SELL YOUR HOME YOURSELF?
More and more people are attempting to sell their homes themselves. Some are successful. Some are not. Is there a way to predict your chances of success?
Yes, and we'll look at some ideas here that will help you decide whether you're likely to be one of the successes if you take on the project (and it IS a project) of selling your own home.
First, how much business experience have you had? Have you bought and sold homes before? The more experience in these areas, the better off you are.
Do you enjoy the decision making process (gathering information, weighing pros and cons, coming to a conclusion)? Do you feel competent and confident in this area? You need this ability in order to sell your home.
Do you have time to devote to evaluating where you should set the asking price (not just what you WANT, but what it's logical to expect to GET), preparing your home to "show well" when you put it on the market (this step is needed even if you work with a realtor), and developing and implementing a marketing plan? Time is a critical factor. Someone has to know how to do these things and do them. Real estate doesn't sell itself except in really hot markets. If you have time to, you can learn how (lots of articles and even some free "coaching" available on these subjects).
If your answer to the time question is "yes," you're moving toward the likely to be a successful FSBO (FOR SALE BY OWNER) column.
Do you have some money to devote to marketing your home? It's wise to be on one or more internet sites because most buyers begin their searches there. Some of these sites are free, or free for a period of time, and some cost money. (The pros and cons of which ones to choose is a whole separate subject.)
Can you afford to run a series of classified ads in your local newspaper and a paper in a nearby city that's a commuting destination for your community (if there is one)?
If you can handle the cost of a reasonable marketing campaign in your part of the country, that's another asset in favor of selling your home yourself.
While we're on the subject of money, here's an odd one. It is possible to make too much money for it to make sense to sell your home yourself. Sounds odd, doesn't it? The point is, if you make more money doing whatever you do to earn it than you'd spend paying a realtor, you're better off financially to spend your time "doing your thing," and hiring a realtor to take care of the sales effort. Make sense?
Do you have, or have access to, some technical tools and know how? A digital camera (photos for the internet, brochures, flyers), a printer, an individualized answering machine message (to add info about your home sale) are enormously useful and keep marketing costs down. The use of these is a plus for selling success at reasonable cost. You can hire people to do the things you can do with them, but this raises marketing costs. However, if you can afford it, that approach works, too.
If your answers to all, or most of these, questions are affirmative, you have a high likelihood of success in selling your own home. I say this, not just "out of my hat," but because I had more than 20 years experience as a real estate agent, then broker, "in a former life," and for the last several years have worked at trying to help FSBOs achieve success, so I've enjoyed a good, long view of what contributes to selling success.
However, don't take my word for it. Put you own evaluative skills to the question. Are the "needs" mentioned likely to lead to success? Ask yourself, do I recognize the truth here? If you do, and if you have what's needed, go for it. You'll probably get exactly the result you want.