I want to be known as the agent who was willing to give you some professional advice... not the agent who tried to convince you form the start that any effort to sell your own home was a big mistake.


MakeYour FSBO Sizzle!

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If you would like to talk about ways to promote the sale of your home, just fill in the form below and I will be in touch with you soon.

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Jon Nelson MBA
Broker Associate

Certified Residential Specialist

Senior Real Estate Specialist

Graduate REALTOR Institute

Accredited Buyer Representative

Thinking About Selling Your Own Home?

Most agents will discourage you from trying to sell your own home... but maybe not for the right reasons.

I want you to get as much for your home as the market will permit because that's good for you and good for real estate values in general. I also believe you should go into the FSBO arena with your "eyes open."  Click HERE for a realistic comparison of FSBO vs. Listed on the same property.

Still want to give it a shot? I say Bravo! It's no "cake walk" but at least you are willing to try and I am willing to help you succeed. That's what these pages are all about.

Make Your FSBO Sizzle!
Below are some tips that may help you price, promote and show your home to its (and your) best advantage.  Getting your home ready for sale, whether you FSBO or list, takes some advanced planning, marketing savvy and likely an investment in staging and repairs.

Here's an inside tip: Buyers are not buying your attachment to the home, they are buying what they hope will become their attachment to your home...or rather, their home. If you keep this idea in mind, it will pay off for you in the long-run.

So Why am I Willing to Help You FSBO your Home?
It's good business. Some agents will immediately start in on FSBO sellers with facts and statistics about how hard it is to sell a home by yourself and what a bad idea it is. This without even knowing your particular circumstances or motivation. Either way, I'm convinced that this approach doesn't win friends as no one wants to work with an "I told you so" agent. I wouldn't.

I am willing to help you now because if you do eventually decide to hire an agent to help you sell your home, I'm thinking you would rather work with someone who tried to help you, rather than someone who tired to convince you that you were making a big mistake from the get go. Helping you with a few ideas doesen't hurt my business, in fact there's a much better chance that it will help us establish a relationship of trust.

If, on the other hand, your FSBO Fizzled and you'd like some help now: Click Here

 Selling Your Own Home can be Both Rewarding and Challenging.




Have a question? Email Me
Tell me how I can help you. Contact Me

Tips for FSBOs

 In its simplest terms, selling a house is a process of forms, fairness and disclosure. Real estate agents are trained to handle the forms and ensure the process remains fair to all parties. As you step into this role, you will want to ensure the same. You dont want your transaction to wind up in court because you didnt dis­close something of importance, or missed something on a form. I always advise my FSBO contacts to hire an attorney to review their paperwork. It may cost a few hundred dollars up front, but it could save you many times that later on.

Pricing

 Pricing your home correctly is critical. You will have to do considerable research on sales in your area to make sure that your home is priced right. Remember, a house doesnt sell for what you want, it sells for what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Real estate agents have access to a wide number of comps and the market knowledge to interpret it. You will want to have data for several similar homes in your area that have sold recently. Keep in mind that pricing a home too low can be nearly as problematic as pricing it too high.

Capture Rate

 In an NRA national survey, the median sales price for owner-sold homes is about 85% of the median sales price for homes sold by real estate agents. Some of this difference may be associated with the underlying value of the homes sold in each category, but it's not likely that all of it is. The remaining difference could be due to an agent's ability to remain firm on the client's price. FSBO sellers are under a unique pressure to lower the price because FSBO buyers are also looking for a great deal, and they don't want to pay a commission either. FSBO sellers might only see low-ball offers and may ultimately feel obliged to sell their home for less than they had to. Resist the deep discounts.

Staging Your Home

When you are trying to sell, you'll need to think in terms of "staging," or getting your home ready to show. And to stage your home for maximum appeal, think about it from a buyer's perspective. You'll want to emphasize certain things like plenty of counter space in the kitchen and plenty of floor space in the rooms.

Eliminate clutter wherever you see it. If a room seems congested with too much furniture, apply the "less is more" principle and put some of it in storage. Natural sunlight is very important as are neutral wall colors and sparkling clean windows. If you'd like an "outside" opinion on staging, I'd be happy to do a walk-through with you.

Advertising

 Advertising is essential and the more places you advertise, the more potential buyers you will reach. This is the "marketing plan" that I put together to draw attention to your home, and you will want to build your marketing plan to include a wide variety of resources. My plan admittedly costs a lot but with 19 distinct venues, including the internet and television, I can keep your home on the radar screens of potential buyers 24/7. You will want to spend whatever it takes to do likewise because heavy-spending agents are your competition for the buyers attention. Think of it in terms of fishing. If you only have one or two hooks in the water (say a yard sign and a newspaper ad) how do you compete with the pros who are casting the big nets? So, dont skimp here. Make sure your home is advertised in multiple media every day until its sold and closed.

Knowing Your Buyer

 Here's something many sellers dont realize. Of all the successful FSBO sales, 32% of the sellers knew the buyer in advance. This means roughly one in three of these homes were not placed on the open market and may not have been sold for their full value, although these houses typically find their way into FSBO "success" statistics. You may want the services of an agent who can negotiate a fair-value deal without any uncomfortable pressure or obligation.

True Costs of Selling

 Know your true costs of selling. One form of "costs" are your out-of-pocket expenses. Advertising, fix-up projects, forms, attorney expenses to review your paperwork and other direct expenses add up quickly. But there are other costs that arent so easily measured but are none-the-less real. These are "opportunity costs" or the cost associated with what you could otherwise do with the time and money you spend on trying to sell your own home. What is the cost of giving up your nights and weekends? What is the cost of negotiating too low a price? What is the cost of safety? What is the cost of an unqualified buyer wasting your time? What is the cost delaying your plans because you havent found a buyer yet? These costs also add up and together with your direct expenses they measure your true cost of selling on your own.

Showing and Safety

 Showing is going to pretty much take up your days, evenings and weekends, and even though roughly one third of the appointments will be "no-shows," youll still have to arrange your schedule to accommodate potential buyers. In fact, for a while, it may seem like a second full-time job. (For real estate agents, it is a full time job.) You will obviously want to share this burden as fairly as possible, but never let children, even older teenagers, show the home alone.

Remember, you are inviting complete strangers to wander through your home. While a real estate agent will already know something about a buyer and will schedule the showing so you can be gone, when you sell on your own, people are just going to show up on your doorstep expecting to walk through your home. So showing safety is a key issue. Be careful and be wary.

Never let buyers walk behind you and always know where your quickest escape route is. Keep your cell phone with you and if anything at all scares you about a visitor, get out of the house, and if necessary call 911. Your safety comes first!

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Let me know how I can help you.

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