How We Sold Our Home

Selling Your Home Without a Realtor

After my husband and I raised our family in a home we loved, we decided to move to a resort style community for the next phase of our marriage.  With the concerns about the costs of moving, we decided that we would make the attempt to sell our home ourselves.  I will share with you how we successfully achieved our goal.

The months previous to the move we worked hard preparing the home.  Anything that had too much of our personal look was toned down.  Our traditional style was a fit in the neighborhood and all walls and ceilings were good condition and freshened up with paint as needed.  All plumbing was in good working order as well as a good heating system and electric box updates helped to make our home an easy sell.  The above were all part of the ongoing maintenance of the home which we enjoyed while residing there.  So here are the steps we took and the recommendations I have for anyone else selling their own home.

1. Keep your home in good working order and visually presentable.  Most homeowners prefer to move into a home in live in condition.  Sometimes having a third party walk through to give you suggestions is helpful.  Living in a house daily makes is harder to be objective and you may need to remove clutter or move a piece or 2 of furniture to make rooms look more spacious.  Be sure closets aren't too full as closet space is also highly desired.  The yard and any garage or basement spaces should be cleaned up as well.  The potential owner will get a clear message about how the home has been cared for by the presentation you offer them.
2. Study the values of homes selling in your area.  Go to a few open houses to see if you are realistic in the selling price.  I asked 3 realtors in our community to price the house.  They came up with a higher price than I planned to market it for!  They were happy to do this for us as we told them we would offer the house to their multiple listings if he house didn't sell in 4 months.
3. Now the advertising was a new adventure for us.  We have been happy with our experiences with Craig's List and our local paper which features real estate for sale very well.  The free services of Craig's List offer you substantial savings and allows you to add pictures to your description.
4. A For Sale sign in front of your home is a great way to generate interest in your home. It amazed me how many people walking by showed interest in learning more about the house.
5. We had an 3 Open Houses and showed the house 2 nights a week for the three weeks.  I did not make the house available every night as I chose not to and this didn't pose to be a problem.  The Open Houses were advertised only in the paper and were very successful.  It is very important to remember that these are strangers walking through your home and you should have all valuable items locked away.  Do not feel uncomfortable posting a person on the second floor of your home to oversee your bedrooms while folks are touring through your home.
6. The next step was to accept offers.  We had forms we received from our  real estate attorney for receiving offers and purchase and sales.  They were no charge as we used her for the closing.  The offers we received were varying from the price we really felt we would get for our house to a price even higher than projected from the realtors.  The higher prices all came with multiple contingencies and we didn't want anything getting in our way.  Contingencies for others to first sell their homes is never a good idea and can cause you to loose potential buyers.  Greed could have tempted us but we were very happy with the lower offer, which was the price we wished to receive, and no contingency.  Be sure the buyer puts money down on their offer as is important to be sure the offer is serious.  It is a great idea in this market to be sure the buyer has been approved for the mortgage amount that is need to finish the sale.
7. A Purchase and Sale signing is the next step and will really get everything in motion.  A $500.00 binder is collected and the buyer will now schedule their home inspection and work with their lending institution to arrange a mortgage.  Be firm about when you want to sell.  That date has to be agreed upon by the bank for a closing.  Some mortgage lending institutions drag their feet so stay on target with your buyers.
8. We used a real estate lawyer for the closing which was very inexpensive and it gave us the peace of mind that everything was handled properly and smoothly.  

With money in hand, we gave our last good byes to a home that served us well.  With tears in our eyes we were ready for the next adventure of our marriage as we moved into a new wonderful home to love and enjoy.