Friday, October 8, 2010

How to sell your house by owner: Top Paid Resources

*You are reading Part 5 of How I Sold My House By Owner in 3 weeks, so you can too!
All 5 easy, descriptive steps are listed & linked at the end of this post.

1. For Sale By Owner sign, Open House sign ($15 & $7, hardware store)
2. Info Tube ($15, hardware store)
 

3. Professional printing for home for sale Flyer (see Flyer here) $30
4.  Local Paper Ads
Here's the deal. I live in a city of many older conservative people. I decided to give this effort all that I had from the beginning. As much as it killed me, I spent $99 to list the home in the local paper for 30 days (including their website). It was killer to spend $56 each weekend for an Open House Ad, but I learned the hard way that craigslist.org wasn't bringing buyers to my Open Houses. When the local paper messed up & didn't run my Ad one weekend, only 2 people came. They didn't come 'til the last few minutes because they saw my sign on their way to another open house nearby. I hope your paper charges less! 

5. $500 to the friend who's referral led to the sale of our home. 
I used Facebook to advertise my house for sale (status updates, links, photo album)
To reach the largest local audience, I sent a message to every local friend offering them $500 if their referral led to the sale of our home by owner. Unlike say, $50 or $100, $500 is enough incentive for friends to spread the word on your home (give them links to your website, photo album, etc and suggest they share it via facebook, twitter, blogs, & word of mouth).
We didn't end up having to give $500, because it was our flyer in the infotube that got the buyer into our home. It would have been worth $500, not to have to pay 6% to a Realtor.

*Another resource I didn't have to use, but planned to use if my 14 day FREE trial at forsalebyowner.com ran out before my house was sold (which it didn't!) is www.why6percent.com , where you can get an MLS# for a flat fee. This significantly increases your home's visibility. The catch is, you will want to consider offering to pay a buyer's agent 3% commission. Still better than 6%.


photo: infotube.net 
HOW TO SELL YOUR HOUSE BY OWNER:
Step 1: Before the For Sale Sign hits the front yard
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9 comments:

  1. Cool Tina! Congrats on your successes... now on to even more fun... finding the next house!!

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  2. Hi Tina, great advice & tips! I was just wondering how you did the paperwork? I'm new to owning a house & may move soon (hoping my husband gets orders!). I've heard if you sell on your own you need to get a lawyer for the paperwork? Just wondering how it's actually done. There's a realtor here who gives military a discount, but I'm all about saving more money when I can :)

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jenny
    We did not need a lawyer for the sale of our home. This may have been different with another buyer. We went with our gut. We asked for a pre-appoval form from their lender &for a significant amount of earnest money along with the offer (which went toward the closing costs). The forms we got online. They are State specific (ours Texas Real Estate Commission). The Title company was very helpful & all we needed. Titles of forms used: offer form, seller's disclosure, one to four family residential contract (resale), third party financing condition addendum. The Title company was impressed with our organization & thoroughness. Hope you are successful!

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  4. Tina, thank you for your quick reply and great information! I will keep this bookmarked. I'm hoping we need it, we're ready to move & experience a new state :)

    ~Jenny

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello Tina another question, how did you and your husband handle offers & negotiating prices?

    We're pretty sure we'll be moving next spring and need to sell our house for sure! :-D

    ~Jenny

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jenny, We printed an official offer form that we found online (official documents vary by state as do rules for closing involving lawyers, title companies, etc.) We had them available for each home tour along with a Seller's Disclosure & flyer & house card. We aimed to make it easy for a buyer to choose our home. Discuss numbers before you decide to sell based on what you owe & the market value of your home by searching comparisons. Then be prepared to counter offer, if necessary & be prepared with a realistic non-negotiable point. Hope that helps! I have retail sales experience & took a persuasion class in college so I felt prepared :)

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  7. Awesome, thank you again! I'm so excited! :-D Your blogs about moving have helped me a lot and I'm ready to do it! :)

    ~Jenny

    ReplyDelete
  8. So, did you end up having to pay a buying agent, even though you didn't use MLS? Or did you find a private buyer?

    ReplyDelete

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