Want to sell your home For Sale By Owner?

9-Step Guide to FSBO (For Sale by Owner)

Selling your home is a significant decision. After researching the market and examining your home's actual listing and sale with a Realtor, you might feel motivated to take on the task yourself.

This approach is commonly referred to as FSBO, which stands for For Sale By Owner. Selling your home as an FSBO means you choose not to work with a licensed real estate agent. By doing so, you can avoid paying a commission, skip the agent's involvement, and maintain complete control over your listing.

Are you prepared to sell your home but unsure where to begin? We have created a step-by-step guide on how to navigate the FSBO process.

Step 1: Price Your Home Accurately

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), homeowners selling their properties themselves (FSBO) find pricing to be the most challenging task. Homes priced by owners are typically 2% higher than those listed by agents. While this might sound positive, it doesn't ensure a successful sale, as overpricing can lead to longer market times.

To accurately price your home, here are a few things you should research:

• Current prices for homes similar to yours in your city and neighborhood. Since you're not a Realtor, you won't be able to access the MLS data to pull an accurate list of comparable homes. As a result, you'll have to rely on Zillow or other automated home valuation (AVM) sites, which may not always provide accurate information. However, you can obtain a free home value report here.
• Calculate the ROI of any improvements and renovations you've made to your home. Depending on how many improvements you've made, this can take a lot of time and research. You'll also want to be careful not to over or underprice the ROI since that will directly affect your home value.
• Prices over time to find any market trends. So, again, it will be more challenging to find accurate data about the market over time without access to MLS data. Get Free Market Reports
• Home valuation: We work with homeowners to provide Comparative Market Analysis reports to help determine the proper offer or selling price for their homes. Learn More

Step 2: Prepare Your Home

Since you won't have an agent offering their knowledge and expertise on home improvements that buyers look for, you will have to decide what should be upgraded, repaired, or replaced in your home. In addition, you will need to weigh the costs of the improvements you think should be made against your home's value from Step 1.

After making any necessary renovations, you will need to stage your home. Staging is strategically arranging the furniture and decor in your home to be show-ready so buyers can imagine living there. According to NAR, 83% of buyer's agents said buyers could better visualize living in a house if staged. In addition, 22% of seller's agents saw the dollar value of offers increase by 1-5% when they saw a staged home, and 17% saw the dollar value of the home increase by 6-10% compared to similar homes.

Many agents offer their staging services as part of the selling process, but you can hire a professional stager for an additional cost or do it yourself since you are on your own. If you decide to stage yourself, the rooms you should prioritize are the kitchen, living room, main bedroom, and dining room.

Not only does the inside of your home need to look perfect, but so does the outside. Curb appeal is how your home looks from the street and is another crucial step you don't want to overlook. It's the first impression potential buyers will have of your home, so you'll want to ensure the exterior is also show-ready. According to NAR, landscape maintenance, overall landscape upgrade, and standard lawn care service rank the highest projects that should add value to your home when selling.

Step 3: Photograph Your Home

Once your home is prepared and staged, it's time to photograph it. Although the newest iPhones have a good camera, hiring a professional who knows everything about lighting and the most appealing angles will be worth the extra cost. Homes with high-quality photos sell faster and for more money. Most Realtors offer professional photography, 3D tours, and videos as part of their services. If you have the budget, you may also want to consider them.

Step 4: List Your Home

After all your preparations for your home, you're finally ready to create your listing. Unfortunately, only real estate agents can create listings on the MLS, which sends the listing to sites like Zillow and Trulia, where buyers' agents can find the newest listings to show their clients. That said, you can list your home as FSBO on Zillow or pay a "limited service" broker to list your home on the MLS. For homeowners who need to sell quickly, instant offer services and agents who offer these options enable home sellers to quickly sell their property to a company rather than to an individual.

Step 5: Know Your Home Disclosure Rules

If you're selling your home on your own, you must research your state's requirements for what you need to disclose in your home. A seller's disclosure includes what sellers must tell buyers about their home. Seller disclosures can include structural problems, past issues such as flooding, and any repairs or upgrades you've made to your home. A seller disclosure will save you time from any surprises that may come up in a home inspection. If you have any shocks or bumps in your home inspection, you could incur expensive and unnecessary repairs or demands from buyers.

Step 6: Market Your Home

Now that your home is (hopefully) listed, it's time to focus on marketing it. While you might think that simply placing a for-sale sign in your yard is sufficient, it's not. We usually begin with an email blast to our database of buyer leads that we've accumulated over the years. Although you could also email friends and family to inform them that your home is now on the market, you might find that the results from that approach are limited.

Next, consider setting up advertisements and videos on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms to target potential buyers in your area. It's crucial not to overlook the importance of marketing your home on social media. While you can share a post about your home on your personal page, the exposure and reach will be restricted, and the quality of leads may not be ideal.

Step 7: Communicate with Potential Buyers

Hopefully, by now, you've acquired a few leads showing interest in your home. Even though you don't have an agent, your potential buyer probably does, so you'll be responsible for communicating with them throughout the process. You will need to be on top of emails, texts, and phone calls to schedule showings and meetings with your potential buyers and their agents and be responsive to any questions they may have about your home. Just remember to be patient and think about your responses - selling your home (especially on your own) can be emotional and make you say things you didn't mean.

Step 8: Hire Third-Party Experts

You might want to hire an attorney or title company to help you throughout the selling process, especially when signing legal documents, purchase agreements, and seller disclosures. Some states even require representation from an attorney when you close. Although this can be costly, it ultimately protects you throughout the process.

Step 9: Wait for Offers

And now we wait. How much effort you put into preparing, staging, marketing, and listing your home will determine how long it will take to sell. According to NAR, most FSBOs did not sell their homes in the timeline they were hoping for, while homes listed with a licensed real estate professional were sold on average 20 days faster.

 

If the selling process seems too much to handle, we're here to help. Schedule a call to learn more about how we help FSBO home sellers on the Treasure Coast.

 

 

Eric Slifkin, a Broker Associate at Keller Williams Real Estate and founder of the Slifkin Real Estate Team, has authored this post. Eric and his Stuart-based agents serve South Florida and the Treasure Coast, including Stuart, Hobe Sound, Palm City, Port Saint Lucie, Jupiter, Tequesta, and the Palm Beaches.

 

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