More Home Owners Today Are Chosing To Sell Their Home Without An Agent
Once a homeowner has made the decision to get a yard sign and advertise a house online that’s the time to sit down and think about some other aspects of selling for sale by owner. It’s like having another part-time job and anyone who has done it will tell you that you need to be prepared in advance to make the process easier. What can a seller do in order to be prepared when trying to sell a home?
In this article I’m going to share my best suggestions for success in your for sale by owner adventure. I’ll start by saying that finding a buyer is the first step of the sale process, but it is certainly not all you need to do. Once you find an interested buyer to sell your home to who makes an offer that you accept, then you have to capture that agreement in writing and deliver copies of your paperwork to an attorney or a title company. That’s when the closing process begins. Some fortunate sellers who find a buyer within a short period of time get the mistaken idea that everything is a done deal, which is definitely not the case. While the title search is conducted on the seller’s behalf by the attorney or title company the buyer will be making an application for a mortgage loan. This is a somewhat grueling process that has become even more difficult in the last year or so and really cannot be compared to the mortgage loan application process of a few years back. No matter what you personally experienced when you purchased your home, know that things are very different for your buyer now.
The reason you’ll need to know this when you’re selling for sale by owner is because it’s very likely that your buyer will not have a real estate agent riding herd on the whole closing process, which means it could take a lot longer and even delay the closing. It’s been my observation that a good agent really earns his or her commission in handling many details associated with buyer financing requirements and title company issues. As the seller you won’t be in a position to help out at all, and you will basically just be waiting for closing day to arrive.
Besides your all-important yard sign you will need to write some interesting classified ads to post online. You can be sure that the majority of your prospective buyers are surfing around to see all the local homes for sale, especially on craigslist.com and ebayclassifieds.com. Those are the two main, free sites that you’ll want to be sure to use for posting photos and a description of your home. So, get busy posting your sign and your ads in your for sale by owner adventure now!