If you’re seeing the property market drop and wanting to find ways to save money and make the most from your home sale, researching how to sell it yourself could be one option available.
But be warned – although taking control of selling your own property might seem empowering, the reality is that it can be very complex. And making a mistake can also be very costly.
However, with that in mind, the truth is that there are savings to be had, thanks to not having to subtract agent commissions and fees from the sale price of your property.
To help you figure out if selling your home yourself is a smart move for you, consider the following before you make a decision about what may be your most valuable asset.
There is a LOT of paperwork involved – and you won’t understand all of it without the right advice. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try – just that you need to be aware of your limitations and the impact that lack of knowledge could have on the task ahead of you.
Common challenges that For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sellers typically face include:
- issues with deciding on the right price.
- issues understanding the necessary paperwork.
- finding the time to deal with the sales process.
If you are still asking yourself if you can manage to sell your home yourself, the answer is a potential ‘yes’ – but there will be some hard work involved. Asking yourself what your time is worth, compared to what you think you might save in agent fees can help you crunch the numbers with greater clarity before making the decision to take on property selling as your next important job.
Reasons Why You Might Consider Selling Your Property Yourself
The main reason behind people choosing to sell their home without an agent is savings – pure and simple.
By selling yourself, you save the commission (a percentage of sale) that would otherwise go to the agent.
Control is another reason and, if you have access to accurate legal advice, it can be feasible to take on a house-selling project and save but it’s important to weigh up all the associated costs that face you – including conveyancing, other legal advice, time and dollars allocated to marketing and hosting inspections of the property, for starters, before deciding if that perception of being in control is something that really matters that much.
Four things you need to know before you sell your home
Selling a home successfully is about much more than simply sticking a ‘for sale’ sign up in your front yard.
- Placing a “For Sale” ad on relevant real estate websites
- Staging your home for open house inspections
- Making time to meet potential buyers
- Managing negotiations
Other steps related to managing the sale of your property without the support of an experienced agent include:
- Determining the market value of your property
- Presenting your property in a way that’s appealing to your target buyer
Selling Properties is Hard Work
The stereotype of the agent in the sports car gives the false impression that selling real estate is easy – and lucrative. But just like the appearance of the duck on the smooth pond, who is actually paddling furiously underneath the surface, the myriad things an experienced real estate agent does are not always immediately noticed. Connections are one integral part of a successful sale and that little black book a good agent has built up after years of working in a region can be invaluable to sourcing a qualified buyer, without the stress of a scatter-gun approach to marketing your property alone.
Yes, selling your home by yourself is a definite possibility and with a number of businesses in the for sale by owner space offering different deals to streamline the process at a cost that is still well below the cost of an agent’s fees, it’s important to realise you do have choices.
Doing the research to find out what choices are best for you is a personal decision and one that should be thought about carefully.
For information about how to choose the best possible home loan finance to suit your home ownership or property investment goals, talk to our mortgage broking professionals at Lending Specialists today.
