How to Sell Your Home By Owner

Selling your home by owner is simple. Put a sign on your lawn and run an ad in the newspaper. Your home will sell. No REALTOR® is required. No open house needed. All you need is one sign and one ad.

Today, there are more buyers than available homes. Selling your home is easy. Getting the highest price for your home, well, that requires a REALTOR® -- and a good one too!

In order to get qualified buyers to come to your home and purchase your home without a broker, you'll need to make sure that your home is better than the competition and then you need to price your home substantially lower than the lowest listed comparable. If you are unwilling to do this,you willhave a difficult time selling your home.

Selling by owner is possible because some home buyers will read the newspaper and spot your advertisement. Your objective is to show your home to as many buyers as possible and hope that several of them will want your home over the other available homes. It will be difficult for you to attract buyers from different communities or from different price ranges. After all, you're not a REALTOR® and you wouldn't have those resources.

Given the limitations, here are some things that you can do to sell your home by owner?

1. Prepare a detailed flyer with several photos of your home. Have thousands printed up and distributed throughout the community.

2. Keep a handful of flyers available for prospective home buyers to take when they view the property.

3. Advertise your home twice a week in the New York Times or Star Ledger. You'll need to attract these new buyers because all the current buyers may be working with REALTORS® . Maybe you can woo some home buyers away from their REALTOR® .

4. Create a website for your home and register it with your own domain name. Utilize some of the for sale by owner websites if possible.

5. Check with community leaders and neighbors throughout the area. Sometimes neighbors have relatives who may wish to purchase in the community.

6. Always get the name, address and phone number of each prospective buyer. Never give out your street address until you confirmed that you are speaking with a real home buyer.

7. Never allow your children to show the home when you are not home.

8. Be aware that home buyers who schedule appointments sometimes run late. They may not be familiar with the area and can get lost.

9. Follow up on each showing within 24 hours of the showing.

10. Insist the home buyers provide you with a pre-approval letter prior to beginning any negotiations.

11. Consider placing your home on a for sale by owner website. Do a search on the computer for "for sale by owner" and review the websites that are available. Choose the site or sites that appear to give you the greatest exposure.

12. Consider creating your own website and then marketing your website to attract for sale by owner purchasers.

13. Be available to show your home when it is convenient for the prospective buyers. Remember, they cannot shop in your store if your store is closed. Making it convenient for the buyer is an absolute must.

14. Be ready to take criticism. Your home isn't for everyone. And, if they don't like it from the onset, you're not in the greatest position to appeal to their sense of value because you won't know their hot buttons.

15. Try to be easy going during the showings and build a good rapport with the buyers. They will be more open to negotiate with you if they like you. If you appear rigid or not approachable, the buyer may go away. For many, they haven't purchased a home before and may feel as awkward buying as you do selling!

16. Evaluate your marketing activity and respondents on a regular basis. A two week interval is suggested. If you have showings and no offers, it usually means that your price is too high. If you have no showings and no offers, it means you haven't reached the active buyer pools. At that point you would need to adjust your marketing by increasing exposure and possibly reduce your asking price. You may also have to do necessary repairs to put your house in better shape. Listed below are some questions you can ask yourself if you are not receiving offers.

If you are serious about selling your home by owner, have the time and the patience, don't give up. If you stay the course, you will eventually sell your home for a price.