Are you thinking, “do I really need a real estate agent to help me with selling my house?”. Well, according to a 2007 paper by NBER, you do not need one. So, if you are thinking of selling your home without the help of a real estate agent, there are some things that you need to know first. Let’s take a look at the top tips for selling a house by yourself:
Get your house ready
You should start preparing your home for sale before you even decide to list it and you should start with a decluttering campaign. Your goal is to allow the potential buyer to see themselves in your home, not to see signs of your personal life all around the house. You should remove any personal memorabilia, like photographs, travel souvenirs, and paintings. Next, you should clean the home until it is spotless. Also, you will need to see if your home has any problems that you might have overlooked. For example, it the walls need repainting, if you need to rearrange the furniture to make a room look larger, you should also see if any appliances need to be fixed or replaced, and you should add some rugs or decorative candles to make the living space homier.
Research the market and set the price
According to the experts from Jamie Buys Houses, you should review the sales of recently sold houses in your community in order to get a sense of the price you should put on your home. Search for sale prices of houses that have a similar lot size, bathroom and bedroom count, and floor count. With the search results you got, you should set a list price that reflects on your goals.
Gather information and draft your listing
The information you should gather includes:
- Home data – this includes the basic information such as when the house was built, the lot size, the bedroom and bathroom count, and other information that might be attractive to potential buyers.
- Photos – the photos of your home can make or break your listing. You will want to take at least one photo of every room, the hallways, exterior pictures, garden pictures, and the bathrooms.
- Description – the description should include factual information that is not covered in the usual listing data. IN order to get some ideas of how it should look like, you can compare other listings’ descriptions.
Hold an Open house
As soon as your home hits the market, you should hold an open house. You can print out brochures and leave them around the home so that potential buyers can take it home. You should also prepare some light refreshments, like juice and some cookies. And make sure that you know the selling points of your home well. This will help you with answering any questions that the potential buyers might have.
Conclusion
By choosing to sell your home without the help of a real estate agent, you can actually gain various benefits. Some of the benefits include that you will not have to pay the agent’s commission, you will be in total control of the process, and you can speak knowledgeably, as well as passionately about your home. Hence, do not waste any more time and start preparing your home for sale!
Kim Marks 