Knowledge is power. Once you know the challenges that lie ahead in selling your property via the FSBO route you will be able to prepare yourself mentally to overcome the challenges and thereby keep on track.
It is important that you share your plans and any developments with other family members. Selling and moving house is a huge life challenge at any time, doing it yourself adds to your burden of work and stress. You will need to support other family members and you will need their support too.
You cannot do this alone. You will need the help of a good lawyer experienced in property sales and also that of a mortgage lender. Make choosing your lawyer and lender a priority and do it early on, that way you will not feel alone if things get tough.
Most of your challenges will arise from the famous Joe Public and your inexperience in dealing with them. We all know how fickle Joe is but when it comes to house purchase you will be amazed at how inconsiderate and two faced he can be. On the other side of the coin you will be delighted at how pleasant and thankful other people can be.
Estate agents, realtors and brokers are better able to cope with old Joe because they have had many years in dealing with the less encouraging side of human nature.
If you become discouraged keep the following in mind: 1. You are going to save yourself a huge amount of money, which you can use towards your next house, buy a car or any thing else you have in mind. 2. By going through this course you will know what you are doing and how to meet the challenges. 3. You will, in all likelihood, do a better job at selling your home than most agents. 4. You will have learned a great deal, not only about selling property but about human nature too.
You cannott escape this one; selling your home yourself does take time. However by some careful initial planning and thought you will be able to appreciate how much time it is going to take. Balance this against the savings you are going to make and the satisfaction you will get from doing a good job, then make the decision to go it alone or use an agent.
Do not expect to do everything at once. Draw up your plan, schedule the time you can allocate to the task, be disciplined and do the work in the right order and in the right way. That way you use every hour you devote to selling your home to best effect.
The time it takes to sell your home depends on a number of factors some of which are price, market conditions and the effectiveness of your marketing. From the time you make the decision to sell until that one buyer that you need completes the purchase can be a few months at best and can often go six months are more.
The solution is in the detail of the planning that you put in at the beginning of the sale process. Your sales plan should be detailed, in writing and shared with your family members. The effort you put in during the planning stage is going to guarantee your success. As time slips by you will be encouraged knowing that your plan ensures you are doing things the right way, that there is no better way and nobody else can do better.
You probably purchased your home for a whole host of reasons, have lived there some years and have regrets about selling it, in other words you have become emotionally attached to your home.
Prospective buyers who walk through your home probably have none of your feelings and attachments. They are almost, without exception, looking at your property for a set of reasons other than you had when you purchased. They may even be thinking your house to be different to how they imagined. Most prospects will keep their thoughts to themselves, they may even say that they will be back to avoid hurting your feelings. Others will come right out with what they are thinking. Do not take this personally, it happens to every FSBO.
Above all remember that the price at which your property will sell will NOT be the price you want but the price buyers are prepared to pay. Usually, because of your emotional attachments to your home, you will place a value on it that is higher than the true market value. We will deal with establishing a realistic market value later in this guide.
Try and look at your home without attachment, think like a buyer, try and make what improvements you can to make your home more appealing to the average buyer. When you put your marketing plan into effect you will have a regular flow of buyers, all with different agendas, but it only takes one to buy and that person will appear.
Your prospects make an appointment to view your house and fail to show up. They say they are going to come back at the weekend with the family and you never hear from them again. They say they are off to arrange finance and the next you hear is they are purchasing a house down the road and you know yours is better!
You will be disappointed when these sorts of things happen, its nothing personal, it happens to agents and other FSBOs all the time. Get over it and get on with marketing your home and finding other prospects. For everyone that lets you down, there will be another potential buyer who surprises you with their kindness, consideration and thankfulness. These are the people you want to remember, even if they do not buy.
It will happen; your local estate agents or realtor will see your publicity and call you. They will try to convince you they can do a better job and almost always let you know that they have a client looking for a property just like yours. Surprise, surprise!
Be polite and say that you are determined to sell your property yourself. Do not be dragged into any other peripheral argument stick to your one line that you are going to do it yourself. As a concession tell them to put their literature in the post and you will keep it on file in case needed.
