If you are considering selling your home, one of the most critical decisions you must make is whether to have an agent assist you with the sale or do it on your own. If you chose to have an agent represent you, then you will of course be charged a commission which is normally a percentage of the sale price. If you decide to sell your home on your own, then you pocket the commission (minus your expenses). Depending on the sale price of your home and the percentage of the agreed upon commission, this can amount to a significant amount of money. This Web Page will provide you with valuable information that can help you make an intelligent choice that is best for you and once you have made that choice, information that will help you with the sale of your home. This decision may well be one of the most important financial decisions you make in your lifetime and you can't have too much knowledge or information available when you make it. Regardless of your choice, if you plan on selling your home you should read the information available called What You Should Know Before Selling Your Home that is available on this Web Site. This will help you to prepare yourself and your home for sale.
Advantages Of Selling A Home On Your Own
The greatest benefit of selling your own home is that you do not pay a commission and all of the proceeds of the sale, less what you spend on marketing, is yours.
The total control of the transaction is in your hands and you have no agreements with a third party such as an agent that you have to be concerned about. It is between you and the buyer.
You are totally in charge and there is no one to make mistakes on your behalf, any mistakes made will be your own.
You have full control of all home showings, answering any inquiries and attending to the details involved in selling the home.
If the equity in your home is low, you may be able to sell your home without paying any additional money out of your own pocket.
Disadvantages Of Selling A Home On Your Own
You must rely on your own knowledge of real estate, finances, marketing and your own negotiating ability.
Marketing costs that are included in the commission when using an agent must be paid by you.
All of the legal forms and paperwork that must be completed for a successful sale are your responsibility and must be completed by you.
The results of your efforts to sell your own home will be limited if you do not have ample free time or direct availability to devote to the project.
In general, most buyers who deal with a person selling their own home feel that the price of the home should be less than market value since the owner is not paying a commission and they should get some or all of that savings.
You will be at a distinct disadvantage in selling your home unless you can emotionally detach yourself from it.
Agents carefully screen their clients as they don't wish to waste their time showing homes to people who are really not interested in buying a home but just want to look or can't afford to buy the home they are being shown. This is extremely difficult for a person selling their own home to do.
You must be current and understand all federal, state and local real estate laws which affect the sale of your home.
Pricing Your Home
One of the most critical decisions to make when selling a home is to determine a fair market value asking price. The way an agent does this is to go to his data base and compare homes in your general area that are comparable to yours that have sold recently or are on the market. They then compare your home to the average of these homes taking in to account the condition of your home and the additional or lack of features that the other homes have and arrive at a value for your home. The average person does not have the database or expertise to do this but can take advantage of most agents who will be willing to give you an estimate. We offer this service without any obligation to you by you merely filling out the What Is Your Home Worth form. We will provide you with an estimated value whether you wish to use us as your agent or wish to sell the home on your own.
Ten Common Mistakes in Selling Your Home
Whether you are using an agent or selling your own home you should be aware of the ten most common mistakes that can costs you as a seller thousands of dollars. These can be found on this Web Site at Ten Common Mistakes That Cost You Money. A few minutes on these pages could put big dollars in your pocket.
Marketing
If you decide to sell your own home and place a "For Sale by Owner" sign in your front yard, the phone will immediately start ringing. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the calls will not be from prospective buyers but from agents who want you to let them list your home. The commission you pay for selling your home is shared by the agency that lists your home and the one that sells it. There are agencies that specialize in listing homes and those that specialize in selling homes while other agencies have a balance of the two. No one gets paid until the home is sold so the goal is to sell the home as quickly as possible and for the top dollar to get the largest commission.
The greater the exposure of your home to the home buying public, the better your chances are for a successful sale. When an agent lists your home as part of his service he will advertise your home by direct mailing, newspapers and magazines and the internet. In an area such as Clearwater the majority of the buyers are located outside the area. The internet is proving to be a major source for house hunting. The vast majority of our sales are from contacts from our Web Site. When we list a home, we give that home an individual page on our Web Site and a link from that page to a page that has a virtual tour of your home. You can see examples of these by going to our home page and linking to anyone of the listings. We have a very popular Web Site with a great many daily visitors. We are sure you are aware of this since you have found this site by doing an internet search. We also place your home in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) which makes the home available to all agents who use the service in this area and we provide any user to this site with free, no obligation access to search this data base for homes. We also have a large database of potential home buyers who have contacted us through this site and provided us with the specific types of home they are searching for and we provide each of them with individual, automatic e-mail updates when any home comes on the market that fits the criteria they have given us. This is proving to be an excellent way of matching sellers to buyers. If you are selling your own home there are websites available that will list your home for a fee and there are also MLS sites not related to agents that will list your site for a fee for people selling their own home.
Hints on Selling Your Own Home
Honestly evaluate your Real Estate and Financial Transaction Knowledge and your negotiating ability and the time you have available to devote to the project.
Use the internet and other resources to learn as much as you can to increase your knowledge before you put up your home up for sale, you don't want to wait till you get your first offer to start thinking about the mechanics of the process.
Remember you are going to be in completion with other homes who have agents coaching them on all aspects of preparing their home for sale so don't scrimp on preparing your home. Become and expert on marketing and advertising and make your home stand out from the other comparable homes that are for sale in your area.
Make sure you understand all the federal, state and local regulations about disclosures before the sale so you will avoid any legal problems with this after the sale.
Familiarize yourself with the legal paperwork and contracts necessary to complete the sale of a home before you begin the sale, don't wait till you have an offer to try and figure it out.
Make certain you understand discrimination laws to avoid any legal complications in that area.
Summary
Homes are sold by their owners every day, it certainly isn't impossible but nor is it easy. If you decide selling your own home is best for you, feel free to use the information on this site to increase your knowledge and use our free MLS search to help you determine an asking price for you home. If you decide that you would prefer to use the services of professional real estate agents, then we would be more than happy to serve you. Either way, Good Luck.
Michael & Cindy Morris
Keller Williams Realty, Gulf Coast
Michael (727) 251-7447
Cindy (727) 480-8427
FAX (727) 397-5978
