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If you’ve chosen to sell your home as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), then we can assume you already know the benefits and challenges of using this method of home selling. However, knowing where to start might leave you feeling a little uncertain.
When you’re selling a home, there’s a lot to keep track of, and even the Type A person who is an excellent list-maker can occasionally feel overwhelmed. To help you streamline the process, we’ve created a military-friendly guide to walk you through your “for sale by owner.”
Step #1: Prepare Your House to Sell
When prepping your home to sell, you’ll not only need to clean and declutter, but ensure that your home can pass a home inspection. You’ll need to repair structural problems, HVAC, and other issues impacting the home's functionality. Then consider touching up the paint, replacing worn flooring, and updating the landscaping.
Declutter Your Home
When you’ve spent years in a house, you forget everything you have lying around. Much like making a PCS military move, selling your home is a perfect opportunity to go through your home and purge everything you don’t need and won’t miss. Then, walk through again and remove everything you don’t use daily.
If you aren’t willing to sell or donate these extra items but don’t use them regularly, consider renting a storage unit to place them while you sell. With buyers traipsing in and out of the house, piling things in closets or the garage won’t do. Extra stuff, even neatly organized in totes, shrinks your space. It’s best to remove it from the property altogether and create space for potential buyers to envision their lives fitting into the property.
Get started here:
Clean the House from Top to Bottom
It doesn’t matter how many times a week you clean your home. When you’re living in it, there are things you don’t see and can’t get around to. After you’ve decluttered and removed the extras from your property, consider hiring a professional cleaning crew to come in and scrub everything from top to bottom. If you’re not sure it’s worth the money, wait until they get to the bathrooms and move the appliances; you’ll be thankful you did.
Photo by Valerii Apetroaiei from Getty Images via Canva.com
Update as Needed
Most home buyers are looking for a turnkey home, so it’s important to neutralize your space. A fresh slate for potential buyers to picture their belongings calls for a handful of updates, such as:
- Replace dated hardware and fixtures.
- Buy new appliances if the current ones are old or outdated.
- Apply a fresh coat of neutral paint, like white, light tan, or gray, to the interior.
- Freshen up the exterior paint, railings, and door if needed.
Stage Your Home
Don’t underestimate the power of staging. While it might feel like an unnecessary step, staged homes sell faster and for more money than those that aren’t. If you’re unsure of what your home needs, hire a professional to step in and help.
There are several types of staging to fit your needs:
- Professional advice. Hire staging professionals to walk through your home and note necessary changes.
- Virtual staging. Virtual staging is a great solution to increase engagement in your online listing. However, the consistency between the listing and an in-person viewing can throw some potential buyers for a loop.
- Targeted staging. Targeted staging is more budget-friendly as it helps polish high-impact areas of your home without touching every square inch.
- Full-service staging. A home staging professional might make more elaborate suggestions regarding anything from updates to placing rental furniture in the home to get it ready to sell.
Freshen Up the Exterior
Putting a little money into your curb appeal by updating the front door, updating the landscaping, and touching up faded or chipped paint can do wonders for the buyers stepping into your home.
Here’s a list to help you get started:
- Replace dead plants.
- Trim bushes and edges.
- Touch up paint, including the mailbox.
- Fix broken railings.
- Pressure wash the front patio and driveway.
For a more detailed to-do list around the house, check out the Home Buyer Walk-Through Checklist and learn what your potential buyers are for.
Step #2: Set the Asking Price
A frequently asked question among for sale by owner home sellers is, How do I set a price for my home?
Determining your home's monetary worth can be difficult, as separating emotions and family memories from objective value is challenging. Instead, an objective lens to determine the fair market value of your property is the key.
Here’s what to do:
- Search for comparable listings in your area and study the prices. Determine your area's average price per square foot.
- Consider factors like location, condition, upgrades, and layout as you determine pricing.
- If you’re marketing to the military community, be mindful of what the local BAH is. How attainable is a mortgage for the average military family?
- Study similar listings and homes for sale by owner in the area and learn what’s selling quickly. Find out what they’re doing that you’re not, and adjust your strategy if needed.
- The industry recommends pricing under whole numbers and favoring odd ones. For example, use $299,000 or $299,900 instead of $300,000.
- Understand online real estate searches. If you price the home at $310,000, buyers interested in spending around $300,000 may enter <300,000 in their search filter. Even though they might be willing to extend their budget 10,000 to reach your $310,000 asking price, they might not see your property listing.
- If you’re still in doubt, hire an appraiser to calculate the most accurate value of your home.
Photo by Leung Cho Pan via Canva.com
Step #3: Advertise Your Home
Your online listing carries a lot of weight in the home-selling process. It’s responsible for getting potential buyers' attention and drawing them in.
Take Good Photos
Excellent quality photos are invaluable. Since most people start their search online, your photos will make the very first impression on buyers.
Hiring a professional photographer is a great way to ensure you have stand-out photos for your listing. If you want to take the DIY approach, you can find some helpful tips here:
Create Your Listing
Combine your photos with a detailed description of your home and create a listing on MilitaryByOwner. You might also consider paying a fee to list your home on a Multiple Listing Service for real estate agents. And if you're willing to pay a fee to a real estate agent who brings you a buyer, you can include a Buyers Agents Welcome message in your listing.
Market Your Home
Launch your listing and share it on social media! The world nearly functions on social media these days, and if you can get your listing to circulate by word of mouth in some of the coveted Facebook groups, then your listing is as good as gold. You can also market your home locally by hanging flyers around town or on base.
Your online image is more important than ever, as many buyers are less interested in touring homes in person until they’re sure they want to make an offer. A virtual tour is a huge bonus to help your listing stand out.
Step #4: Host an Open House
The goal of an open house is to create a comfortable space for potential buyers. Home shoppers should feel welcomed and relaxed as they walk through your home, envisioning it as their own.
Pro tips for your open house:
- Be friendly, but stay out of the way.
- Remove pets and all evidence of pets for the day.
- Make your home welcoming by turning on all lights, arranging fresh flowers, and even setting out a plateful of cookies.
- Remove personal items and photos.
- Create an info sheet for prospective buyers to review. Include details like the address, asking price, square footage, the year the home was built, the date of the roof, major appliances, etc.
- Promote! Don’t forget signage, posting on social media, and your MilitaryByOwner ad.
Be prepared to leave the house quickly if needed. Have an exit strategy that includes either camping out in the car with the kids and pets, heading to a nearby coffee shop or library, or having a generous neighbor on standby who will let you hang out.
Step #5: Field Incoming Offers
Getting an offer on your home is gratifying and also means that you’re one step closer to closing this chapter in your life and beginning a new one.
Review All Offers
Compare the amounts offered, contingencies, and proposed closing dates of interested buyers.
Get Legal Advice
Real estate attorneys can help protect your interests, negotiate better offers, and ensure a smooth closing process.
Verify Eligibility
Confirm that your buyer is financially qualified to purchase your home. You should request the buyer provide a copy of their letter of pre-approval from their lender as it’s based on their actual income, debt, and credit history and ensures that they can afford your home. As the seller, you want to feel confident that your buyer can obtain financing.
​Photo by South_agency from Getty Images Signature via Canva.com
Step #6: Paperwork and Closing
There are a few things to get through between accepting an offer and turning over the keys to your home.
- Your house goes into escrow.
- The appraisal.
- The buyer pays for an inspection of the home.
- New negotiations regarding price, timing, and any additional repairs after the home inspection.
- Moving day.
- Final walk-through.
- Closing day.
MilitaryByOwner’s partner, US Legal Forms, offers the documentation needed for your FSBO.
Other For Sale By Owner Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I prepare myself and my home for a For Sale By Owner?
Your home requires necessary repairs, updates, and staging to make it marketable; however, there are a few things that you, the home seller, can do that aren’t mentioned above.
Gather Paperwork
In the simplest form, selling a home is a business transaction, and you’ll need proper documentation to make the sale. Collect paperwork like property assessments and surveys, declarations, covenants, or deed restrictions. Include pest or environmental inspection results, billing statements from property taxes and utilities, and receipts from household maintenance, repairs, and upgrades.
This paperwork will convey that you have taken care of the home during your time there and answer any questions potential buyers might have.
Budget for Home Selling Fees
Even though you may save money by selling as a FSBO, there are fees involved with any home sale that need considering. Be prepared for legal fees, broker fees from the buyer’s agent, and taxes on capital gains.
Additionally, be aware of possible fees from the escrow company, a mortgage appraisal, termite inspection and/or home appraisal, property transfer or transfer tax, homeowner's insurance or home warranty, title insurance, along with any other costs at closing.
2. Do you have any tips for negotiating a home sale?
In a For Sale By Owner, you’re negotiating directly with the buyer or their agent. This is the time to exude confidence!
Limit chatter. Your buyers don’t need to know that you have orders to PCS and you’re working on a tight time frame. Keeping small talk to a minimum will ensure you don’t disclose information that could harm your sale.
Investigate financing. Know how much your buyer’s pre-approved amount is. This will help you weed out people who can’t afford your home and give you some purchasing power. It’s also important to be mindful of your financial goals as you make counteroffers. Understand your limits and set a bottom dollar.
Counter. Unless you hire an agent to step in for this part of the sale, you’ll be handling it yourself, so setting your emotions aside is crucial. Don’t take low-ball offers personally, as the buyer is getting a feel for how flexible you are. Understand that they don’t see the emotional value in the home that you do. Instead, counter their offer with something more reasonable.
Keep an eye on the clock. For example, move the counteroffer expiration from three days to two. A shorter turnaround will help eliminate buyers who aren’t serious about your property.
Read about more frequently asked questions in our free guide, Answers to Your For Sale By Owner FAQs.
MilitaryByOwner is here to help you learn how to market and show your home, as well as resources for hiring real estate professionals and gathering legal paperwork. Every step of the way, MilitaryByOwner is committed to helping you have a successful FSBO. See our free guide below.
By Danielle Keech
