Hi there! You might be wondering why a Realtor would be giving out tips to help someone NOT need their services… (PS – I’ll answer this later) #hookline
Now, I want to first say that I think you are a smart consumer. As a CPA (but full-time Realtor), I can understand and truly appreciate wanting to save as much money for your family as possible.
That’s why you’re trying to sell your home FSBO (for sale by owner).
If you want to give yourself the BEST chance to sell your home yourself, I would work down this list and make sure you follow each of them as nearly as possible. If you’re successful in getting an offer, negotiating the contract and timelines, and get to the closing table, you’ll have saved yourself a tremendous amount of money!
Ready? Let’s go!
TIPS TO FSBO like a Rockstar Realtor
FSBO Tip 1: Determine Whether You’re Willing to Work With a Buyer’s Agent and Be OPEN About How Much Commission You’re Offering
Let’s face it…. most buyers are working with a Realtor. And most people want their agent to be compensated. You do not want to exclude a huge percentage of the possible purchasers of your home by not working with Realtors.
If you are willing to pay a buyer agent commission, make sure you’re open and very clear about this. You pick the amount and put it out there on the marketing somewhere. Period.
If you aren’t willing to pay a buyer agent commission, state that as well. You’ll avoid a lot of heartache and fake “I’ve got a Buyer” phone calls from agents trying to pick up your business.
FSBO Tip 2: Price Your Home at Market Value
A lot of FSBO sellers make the mistake of thinking that they are going to save 6 or 7% on commission so they’ll discount their home a few thousand to entice buyers. Don’t do this. Price it fairly, and price it at market value.
Why bother not listing with a Realtor who will do a majority of the marketing and logistical work for you if you’re already going to haircut your home’s value?
If you aren’t successful in selling your home by yourself and you go to list with a Realtor, who will tell you to list at market value (remember you now have to price in that big 6-7% commission they are charging). And then, it’s going to look like you’re willing to take less than what you’re asking because you’ve already listed it low.
FSBO Tip 3: Get AMAZING Photos
The internet is the first place people will see your home. And with our incredibly short attention spans, prospective buyers will swipe right on past your home if your pictures are lousy. Homes don’t sell themselves, the Pictures of the homes do!
And especially of high importance is the FIRST PHOTO. This is the photo that will either catch someone’s attention or allow them to keep on swiping. Some quick tips for the best first picture:
- Get a tight shot of the front of the house (i.e the home is most of the picture)
- Make sure the lawn is manicured and cut (or at least picked up)
- Either take the photos on a bright day or have someone photoshop in a beautiful sky. (No one instinctively is drawn to a home where the sky is dreary)
- If your home sits up on a hill, consider getting a drone photo so that the home is more eye-level in the picture, accentuating the home and not the hill.
FSBO Tip 4: Make Sure Your Home is EVERYWHERE
There are hundreds of real estate websites but will be impossible to get your home listed on each without MLS access, so you’ll need to make sure it’s on the most popular sites. I recommend the following:
- Realtor.com
- Zillow
- Trulia
- Homes.com
- Realestate.com
I used to recommend Craigslist but with all the scammers out there and scary people, I think it’s best to stay off Craigslist.
FSBO Tip 4.1: Monitor Online for Fake Listings of Your Home – Especially on Craigslist
Craigslist is especially bad about having fake listings of homes both for rent and for sale.
Several of my rental properties were posted online as fake listings with absurdly low rent rates asking people to send money to some fake bank account. Be sure your home isn’t part of these shenanigans!
FSBO Tip : Lock Up Valuables and Guns
You need to lock up any valuables and guns you don’t want stolen. Let me repeat this – LOCK UP YOUR VALUABLES AND GUNS.
Just like the sticky bandits from Home Alone, there are “home shoppers” who have sticky fingers. If you give them an opportunity, they will take advantage of you. Especially if they aren’t accompanied by a licensed agent who has prequalified them as a legitimate homebuyer. It makes getting away with theft much easier.
I personally toured a home where the showing after me had stolen a gun from the home. Needless it was very scary to know that someone was running around with a stolen gun and even scarier that I was a suspect since my clients and I had toured the home the same day. Please make sure this doesn’t happen.
PS – I wish this didn’t have to be said… but alas…. it does.
FSBO Tip : Bleed Red and Blue – But ONLY For Cards and Blues (or other sports team….if you’re a monster!) Leave Politics OUT!
If you’re selling your home, the only sign in your yard needs to be a “FOR SALE” sign!
Odds are good that you consider yourself either a Democrat or a Republican. I think it’s important to be invovled with our Country’s politics. BUT when you’re selling your home, leave your MAGA, I’m with Her, or Yes We Can propaganda out of the home.
Leaving any trace of your political leanings will immediately piss off half of your prospective buyers. Trust me. Put away the political stuff.
FSBO Tip 7: Don’t Discriminate
Review the “Protected Classes” No, I’m not talking Algebra and History, I’m talking about gender, religion, race, sex, etc.
Don’t discriminate, please! If a purple skinned, spaghetti worshipping, humanoid wants to buy your home and offers an acceptable offer, take it. Who cares what they look like or sound like or who/what they send prayers to. Remember, you’re selling your home! Plus, discrimination is illegal… so DON’T DO IT!
FSBO Tip 8: Keep a Sign-In Sheet
Keep a sign-in sheet so that you know who has been in your house and when they toured.
The more important reason to have a sign-in sheet, however, is so you can FOLLOW UP! Make sure you call each person who has toured and ask some simple questions like:
- What did you like about the house?
- What didn’t you like?
- How do you think the price compares to others you have seen?
- Are you thinking about making an offer?
- If maybe, what’s keeping you from making an offer?
- Is there anything we can do to make our house more appealing to you or other buyers?
If your home doesn’t get an offer, it’s for one of 3 reasons: 1) the pricing is off 2) the marketing is not good enough for the home or 3) there is something unappealing about the home.
Having good conversations with your prospective buyers will help you identify which of the three reasons your home isn’t getting any offers and can address it accordingly. This is what a good agent will do when soliciting feedback from buyers who tour your home.
FSBO Tip 9: Declutter Your Home
Need some inspiration for de-cluttering your home? Check out Marie Kondo on Tidying Up from Netflix. This show will have you asking whether all that junk in your closet brings joy after just the first episode! Plus, your home will look bigger and more attractive!
FSBO Tip 10: Build a Custom Website For Your Home
Do you think when Nike wants to sell shoes, they send prospective buyers Foot Locker ads?
Nope! Definitely not!
Instead, they have custom advertising for Nike brands.
You need the same for your home. Why would you send potential buyers to a website like Zillow where there are literally dozens of other beautiful homes competing for buyer attention? You’re going to sell someone a nice pair of Reeboks when you were trying to sell your swoosh!
Build a website. #justdoit (see what I did there 🙂
There are lots of easy options out there on the web. You don’t have to be a web genius to do this either. You site doens’t have to look amazing. It just has to be a place where you have all of the relevant information about your home and pictures to help prospective buyers get familiar with your home without being distracted with all the others out there. (here’s an example www.2024Denmark.com)
FSBO Tip 11: Create a Facebook Business Page for Your Home (& Run Ads!)
This is another Ninja Pro trick! Creating a business page will allow you to run Facebook ads. to custom audiences.
Facebook is hands down the most effective way to expose your home to the greatest amount of people in the shortest amount of time. I’ll typically get over 10,000 views in a week or 2 when I list a home. During that same time, only a few hundred will have seen it on Zillow and Realtor.com
Having a custom domain will allow you to also track how many people have landed on your page and also run custom ads to those people! For instance, if someone has looked at your website, you can run a custom ad just to those people who have already expressed an interest in your home that talks about your huge upcoming open house! (You’re hosting an open house, right?)
FSBO Tip 12: Make It Easy to Get Info About Your Home
Not everyone wants to talk to you. And almost no one wants to talk to a Realtor until they have to.
Make it easy for prospective buyers to get information about your home.
Consider also using a text-in code (there are lots of providers out there for real estate text-in codes). Like Text EUREKA1 to 88000 for more info.
This is a pro-tip! This gives the interested party information about your home without having to call and talk to someone and it gives you their phone number. #salesninja This way, you can now call them and determine their interest level!
FSBO Tip 13: Tell a Story!
Make sure your description (called “Copy” in the marketing world) describes what it’s like to live in your home, not just the features. Nobody is interested in reading a boring list about all the fancy schmancy upgrades in your home that every other home probably has. Make it a story!
FSBO Tip 14: Presentation, Presentation, Presentation!
Buy a professional sign and display your sign professionally. This won’t help you to sell your home per se, but it goes a long way to making sure your listing looks professional and sets the tone for how you’ll conduct negotiations. (There are lots of nice signs on Amazon!)
FSBO Tip 15: Leave an Impression In Their Mind & A Brochure In Their Hands!
Buyers sometimes go through 5 – 10 homes in a day. That’s a lot to remember! Make sure you have a brochure or flyer in the house for them to take with them. This will help them to remember your home and maybe take notes.
FSBO Tip 16: Host an Open House!
Open houses are traditionally a pretty terrible way to sell a home. Fewer than 4% of homes sell due to an open house (my rate is slightly higher since I do a lot of Facebook advertising prior to our big open house launches).
So why would an agent do an open house if the chances of selling are really low? The reason we often do open houses as agents are twofold:
1) we have a chance to pick up potential buyers; and
2) It allows “lookie-lous” who aren’t serious about the home to see it at the open house and prevent them from requesting a showing, therefore kicking your family out of the house for an evening while they tour the home. Having to constantly get out of your home is difficult enough without having to deal with non-serious buyers; and
3) If there’s a chance of selling at an open house, an agent should host one in an effort to help their client get the home sold.
For you as a FSBO, this is a low-key way for potential buyers to come in and tour your home without having to have an awkward scheduling phone call with someone. It’s also a great reason to run Facebook ads and post to the Facebook home groups.
FSBO Tip 17: Post Your Home in the Facebook Home Groups
There are dozens of great home sale groups on Facebook. Post your link to your website here with pictures of your home. You can also advertise your open house in these groups as well. There are a lot of unrepresented buyers here so you may be able to get the attention of someone not already working with a Realtor!
Be sure to read the rules of the group and follow them carefully. Most moderators are serious about kicking people out (Mostly Realtors) who don’t follow the rules!
FSBO Tip 18: Review Your Offers Carefully!
When you get an offer, pay very close attention to the contract! A couple of biggies are:
- Offer price (DUH)
- Seller paid closing costs (these are directly deducted from how much money you’ll make)
- Closing date
- Financing date
- Days for inspection
- Days for inspection resolution
- Days for other contingencies (like contingency on sale of buyer property, appraisal, title and survey, etc.)
- Things you’re supposed to leave with the house
- Like Fixtures
- Refrigerators
- etc.
- Read the fine print! There are usually blank paragraphs to add in other requests. Once you’ve agreed to the contract, you’re responsible for what’s in the contract regardless of whether you missed something.
Remember, this is a legal contract and you are responsible for understanding what you’re signing. If you have mulitple offers, it’s helpful to write out the important parts of the contract (like price, closing date, contingencies, etc.) and make a pros/cons list with each to help visualize which is the best offer for your family!
My Ask (I told ya I’d get to it)
Look, I HOPE you are able to sell your home yourself! If you are buying a house in St. Louis area, I’d love the opportunity to represent you on your purchase! Remember, the Seller is paying the commission to the buyer’s agent and if they are listed with another agent, that agent will likely keep a majority of the commission that would be paid to a Buyer’s agent if you try to do it without an agent. My Buyer’s Agent services are completely free to my buyers. I don’t charge any junk “brokerage” fees that many of the big agencies charge.
If you are thinking about talking to a Realtor to help you sell your home, I also hope that I’ll stay top of mind. You also will be interested in hearing my rates are the LOWEST in St. Louis. I’ll do everything listed above at nearly HALF what the big brokerages would charge you. Check out more at www.sellminefor3point9.com
Good luck and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions! 636-224-4470