Getting ready to sell your home can be such an exciting time! But as exciting as it is, it can be just as much, if not MORE stressful. There are so many things to take into consideration.
-When should I list my house?
-What broker should I list my house with?
-What price should I list my home?
-What price should I list my home once I take into consider realtor fees
Oh yea- and then there are all the thoughts about buying your next home!
Tricia and I knew that we would be listing our home this coming spring, so all of these questions started popping into our heads around November of 2019. When we did the math and realized how much commission we would need to pay a realtor (aka all the money that would be pulled from our pockets), we decided that we wanted to try listing For Sale By Owner (FSBO). Below are the steps we took to list our home and prepare our home for selling.
1. Decide Your Listing Price
This is important! You want to make sure that you are listed with an appropriate site for your neighborhood. The way you do this is by researching the comparable properties or "comps" in your area. (A comparable property is one with the same general specs: number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, square footage, etc.) is generally done by looking at the homes within a half mile around you. Please note: You want to look at what the comps have SOLD for, not what they were listed for.
2. Create Contact Information for the Selling Process
Once you decide your list price, I would suggest creating contact information to be used just for the selling process. Being a business owner, I have emails and phone calls coming in all day long. And regardless of that, when you first list, you will receive A LOT of phone calls- not just from potential buyers, but also listing agents who will want to try and convince you to let them list your house. Having a separate phone number and email address will allow you to filter all of this communication to one specific location so that you can keep track of it all more efficiently.
I personally decided to set up a Google Voice account. With this service you are able to sign up and pick a phone number that you can receive both, calls and text messages to. And the best part is that IT'S COMPLETELY FREE! The calls and text come right to your phone via the Google Voice app and its extremely user friendly. In addition to this, I also set up an email account so that all communication regarding the house would be funneled directly into once place. I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to being organized- or at least trying to.
3. Organize and Clean the Sh** out of your home!
WARNING: ANECDOTE! This is not something that I did prior to officially listing my home. Don't judge me- but I put a "For Sale" sign out on my front lawn before I had even STARTED to get my home ready to show. In my mind, it was going to take a couple of weeks for people to see that the home was for sale, so I would have time- right?? Wrong!! We put our "For Sale" sign out on a Sunday and THAT MONDAY, someone contacted me to see the house. (Sneak Peak: The first people to contact us about and see the home, were the ones who bought it!)
Anyway- they called on Monday, we scheduled the showing for that coming Sunday. I LITERALY had ONE WEEK to get my house in shape. And trust me when I say that it wasn't pretty- or fun! So learn from my mistake- clean and organize PRIOR to putting that sign up.
My Method to Cleaning and Organizing
I did a DEEP dive into each and every room. If you ask any realtor the best thing you can do to try and sell your home quickly they will tell you "Get rid of the clutter!" Clutter and I have a rocky relationship anyway, so in true "Megan fashion", I was excited to start this step.
I wanted to feel completely confident that if any buyer opened a cabinet or drawer or closet, that they would see organization. In my mind organization=clean=efficient="this person takes care of their home". And THAT is what I wanted everyone to feel when they came to see our home- because it was true.
I created a road map for myself on how I would "attack" each room and the order in which I would do it. And I went to work! I created GARBAGE, DONATION, and PUT AWAY piles in each room.
At one point, my wife actually said to me: "I feel like things are getting worse, not better." She was totally right. Our house was in complete disarray until I was finally done with all of the rooms.
Once the house was organized and decluttered, it was easy to clean and was ready to show! To see the steps I took to have my home ready on the day of showings, click here.
4. Put that Baby on the Market!
Now that you're decluttered and cleaned. It's time to put that sign up and market your property. We went to Home Depot and got the standard FSBO sign and wrote down the Google Voice number in big bold Sharpie numbers. We also put on the sign that you could communicate with that number via phone or text. (You know how no-one wants to talk to each other these days!)
Note: Our home was on the main street that people would use to drive in and out of our development, so I knew it would get good traffic. However, if I were on a side street or cut-de-sac, I would have purchased 2 or 3 signs and placed them along the busier streets.
5. Zillow
We also used Zillow to market our home. It was extremely simple to set up an account, add pictures, etc. The one thing I want to emphasize is to PUT YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND EMAIL in the first line of the description. Zillow does this weird thing where it puts the contact information off to the side and if you didn't know where to find it (and most people don't) you would never see it.
6. MLS
It is a common misconception that FSBO homes cannot be placed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) without using a realtor. However this is incorrect. If you go to https://fsbo.com/flat-fee-mls you can pay a flat rate to have your listing added onto the MLS, This is generally a cost of about $400. We didn't need to do this, but I would highly recommend it if you are not in a "sought out area". Realtors check the MLS before they check Zillow. And you want realtors bringing buyers to your home! Which leads me to my next point...
7. Consider a Buyer's Agent Commission
Buyer's agents have been known to not show their client's homes that are listed as FSBO, since they assume that they will not receive a commission. A way to combat this is by offering a commission.
We offered a buyer's agent commission of 2%. When it came time to negotiate the sale price, the buyer's agent asked if she could have 2.5% instead. I decided to use that as a bargaining chip. If she wanted 2.5%, I was going to need her client's to come up $5,000 on their offer. In essence, I kind of put the ball back in her court regarding how much commission she would make: if you can get your buyer to come up, the 2.5% is yours, if not, we stay at 2%.
Aside from that, I think the buyer's agent commission is well deserved. They will be the one to write up the contract, communicate everything to both attorneys, schedule inspections/ appraisals. Their commission is certainly earned.
**If you do decide to offer a commission put that in your description on Zillow BEFORE your contact information. Trust me- you want that to be the first thing a realtor sees.**
8. Good Luck!
Once you have followed the above steps- you're ready to list and show your home! Check out my post for 5 Quick Steps to Prep Your Home for a Showing.
Comments