Sell Your Home Yourself

If you are facing a foreclosure, and your options are disappearing, consider selling your home.  As hard as it might be to sell your family home, it can be much better than having a stain on your credit for 7 to 10 years. We show you how to do it...

• If you have equity in your home, use it to your advantage by selling your home, and paying off your mortgage in full.  This will allow you to salvage what is left of your credit score and put you in a position that will leave you room to repair what is left of your credit.
• If you owe substantially more on your loan than what your house is worth, talk to your lender to accept less thanwhat is owed by negotiating a "short sale." You essentially sell the house for whatever you can get, and the lender agrees to accept the proceeds and not go after you for the deficit.

Many people are deciding to sell there homes without an agent, and you can too.  People are often fearful of selling their homes by themselves, because they are scared of making a mistake.  If you take the time to research the process you will do just fine.

ForSaleByOwner.com is one of the best sites out there that equips homeowners with all the tools necessarily for a successful deal.

ForSaleByOwner.com provides online marketing, property pricing reports, real estate resources,and legal forms, a homeowner can feel confident to negotiate the sale on their own, with all the tools a real estate agent has at their disposal.

A.  Many people do not attempt to sell without a real estate agent because they are afraid of the paperwork. The fact is real estate agents do not do the legal paper work either.  Whether a seller uses an agent or goes “for sale by owner,” outside help is needed to navigate through the legal process of transferring the title. A real estate attorney or title company will prepare and handle all of the legal paperwork for sellers.

B. Research your neighborhood's sold housing prices to determine what you should sell your home at.  Compare the listing prices of similar houses that have SOLD, and use that information as a guideline. If you want to sell your house fast, don't get greedy with the price.

If you watched Mike Aubrey, host of HGTV's Real Estate Intervention, his shows are based on battling the "mind frame" of homeowners who still believe the market will recover.  More than often he coaches homeowners to price their home right, as home values fall.

If you are considering a short sale, be smart to do your homework first.  A seller without an agent in a foreclosure situation  needs to be even more educated so they can look out for themselves against scammers, and flippers who often come in looking for free homes.

ForSaleByOwner.com provides its customers with a customized property pricing report that contains recent home sales data and home valuation data.

Seriously consider placing your home on the MLS, which is a complete inventory of homes on the market.  You do not need a real estate agent  to list your home on MLS, as it can be placed on the MLS through ForSaleByOwner.com

C.  Two separate studies by professors from Northwestern and Stanford University found that that an unrepresented homeowner is as effective at maximizing the sales price of their home as professional agents.  You can represent yourself and save money by not paying out the commission.

D.  They say that when you build a website, or a business, 80% of your time needs to go into advertising, while 20 percent on the actual product.  The same goes for home selling.  You need not be concerned with the finer details, so long as you have the traffic coming in.  The traffic is the biggest battle, which takes just time and effort submitting to classifieds and websites.  More than 84% of buyers use the Internet to search for a home, this means you have to get listed, and stay listed every day.  When I sold furniture, I would have to list my pieces at least once per day, or even 2 times per day.  Real estate is a bigger investment, so you need to seriously consider getting family involved posting up ads on various sites, at least one time per day on each site.

Putting a home on ForSaleByOwner.com helps home sellers market their home to nearly 2 million people monthly.

Craigslist is one of the most popular websites out there.  Consider opening a free photo bucket account that will hold limitless shots of your home.  When you list with craigslist, amongst other sites provide the link to your free photo account.  There is nothing more frustrating for a buyer to have only 5 pictures to look from, and no opportunity to look at the property when it is a couple states away.

Online property listings should have high quality, digital photographs of their home’s interior and exterior. BE sure to take beautiful photos.  Don't take a picture of a home with clothes and boxes all over the room.  You make only one first impression.  If your homes are filled with clutter, the buyer may get the impression no home improvements were made or maintained.

The online listing should be combined with a yard sign to attract people driving by the home.

You can DO it!

Please leave any comments of your successes or tips to pass along.  As a comunity sharing ideas of what works and what doesn't woirk is a gigantic blessing for the next person who saves time digging around for the information.