Looking to avoid the expensive commissions when selling your home with an agent/brokerage?
I imagine that is the reason you probably ended up at this post.
Since you’re here, I want to let you know that it is very possible to sell your property for sale by owner. However, it can also be very difficult if you do not understand the process, make necessary repairs, and market the property to gain the necessary exposure needed for a successful sale.
Let's face it, between selling your house with a real estate agent/brokerage, closing costs and holding costs throughout the life of the sale we are looking at 9-11% in expenses before our actually net profit.
Now any normal person obviously would like to limit the costs associated with a sale and still try to obtain full market value. The problem is selling for sale by owner is much more labor intensive
You will be in control of the whole sale and will be responsible for getting from sale to close in a timely and price sufficient manner.
So can you successfully sell your house for sale by owner in Syracuse NY? I believe you can.
Everyone's situation and circumstance will be a bit different and for some, this may not be the most logical path to sell their home.
For others who have the time or want to dedicate the time, may have a little equity or just don't want to cough up those costly commission then these tips we give below, will help you through the process.
4 Tips to Improve Your Odds Of Selling For Sale By Owner | Syracuse NY
So let’s get started.
Like we said you will be in charge of taking this boat from start to finish.
Just like with anything, there is a right way to do it and a wrong way.
We are not saying that these tips will guarantee a sale but it will get you on the right path and increase your odds of a successful sale.
1) Local Research
First off every local market is different. From neighborhood to neighborhood, county to county, city to city and state to state.
I want you to understand that just because a home sold for $200,000 the street over does not mean that your property that is 800 square feet less, is in poor condition, was built 50 years before, has less bedrooms and baths and offers no upgrades will sell for that amount.
So let's be realistic throughout this process and come up with accurate figures and numbers to help sell our home fast and for a good price.
A) Local Market Conditions - Our research begins with understanding the current status of our local real estate market. We want to figure out our local market's supply.
Real Estate Supply - Will determine how long it should take to sell all of the houses currently listed for sale given the current rate of sales in the local area.
Determine the current # of houses listed for retail sale
Determine how many retail houses sold in past 30 days
Divide actively listed homes by sold houses
The number that we arrive at will tell us if we are in a buyer’s market or sellers’ market.
This will determine how aggressive we can be with our pricing, what kind of improvements we may need to make & how fast we can expect to get our house sold.
Buyers’ Market - Number of months’ supply is large (large inventory of properties for sale). Buyers have many houses to choose from.
Sellers’ Market - Number of months’ supply is small (small inventory of properties for sale). Demand is higher than normal and buyers have limited options to choose from.
When we are in the market to sell our house, obviously to increase our odds we are hoping to sell into a sellers’ market.
B) Comparable Market Analysis- The most important aspect of selling your house will be pricing it right. A comparable market analysis will help us better understand what similar properties in our area are selling for. Since you will not have access to the MLS when creating your CMA, you will have to use third party resources such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor and Movoto.
These third party sites will allow us to find properties that are:
Currently listed for sale
Recently Sold
Pending
When creating our comparable market analysis we will want to look at:
Start with homes within your neighborhood (expand to 1-5 mile radius)
Recently sold in the past 3-6 months
Location
Amenities
Condition
Age
Square Footage
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
Upgrades
Lot Size
By creating this simple document, we will have a good estimate of what our property will sell for in similar condition.
C) The Process - Before you begin the process of selling for sale by owner, we want you to understand the sales process and all of the paperwork that will be needed to complete a sale. We also want you to understand all the fees associated with a sale and extra closing costs you will incur. When going to sell your house understand that each month the house sits on the market, you will incur:
Taxes
Insurance
Utility Bills
Mortgage
Depending on where you reside, there may be some extra costs associated with holding the property such as HOA fees.
Closing costs typically account for 3-4% of the sales price, So if you sell your house for $100,000, expect that you will have to pay $3,000 - $4,000 in closing costs when you sell the property.
D) Mortgage Pay off Amount - If you have a mortgage on the property, know what that principle payment is. This principle amount will allow us to determine how much profit we will make on the sale if we sell it for X amount (or how much equity you have in the property). This will be the starting point for determining the profit potential on the sale.
2) Get the Home Ready / Prep
Before we get into this step of the process, I want you guys to be upfront and honest with yourself in regards to the condition of your home. Our comparable market analysis tells us what similar (structured) properties are selling for but we also have to look at the condition and upgrades within these properties. If we want to list our property for what our comps have sold for we have to make sure that our properties have similar or better upgrades than the properties we are comparing our property to. So if your property is in poor or fair condition and you are unwilling to put money into the home to make necessary repairs to sell your property for full market value, then plan on selling your property at a discount (There are options for this scenario also).
However, if you are willing to put some extra money into making the necessary repairs to your home to sell for full market value, we can discuss what should be fixed and how to go about it.
A) Scope of work- The first step of the process will be to assemble a scope of work or a task list for everything you would like repaired. The scope of work will be the starting point for figuring out a material list, budget and schedule for our renovations. This scope of work will also be very useful if we want to hire contractors to make these repairs.
If your house is in good condition and you have maintained the property throughout its life then you may only need to make some minor repairs/upgrades. These upgrades may include:
Declutter
Clean Home
Clean out landscaping/new mulch
Changing outlets
Light fixtures
bathroom fixtures
Light Switches
Outlet/Light Covers
Door Hardware
Painting
If your house is in poor/ fair condition and you are willing to make renovations, some upgrades that will add value to your home will be:
Kitchen
Bathroom
Flooring (Carpet)
Roof
Windows
Water Heater
Furnace
Before you decide to make any of these upgrades, understand the numbers, know how much each task is going to cost you and see if it you will be getting your money out of the upgrades you make when you sell.
3) Lets Market & Get Exposure
Once we understand how much we are going to sell the property for and it is in sale ready condition, we now have to market the property to sell. This is the part of the process that most for sale by owners have trouble and fail at. This is because it is the most difficult step of the process. However, we believe this is one of the best times in history to try and sell for sale by owner due to the amount of technology that we have available to us. Here are some marketing tools and tips for selling your house for sale by owner:
A) Photos & Videos - The first step of our marketing will entail taking 30 - 40 professional photos (the best you can do) with great lighting and a video walk through of the property. This material will be used for all of marketing strategies and will be used to attract potential buyers to our property.
B) Web page / Landing Page - There are several sites out there that will allow you to make a single page website (landing page). This will be the page that we direct all of your online marketing too. Our landing page will consist of:
Price
Property Description
Property Features
Property Upgrades
Local Amenities
Photos
Video
Map/Location
Opt In Forms
This landing page will consist of all of the information that our potential buyers will need to move forward with the purchase process along with opt in form(s) to allow them to sign up for our private showings.
C) Social Media - We use several different social media sites to document our rehabs and sell our properties but for the sake of this article, let’s just focus on one medium, Facebook. The most popular social media site with the largest demographic and most active users is Facebook. This is the best social media platform to market your property both organically and paid. Within each of our Facebook ads we will direct our target market back to our landing page to attract them and allow them to convert to private showings.
D) Fiver - This is a third party real estate site that allows you to post for free on all of the other real estate related sites (such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor, Yahoo etc.). We will create an ad on this site and easily distribute all of our photos and description to these webpages. This is a great free tool to increase our exposure and our chances of a successful sale.
F) Signs, Fliers & Brochures - We are big proponents of inbound marketing but also believe outbound strategies are necessary to increase our exposure. You can get simple for sale by owner signs at your local hardware store or you can order personal signs through the internet. We want you to create a basic brochure of your house with all of the property information and pictures and add this brochure to your sign for potential buyers to take. On this brochure we still want to direct them back to our landing page, so make sure you put some type of Call To Action stating ----> Go To www.xxxxxxx.com for more photos and information.
G) Flat Fee MLS Listing - In our opinion real estate agents have 2 big advantages over for sale by owners. They are:
There extensive network and real estate agent friends
Access to the MLS
We can eliminate the second advantage by using a flat fee listing service. This services can run you anywhere from $80 - $125 but will increase your exposure exponentially. Just be aware that any leads you receive from the strategy will come with a buyer’s agent attached. So expect to cough up at least 3% in commissions. If this is something you are ok with, then we recommend implementing this strategy to sell your home for sale by owner.
H) Craigslist - Another great free avenue to advertise your property. There is a ton of competition on Craigslist but if you are able to make you ad standout with verbiage and photos there is an excellent chance that you may find a buyer from this medium.
Write compelling, descriptive content about the property along with an eye catching headline. Also use up all 24 photos that are available to you and give a clear call to action at the bottom of the ad directing them back to your landing page.
4) Sell & Close
Once we have put our marketing out on the streets, begin to expect some phone calls and inquiries. Most of these folks will be looking for private showings of the property, so understand that you will have to be flexible with your schedule in order to secure a deal.
Aside from the private showings, we also want you to schedule an open house date for 1 week past the date you are ready to sell. Although only a small % of homes sell through an open house we do recommend scheduling one to get more people to walk through your property.
Before you begin your walk through and open houses, you will need to have all of the necessary documentation and paperwork for the property. This will include:
Comparable Market Analysis
Property Disclosure
Lead Paint Disclosure
Survey
Mortgage Amount
Brochure of Property
Once we have all the necessary paperwork ready for our potential buyer, lets get ready to receive an offer.
Once we receive our first offer we will want to review the terms and price, negotiate if necessary and sign the purchase documents.
After we sign the purchase documents, we will then have to go through an inspection and appraisal process on the home.
For this step we will also want to review the documents, negotiate and sign off on the documents.
Once we have the purchase documents signed we will want to get a copy and forward it over to our title company as soon as we can. This will make our title company aware that we have signed a contract on the property and to expect phone calls from the buyers attorney. They will work with the buyers attorney to accumulate title documents, surveys and any additional information the attorney and lenders may require.
This process can be very tedious and drawn out so make that you continue to follow up with your title company, the buyer’s agent, attorney and lender. This will give you some comfort on where the sale stands.
Once all of the documents have been compiled, a closing date will be scheduled. Under new regulations banks need 2 weeks to fund the money to property buyers. Expect the closing process to take anywhere from 6-10 weeks when dealing with bank financing.
Wrapping Up | Selling For Sale by Owner
We hope that we did not overwhelm you with too much information on this topic but we want to be clear that this is not a simple process. There are a lot of different steps involved in the process and this is why realtors get paid a commission. However, if you do want to eliminate some or all of these commissions, we suggest following this post as a guideline to your sale. If you have any questions or need any help on the sale of your property, do not be afraid to reach out to us, we would love to help.
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