How To Sell Your House Without a Realtor (By Owner)
***Disclosure: I am not a licensed real estate agent, this is not expert advice, and am only sharing my recommendations from personal experience & what worked for me.***
In July of 2019, my husband & I sold our first home by ourselves, without assistance from a seller’s real estate agent, after owning the home for about a year and a half. I really thought the process would be more difficult than I found it was! Of course, we are currently in a great housing market and most houses in decent condition, at a good price, are selling quickly! All those facts, paired with some good staging, great pictures, and a little bit of negotiation, lead us to successfully “flip” our first home. This post is pretty long & full of detail, so grab a cup of coffee, and settle in!
You may wonder why anyone would sell a home on their own…the biggest reason for us was to save on the seller’s agent fee they charge when they list it for you. As the seller, you are generally responsible for your agent (seller’s agent), and the buyer’s agent fees which can total up to 6% of the home purchase price. 3% for your agent, and 3% for the buyer’s. By selling the home without a seller’s agent, you save yourself 3% of the purchase price of the home, which can be a large chunk of cash, even for a relatively inexpensive home! We opted to still pay the buyer’s agent fee, so that we could garner more interest in the home from the buyer’s real estate agents.
Our home sold in 4 days, and we actually ended up having a bidding war that day! We got 3% more than our asking price in thanks to the bidding war, and got really great contract details. How, you might ask, did we accomplish this as novice homeowners??
Improvements
I recommend giving everything a fresh coat of paint (all the trim & walls), and fixing any problems you know will come up in a home inspection. These could end up costing you more money than they are worth if a buyer asks for a credit. Then, focus your attention outside for a little curb appeal. Fresh mulch, green grass, and trimmed bushes and plants are a good start. Try to make the house as presentable & “move-in ready” as possible!
Cleaning
If at all possible, I recommend moving out of your house before you clean & stage it. We had to get out of there prior to listing, because our 110 pound Bernese Mountain dog would’ve made everything dirty again within seconds of cleaning! Thankfully, we had the means and opportunity to do so. If you plan to live there while you show your house, just make sure to do another quick look through and clean before the potential buyer show up
Staging
This is really key to listing a house! I would say that it is really important to how a buyer perceives the house overall. When they enter the house, it should feel homey, but not like it belongs to someone. Take all your family photos down (and patch the wall!) and put away personal belongings. Keep the staging simple, so as not to overwhelm your space. You want every space to feel large and open. If you’ve moved out of the house, try to leave some of your bigger items in the house until it’s under contract – like your couch and dining room table. This helps the buyer envision the space as livable for them. You may even need to go purchase some items to spruce things up. Fake flowers and new hand towels in the bathrooms can make it feel like new. An extra feature I added when staging the house was an information binder of all warranties for new or replaced products, paint colors, and a plat we had done of the property. The buyers really liked this touch, as it gave them peace of mind and shows that you have your sh*t together!
Photographing the House
After the house is staged and cleaned, it’s time to take some photos! You can use your own phone for this, if you have a good quality camera. I used my iPhone 10 to take our home photos, then I edited on the Photo app on my iPhone to brighten them up. Position yourself in the corner of the rooms, and take a few photos with different angles all around the room. Don’t forget the front and backyards too! Then, go through each photo and select at least 2 per room to edit and post with your listing. This gives the buyer enough to look through and be interested in actually seeing it!
LISTING IT
We used Zillow to list our home for sale, and we really didn’t need to do anymore advertising than that. I actually ended up getting about 30+ calls a day from realtors and buyers interested in the house. Make sure you post all your edited photos and put accurate information about the house on your listing! Don’t fudge anything – they will find out and you can get in real trouble.
Showing the House to Potential Buyers
If you have a showing scheduled with a potential buyer, PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK! That is a big deal! Now to prepare! Make sure you are 15 minutes or more early to the showings. Light a few yummy smelling candles throughout the home, bake cookies, and clean up any last minute things. When the potential buyers arrive, introduce yourself and the home, and answer any immediate questions. Then leave them alone to explore the home! You can be close by if they have a question, but don’t hover and don’t follow them everywhere. Buyers need space and time to picture themselves in the rooms and the home, and ultimately decide to put an offer in. Allow them as much time as they need to “browse” your home. Try to emphasize any updates to the home – like a new HVAC, roof, paint, or otherwise – these are great selling points!
Negotiating an Offer
If you are a non-confrontational person like myself, this can be a really uncomfortable position for you to find yourself in, but I promise you it’s worth it! Once an offer is presented to you, make sure you review it carefully!! This is the contract that is going to get you through the rest of the sale, so you really have to make sure it’s what you expect and want. I would even recommend having an attorney look it over before you accept it. If you have competing offers, weigh each one and all the caveats of the contract, then ask each bidder for their” best and final”. They will try to get information out of you – like the competing offer’s price – try not to give it to them. Just keep it simple and tell them you want their best and final offers as the other bids are still in play and you want to give them an opportunity to give their best and final offer. Then, you either choose one or turn down all of them! You always have a choice to turn it down if the offer is not what you were expecting.
Under Contract & Closing
Now that you’ve accepted an offer, you are under contract and moving towards closing! You’ll need to negotiate any inspection requests, and make sure the buyer is moving on the things they need to (lender approval, scheduling appraisal, and inspections). This is the time to select the attorney, or title company you will go with to do your seller’s closing. An attorney will pretty much take care of most aspects of your closing, you just have to make sure they are moving along and everything looks accurate.
It may seem like a long & tedious process, and that is why real estate agents exist and are so in demand, but in my opinion, the work is worth the savings!
