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For Sale by Owner
Congratulations! You have decided to embark on a journey that is a bit scary for most people. A lot of times the biggest question in the minds of the "For Sale by Owner" homeowner is, "What is the best way to market my home?" That is why I've prepared this FREE Marketing Guide to help you answer that question.
I recently read a great article at forsalebyowner.com that helps to answer the question, "By Owner, or By Agent."
It was quite well written and balanced. I highly recommend you read it before deciding for sure which route you plan to take. Article - By Owner or by Agent?
Know Your Buyer - The most important component of marketing your home is to know your buyer.
Without a buyer, there is no sale! (Okay, I know that isn't rocket science. You didn't really need a
Professional Realtor®. to tell you that you need a buyer.)
According to the Home Buyer and Seller Survey released by the National Association of Realtors®. in Jan 2006," Nine out of 10 home buyers use a real estate agent in the search process, but use of the Internet to search for a home has risen dramatically over time, increasing from only 2 percent of buyers in 1995 to 77 percent in 2005; it was 74 percent in 2004. The next largest source of information for buyers is a yard sign, mentioned by 71 percent of buyers."
You can read the entire survey here. Survey
#1 Buyers Agent or Not? The first question you must ask yourself is if you are willing to allow a buyer to use an agent. Most people trying to sell their own home would be hesitant to allow a buyer to bring an agent. This puts the seller in a category of "unrepresented seller." That is not a great feeling to think the buyer will have representation, but you will not. However, if you have done your homework and have all the paperwork you need and the skills to complete the paperwork, you should do just fine! According to the survey, 90% of buyers will be using an agent. I'm going to assume you will be willing to allow your buyer to be represented by an agent.
#2 Market to Agents Buyers get 86% of their information from a Real Estate Agent. This means that your greatest marketing effort should be to the agents themselves, not to the specific buyer. One of the things you can do is mail your full-color brochure on your home to all of the agents that service your area. You can easily get a list of hundreds of them by doing a simple google search for agents in your area. You could also try to save costs by e-mailing the brochure to them. Unfortunately with all the spam e-mails people get, you can't be sure it won't be trashed before it even gets opened.
Another way to market to agents is with an Open House. Serve food! That will bring them out in droves! Typically an open house will not bring a buyer to your home, but rather agents who are looking to see what is "special" about your home. Or to see what the competition is for their home that they have listed down the street.
If you've had your house "For Sale By Owner" for any length of time, you may be thinking to yourself, "Why do I have to market to them, they seem to have come out of the woodwork to try to get my listing." Well, that's true, they are trying to get your listing. You aren't trying to find them to list your house for you though, you are wanting them to bring the buyers to you, so you need to make that clear when they contact you. I had a friend tell me, "I never knew there were so many real estate agents who lived in my neighborhood." Apparently most of them began their script with, "I live in your neighborhood and was just driving by..." I'm sure you've experienced that yourself.
Let's turn our focus to getting them to find you buyers. I'm going to be completely honest with you, no agent is going to bring you a buyer if you aren't willing to pay them a commission. Believe me a buyer's agent earns her commission! You should expect to pay about 3% to any agent who brings you a buyer. If your ultimate goal is to get your home sold, you will want to factor that 3% into the equation.
The #1 place agents look for listings is on the MLS.
#3 Get on the MLS There are many places that can list your home on the MLS. Just today I found a place
that will list you for only $99.00 for two weeks. That's not bad! Hopefully your home will sell quickly!
A word of caution here, be sure to read the fine print on any site that offers MLS listing service.
Being listed in the MLS is not a guarantee that an agent will be willing to show your home.
There are a lot of factors that come into play. Call me and I would be happy to tell you about them.
#4 A Great Yard Sign Your yard sign is actually more important than marketing on the internet. Most of us have gone looking for houses for sale in a neighborhood we really liked. How did we find what houses were for sale? We drove around looking for signs. That is still how many buyers find homes for sale. You can buy a For Sale By Owner sign at any hardware store without shelling out too much money. Of course the person would have to drive right to your house to see it. You can also purchase the little arrow signs and post them on corners near your house to direct people your way. I can't tell you how many times I've driven by For Sale By Owner signs and I was unable to read the phone number. Be absolutely sure the phone number is quite visible. You may even consider putting a light on the sign to make it more visible at night for those evening browsers. Since the sign is so vital, you may consider investing in a quality sign. For about $100.00 you can have a FastSigns place design and make you a sign. Remember, you have only about 5 seconds to capture the drivers' attention, so limit your key words to about five on the sign. Again, an illuminated sign will bring more buyers.
#5 Internet Marketing Realtor.com is by far the most frequented website by people looking to buy a home. Unfortunately you are a bit handicapped because you can't just put your home for sale there. I pay a premium to have my listings highlighted, extra pictures, and even scrolling text. You will need to find ways to market online so you can gain access to all those buyers who do most of their searching via the internet. Some of the "for sale by owner" sites will let you pay to have your listing on their website. I would probably pay for all of them to get the most exposure. A lot of buyers are wary of "for sale by owners" so they stay away from some of those site. But you can rest assured there are a lot of buyers who do go to those sites. You might consider creating your own website so you can direct people to "view your listing" online.
#6 Advertise in the paper One way to get online is by advertising through the city newspapers. The Fort Worth paper has a feature where you can pay a premium and have your site online as well as in the paper. You can even get pictures put online. Be sure to run your ad by a few trusted friends. If you write an ad that says, "Home for Sale 3 bedroom 2 bath, call now!" that might not get the results you want. Pay for the extra words and the pictures! Even if your home is just like all the others on the block, showcase the things that make your home stand out in the crowd. You will use this information for more than just the ad.
#7 Research Research Research Not only do you have to know your buyer, you must also know your competition. You must ask yourself, "Why would a buyer want to buy my house instead of Suzie Q's down the street?" The only way for you to answer this question is to act like an agent for awhile. Go to all the open houses in your area. Seriously, the agents don't go to them JUST for the food! They go because it helps them know the competition. After you have been seen all the houses in your neighborhood, branch off into other neighborhoods. You can never learn too much about the homes competing for YOUR buyer.
#8 Color Brochure You will definitely want to make a great color brochure. I prefer the boxes that stand on their own as opposed to the little round sign attachments. However, if you don't have any brochure, again, you are limiting your buyers.
Take great pictures of your home and use those as a starting point for your marketing plan. Use just a couple of pictures on the brochure. Pictures are never the same as "being there." You don't want a prospect to think they have already seen your home when they look at the brochure. Give just enough information to "tickle" them to want to contact you. Make sure you are easy to contact!
If you are prepared to spend the time and money to market your home effectively, and you have done the research you need to follow the sale to the end, then I am certain if you follow my tips, that you will be able to sell your home without representation.
I want to be honest with you here a minute. I'm sure you're wondering, "Why is Terri Camp willing to give us so much information for free?" The truth is, eventually you are likely to need some kind of real estate services. Statistics show that over 92% of the people who try to sell their homes themselves, eventually give up and hire an agent to do it for them. Even if you are in the group who makes it to the end, perhaps I have shown myself to have the kind of character you want when you need real estate services. Another thing I've learned in this business that I would like to share with you, often people searching "For Sale by Owners" are looking to get a bargain. They know that you are saving the commission on your home so they will assume you have priced your home with that in mind, and will often offer you ten percent less than your asking price. They also think you have not done your homework and that you have priced your home not to reflect the value of homes sold in your area, but rather the price of homes currently on the market, which have not sold. If all of that sounded a bit confusing, call me and I will clarify what I mean by that. Just be really careful when a buyer comes to you. Be sure he's qualified to purchase your home and that he isn't just trying to get a good deal. I wish you the best of luck.
Terri Camp Realtor® - DFW Texas Homes, LLC
P.O. Box 92521
Southlake, TX 76092 - (817)914-4987
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