The Path to Orchestrating Your Own Home Sale

Tampa Bay Real Estate Podcast with Karen and Joe Donovan

If you’re thinking of selling your home on your own, I have some valuable insider tips to help you accomplish this task.

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So the market’s great and you decide to sell your home by yourself. What happens next?

First, you put a sign up, put some ads on the Internet, and away you go. Soon enough, people start driving by your home, knocking on your door, and calling you—even Realtors. Then perhaps you get a buyer that comes by, and they seem pretty serious...until you find out they don’t have any credit and would like you to hold the mortgage.

Then maybe your neighbor knocks on your door and asks if you’ll sell your home at a discount to their children because they don’t have much money.

These situations can be very frustrating, but should you give up on your dream of selling your home all by yourself? No you shouldn’t, because I have three valuable insider tips to help you pull it off without going crazy:

1. Make sure you market your home effectively. Many Realtors place their homes on Realtor.com, Zillow, and the MLS (multiple listing service) for their best results, but successful Realtors also place their homes on about 46 other websites on average. Statistically, over 92% of people start their home search online. You want to make sure your home is seen by the most number of people, so explore other places on the Internet you can advertise your home. You’d be amazed at the amount of traffic you can garner.

Make sure your home is seen by the most number of people.

2. Make sure your buyer is both pre-qualified and pre-approved for a loan. What’s the difference between the two? When someone’s pre-qualified, they’re only asked a few questions by a mortgage broker and based on that information, they’re told what their chances are for getting a loan. With a pre-approval, the buyer has actually made a full loan application and gone through the entire process—including checking their credit, income, tax returns, etc.

3. Remain objective about your home and the home selling process. If the buyer has a few negative comments, don’t get defensive. Try instead to acknowledge them and use that as a stepping point to highlight the positives of your home and how it benefits them.

If you have any questions or you’d like to see the other seven insider tips to help you sell your home on your own, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. In the meantime, don’t give up and keep in tune with the market. I look forward to hearing from you.