Deciding to advertise your home as "for sale by owner" without representation from a real estate agent is not as difficult as you might expect. In fact, the fast-moving state of the market means that much inventory available today is snapped up the moment it becomes available for sale. Nevertheless, in spite of this, many FSBO (for sale by owner) property advertisers struggle when it comes to finding buyers, which is where advertising becomes crucial.
According to the National Association of Realtors, most people start by putting up a home for sale by owner, and end up listing with a realtor instead. The reason behind this is that most buyers will be represented by an agent, or the fact that owners who sell by themselves frequently lack the expertise to sell homes alone.
How Much Is a For Sale by Owner's Home Worth?
One of the biggest issues that individuals face when advertising a home for sale by owner, is deciding the appropriate selling price. Pricing a home is part research, part timing the market, and part intuition, and it is not always possible to depend upon a single agent's opinion of value. After all, if you're not giving an agent some commission to sell your home through their business, then they may mislead you regarding the price so as to reduce the competition that your property would create.
Try to remember that the first two weeks your property spends on the market are crucial, as that is when the interest levels of buyers are often at their highest. Don't fall victim to the common mistake of failing to price your home correctly, and be sure to do your research before specifying a particular value for your home.
Marketing The Property:
Typically, individuals who choose to go with a home for sale by owner, find that they save a great deal of money when they are able to avoid hiring an agent. The money saved in this aspect can be useful when it comes to marketing your property for yourself, as you won't have a realtor to rely upon to get the news of your house out into the public. Usually, effective marketing relies upon figuring out who your target audience is going to be, and finding ways to get the message out to those people.
Make sure that you snap plenty of pictures of the property that you will be selling, as people are much more likely to go and view a home if they already have an idea of what they're going to be looking at. All of the marketing you do should be geared towards getting people to contact you, or increasing the interest they have in coming to view the property. Try to be as flexible as possible when it comes to showings, and offer potential buyers incentives if they can offer feedback that may open any future items you sell up to a wider audience.
Keep in mind that seasonal sales may require unique approaches, and often realtors recommend that they you would represent a property in spring in a different way to how you might want to represent it during the winter months.