead of time. That way, you’ll have plenty of time to learn everything you’ll need. As long as you do that, selling your home should be fairly simple.

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