Think You Should Sell For Sale By Owner? Think Again

 

Some Highlights

• For Sale By Owner (FSBO)is the process of selling real estate without the representation of a real estate broker or real estate agent.
• According to the National Association of Realtors 35% of homeowners who decided to FSBO last year did so to avoid paying a commission or fee. But, homes sold with an agent net 6% more than those sold as a FSBO according to Collateral Analytics
• Before you decide to take on the challenge of selling your house on your own, let’s connect to discuss your options.

It Doesn’t Hurt To Try And Sell Your Home Buy Owner

It doesn’t hurt in trying to sell your home by owner and save a few dollars on commission and in a small percentage of times the homeowners come out ahead compared to listing their homes with a local Real Estate Professional but more than 95% of for sale by owners will end up using a Real Estate Agent to get the job done quicker and most of the time a higher sales price than the homeowner could have sold for.

What To Expect During The Home Selling Process

Once you list your home for sale by owner on the local market like Trulia.com or one of the many for sale by owner websites you should start getting phone calls and emails from potential buyers most of whom are not pre-qualified to purchase a home and just honestly want to window shop at your expense.

Then over the next few months of buyers not showing up during scheduled appointments you final get the offer that you been holding out for and everything looks good when it deals with $$$ and closing time. Most sellers at this point are unsure of the next steps involved in reviewing the contract, terms and many other important language to look for when reviewing the offer or contract to sell the home.

Pre-Determining The Value Of Your Home

One of the most important steps in selling any home regardless if it listed with a local real estate agent or a for sale by owner is determining the starting list price of the house. Most sellers either, A under price the home or B they over price it with both having consequences.

Underpricing the home, sellers will always generate much more interest with buyers looking to buy in your local market and if the sellers realize they might have underpriced the home you will have a hard time raising the price after the fact.

If sellers overprice the house just the opposite happens and you will generate much less inquires or interested buyers and the home will not sell in most cases unless the buyers are willing to reach out and make a realistic offer that the seller might consider.

Steps Of The Contract Once Its Executed

• Contract Is Fully Executed
• Escrow Deposit Is Paid To Closing Company ” Title Company or Attorney”
• Inspection Period “Normally 7-15 Days For Buyer To Hire An Inspector”
• Appraisal is generally ordered by lender once inspection is completed and buyer seller agree to repairs
• Buyer starts looking around for homeowners insurance
• Title Company and or Local Attorney has ordered Lien Searches, Title Searches In Order To Schedule closing
• Oh No The House Did No Appraise For Agreed upon contract price , Now What ?
• Buyer and Seller negotiate about the low appraisal and decide whether to move forward with the closing or not
• If buyer and seller agreed to the lower appraisal now we are getting closer to closing time.
• Is There an Homeowners Association or Condo Association?  Did Seller provide buyer with all legal disclosures required by State Of Florida?
• If Its a Condo Association Buyer Is To Receive Specific Documents and once fully received buyer cancel contract within a 3 day period for any reason and escrow deposits must be returned back to buyer.  This could be on actual day of closing if these documents were never provided to buyer, its the sellers responsibility to provide to buyer at sellers expense.
• Closing Day… Yay ,

While this doesn’t sound to hard to sell your home for sale by owner there is actually much more to it that can go wrong during the process and that’s why most FSBO’s end up hiring a Real Estate Professional.  If you still would like to sell your home for sale by owner in Palm Beach County or the nearby areas including Martin County and or Port St Lucie, I would tell clients to go for it.

If selling your home on your own doesn’t work out then that would be the best time to interview local Real Estate Agents and determine which one might be the best local real estate professional to help you sell your home.