Do You Need Realtors to Sell Your Home? 5 Tips

If you’ve decided to sell your home, you are probably wondering how best to do it. As a homeowner, you have a lot of different options.

Many people opt to hire a real estate agent to guide them through the process. But do you need realtors to sell your home? While professional advice is often helpful, it isn’t always necessary. With careful planning and strategy, you can sell your home yourself.

This will save you literally thousands of dollars in agent commission fees. But home selling without a realtor can be difficult. For each step of the home selling process, we have advice and tips that will help you maximize your effectiveness as a home seller, and get top value for your house.

Table of Contents

Define Your Goals at the Outset

It’s necessary to define your goals before you jump into the home selling process. Though it may seem straightforward, there are a lot of different things you can prioritize when selling your house.The first one to consider is time. How quickly are you looking to sell your home? Most people are hoping to find a buyer within a few months. Less urgent sellers are okay with waiting a few years for the right buyer. But if you want to know how to sell your house without a real estate agent within a matter of days, you will need to contact a real estate investor and sell it as-is.

The benefits of this strategy are that you get quick payment upfront. The downside is that you may not get the maximum value for your home. That brings us to our next possible goal. Getting maximum value for your house is a common priority among home sellers. To get top value, you may have to stay on the market a little longer, waiting for the right buyer to come along. Most people are looking for a combination of these two things. But it is important to evaluate your situation and determine which one you prioritize more.It is also helpful to determine ranges for both of these things. For example, perhaps you’d like to sell your home within one to four months, for $300,000-$400,000.

Any offer that falls in that intersection is worth serious consideration. Whatever you decide to prioritize, your goals must be realistic and achievable. The more research and planning that you do, the more likely it is that you can achieve your home-selling goals.

Strategically Determine Your Listing Price

A lot of “For Sale By Owner” or FSBO sellers don’t know where to start when pricing their home. Instead of choosing a number randomly, it is a good idea to do your homework.First, research other homes in your area. Within the last five years, what were they listed as versus what did they sell for? Comparing the final sale price will give you a good ballpark price range.You should also research what the general housing market is like in your city or region at the moment.

Is it heating up or cooling off? This will determine your list price and will help you set your expectations regarding how long it will take to sell your home.

There are some home price calculators online that can help you determine a price using this information. But it is also important to factor in specific details about your home.So next, evaluate your home’s history and condition. What did you pay for it? How long ago was that? Moreover, what repairs need to be made? If you choose to make those repairs before selling, you can price a little higher. However, if you plan on selling your home as-is, you may need to knock a little bit off of the price. You could consider contacting someone like this ‘we buy homes for cash‘ company who will help evaluate your home, regardless of its condition, and offer you a fair cash price for it to help you sell quickly. Finally, remember to remove any nostalgia or emotion from the pricing process.

To you, this home may be priceless. But the fact that it was where you spent your childhood, or that it was the first home you bought on your own won’t matter to your potential buyers. You need to price your house through their eyes.

Choose Photographs That Bring Out Your Home’s Best Features

Now you need to prepare your home to be staged and listed. To stage your home yourself, you need to make it look as neutral as possible.Remove any personal art from the walls, or excess personal belongings.

To you, this will make your home feel impersonal and un-homey, but that is just because you have a history with the house. In fact, the strategy behind this step is to make your home seem like a blank slate where someone else can envision their life taking place.Once you’ve staged your home, you need to get good photos. By opting to go the FSBO route, you have presumably saved yourself thousands of dollars upfront.

You may want to use a small portion of that money to hire a professional photographer. Many people start their home search online. Therefore, your photos will be the first thing that they see of your home. They need to make a good first impression.In particular, you should look for someone who is skilled in home or architecture photography. They will be experienced in how to use lighting, angles, and props to make your house look its best.Hiring a professional can help you maximize the appeal of your home. Nothing turns off potential buyers quicker than bad photography.

Make Viewers Feel At Home in Your House

Once you have good photos and your list price, you’re ready to list your home.One option is to hit the sites yourself. List your home in places like Trulia, Zillow, or Craigslist.

But another option is to contact a real estate professional that is not an agent who can get you onto a multiple listing service, or MLS, for a flat fee. Real estate agents use MLSs as a way to access as many homes as possible. But only agents have access to them, individual sellers do not.

But if you’re trying to maximize exposure without hiring an agent, consult one of these services that can get you onto an MLS for a much lower price.Once your home is listed, you need to prepare to be contacted for viewings. Since you aren’t a full-time real estate agent, it may be helpful to schedule some open houses so that multiple people can view your home at once. Use sensory details to make your house feel homey. For example, you can bake cookies in the oven and brew some fresh coffee. Offering your guests homey smelling refreshments is a great way to help them visualize themselves in your home.

You can also trim your lawn the morning of the viewing, or put some flowers in a vase on the kitchen table. Some scented candles in the bathroom are also a neat trick.These tips will help you stage your home effectively. Ideally, you want people to be able to envision themselves in your space.Hopefully, after showing the home a few times, the offers will start rolling in.

Research How to Smartly Negotiate Offers on Your Home

Once you start receiving offers, you need to be prepared to negotiate. Many potential buyers will offer you less than the asking price. It’s okay to reject these offers because that is normally what a real estate agent would do for you.When you are home selling without a real estate agent, you need to be the one who asks for a higher offer and negotiates a deal.Refer back to those target ranges you made for yourself in step one. When you get an offer that meets your ideal timeline and price range, you can accept it. One of the best things a potential home seller can do is research the financing process for selling your home.

Even though you didn’t hire an agent, your buyer will probably need to secure a loan from the bank, and that can take time. A lot of people find that they may want to hire a lawyer for this portion of the process. This can be expensive, but it won’t compare to the amount of money that you will save by not hiring a real estate agent.