Not everyone can afford to put their residence on the open market and wait patiently for months to execute the deal. The common process when listing your property on the open market will be:

  • Question/interview many real estate professionals

  • Authorize a listing contract with a person to list your home for an exact period of time (usually a 6-month listing)

  • Manage a variety of open houses

  • Wait for offers and then negotiate with potential buyers

  • Set up home inspections, reports and also other disclosures to complete

  • Sign escrow closing contracts.

For anyone who is lucky, the process can take six to eight weeks. If an offer fails or maybe your house just doesn’t get many offers, you could end up waiting six months or even longer. Alternatively, instead of all those inconveniences, having to pay five percent or more in commissions and settlement costs, let’s look at how to sell a house without a real estate agent.

For Sale By Owner (FSBO)

A basic strategy for marketing your property without a real estate professional is “For Sale By Owner” or FSBO for short. The common way that people try to market their property in this way is to put up some signs in the yard or maybe in your neighborhood newspapers and then wait for people to arrive. Instead of this lame and often unsuccessful strategy, let’s take a quick look at several other methods to market your home and sell it quickly. It all starts with better promotion. Instead of doing the bare minimum, you have to do a lot to make the house stand out in a crowded real estate market. Some things we recommend are:

  • Tell all your nearby neighbors that you are selling your house and ask if they know anyone who is looking. (Bonus: You can easily offer referral fees to compel your neighbors)

  • First opinion can be everything, so fix up the front of your property. It is commonly referred to as “curb appeal.” If it doesn’t look good when potential buyers are driving, they probably won’t want to come into the house.

  • Getting top quality photos can make a world of difference; rent them or just bring them yourself, but make sure your property is beautifully staged. Which means absolutely no open toilet seats, trash, made beds, pushed chairs, etc.

  • Place sandwich signs along with balloons or other eye-catching items that advertise your property at active intersections in your community.

After a little preparation, a few dollars plus some advertising, your FSBO home has a much better chance of selling.

craig’s list

Craigslist turns out to be an absolutely crucial resource for everyone who is going to sell their home without using a real estate agent. Be sure to use descriptions of your residence that make it sound as nice as possible. Discuss the area: are there parks, local community facilities, schools, places of worship, or other facilities nearby? What about your specific community/subdivision? Are the paths lined with trees, are there hills, some kind of view? Also, use those high-quality photos as a way to attract buyers. The determination of whether or not to view your residence will be made entirely based on your descriptions along with photographs of your residence.

open houses

Open houses are a great way to attract potential buyers (just check with any real estate professional). You need to help potential buyers feel as much at home as possible. You should definitely clean up any clutter, trash, or toys and games. Some other ideas could be keeping the fireplace going when it’s cold outside, baking lots of cookies to give the house a nice scent, setting the table for dinner, and possibly turning on the game if the local sports team is on. The secret is that people imagine themselves living there and therefore consider getting rid of any personal trinkets and family photos. Be sure to promote your open house early and often by using signs near your neighborhood, Craigslist, sharing with your neighbors, and anything else that draws people to your home. One last tip: get booties that can go over people’s boots and shoes so they don’t follow dirt and grime across your immaculately clean property!

investors

The last place to look, but certainly not the last, is investors. If you need to sell your home quickly, have some problem areas that need remediation, or maybe you don’t want to deal with any of the above issues, call an investor near you. These people are dedicated to acquiring buildings without using a real estate agent.