A Few Tips on Selling Your Home on Your Own

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Can you sell your home yourself?

Yes, you can. Thousands of people do it all by themselves every year all around the country. Many of them do a very good job of it; others do a very poor job. If you feel like you want to try selling your home by yourself, there are a few things you must do that a professional Realtor would do too.

The first is use professional photography. We’ve all been online searching for homes, and seeing one with nasty, dark, ugly pictures isn’t very inviting. You should also consider using videography and aerial photography. With a drone, you can shoot pictures of the home as well as the surrounding neighborhood.

Next, have a Realtor help you stage your home. Sometimes, it’s not about buying new things so much as it is about using what you have and rearranging it to look more inviting. You need a fresh set of eyes on a house to tell you what works and what doesn’t. Millennials are the biggest buyer segment in the market, and their tastes are a little bit different than older generations. You have to know who your market is and cater to that. You don’t want to put too much money into home improvements, but you need to put enough in to fit who your buyer likely is.

After that, focus on how to market your home. We professional Realtors would go online and market your house to thousands of different websites. 93% of homebuyers start their search online, and they use many different websites, so you need a wide funnel to find the right one. You can do simple things like put up signs and banners and hold a few open houses, but having a broad online presence is key.

"Having a broad online presence is key."

Some more things you’ll need are strong contracts, disclosures, and negotiating skills. You need to keep yourself unbiased and market your home at the right price. I have a friend who’s been trying to sell his own home for two years but can’t because he didn’t set the right price for it. When I asked him why he set such a high price, he told me that’s the number he needed. As I told him, the market doesn’t care what you need—the market cares about what the market is. Use good numbers and good data and sell your home based on facts rather than what you think you want or need.

Once you’re under contract, there will be a lot of disclosures and back-and-forth communication between many parties, so if you work with a Realtor, we can help you eliminate much of the moving costs and do other things like transfer utilities and services.

If you try selling your home on your own, we wish you all the best. If you’ve tried it but haven’t been successful, we’d love to sit down and talk with you about how we can remedy that. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’d be happy to help.