Selling Your Home
Selling your home is a very complicated process. There are many decisions that have to be made. The main decisions include the price of your home, the contract conditions, and the marketing strategies. These decisions are not easy to make and require the expertise of a Real Estate Agent.
Important Facts to Consider Before you Try to Sell your Own Home
Sometimes people think that selling their own home will save them money. They believe that they can compete with the best Real Estate agents on the market. If you are one of these people, before making this important decision please consider that selling your own home is a legally complicated process. Most Real Estate Lawyers do not recommend selling your own home in today's market. Here are a few reasons why:
- Limited Exposure
- Your exposure to potential buyers will be extremely limited (less than 10% of what a good real estate broker will generate), which means your home will take ten to fifteen times longer to sell on the market.
- A lot of buyers find it uncomfortable talking directly with sellers and therefore avoid "For Sale By Owner" properties.
- Lower Selling Price
- The selling price will be significantly decreased. Due to the length of time the house is on the market, most buyers will hesitate to look at it thinking that there is something wrong with it.
- As most local buyers now retain an experienced real estate sales person to represent them as their buyer-agency, you will probably be negotiating against an experienced professional. Since you don't have access to up-to-date market information, this will give the Buyer's Agent an edge when negotiating with you, most likely result in a lower selling price.
- The limited exposure will end up lowering the selling price. Most quality buyers will be going to mainstream Real Estate properties that are being sold by professional Real Estate Agents.
- Lawsuits
- Lack of negotiating experience and lack of information will often lead to bad contracts and possible lawsuits.
- Accepting an offer is one thing, ensuring a safe and successful closing is quite another. Real estate transactions usually always have problems on closing. At times, expecting the Buyers and Sellers Lawyers to fight it out or resolve the problems can sometimes mean the deal is lost. This is the time that your experienced real estate professional, can be the most important. Your REALTOR can act as a great mediator. Lawyers MUST act only on their client’s instructions and are not paid to negotiate.
- Other Fees
- You may decide to work with a Real Estate Lawyer, in which case his fees will be significantly higher than if you hired him through your REALTOR.
- You will spend a lot of money on advertisement, which would be done at a fraction of the cost if you were to work with a professional Real Estate Agent.
Marketing
Marketing is the number one thing when it comes to selling your home. You want your home to receive the greatest exposure possible to qualify buyers to be able to sell your home quickly and at a reasonable price.
- REALTOR contact - 40%
- From sale sign - 11%
- Responded to open house - 7%
- Phone about listing - 12%
- Internet - 18%
- Office - 12%
Marketing Techniques:
I use many innovative marketing strategies that will attract many quality buyers to your house. Some of them include:- Put your property on the MLS
- Market to my network of REALTORS
- Yard sign
- Internet Marketing through directories, most popular search engines such as Google (Google Adwords) and Yahoo (Overture),
- Creation of Marketing Brochures
Pricing
Choosing the right price for your house is very important.
Market conditions will determine the current price of your house- Having access to up-to-date market information, I will be able to guide you through setting the right price
- Advantages of setting the correct price:
- Attracts quality buyers
- Faster Sales
- Better Offers
- Disadvantages of overpricing:
- Lack of quality buyers
- House sold at a lower price