It breaks my heart when occasionally one of my customers gives up on the For-Sale-By-Owner method with their house after five or six weeks.  Also see my post on the SEEDS OF DOUBT.  But, beyond that, never ever let anyone make you think FSBO is an easy way to make/save your money. It’s not.  And NOTHING worthwhile can be completed in five or six weeks.  Here are seven sure-fire ways to ensure you have a poor experience with selling your own house.

 

Stepping Over Dollars to Pick Up Pennies

 

Following are seven ways to submarine yourself as you try to sell your own house.  I don’t guess it matters whether somebody once told you these things or whether you just woke up from a dream and decided this is the way it was going to be,   But there are errors in most of these, and the errors will cost you aggravation and probably money as well.

 

Expect a continuing hot market, even in the winter

 

Do not expect a hot market like we had last year to last all winter.   Winter is a cold time. It’s sometimes rainy or snowy, and there are holidays in the wintertime.  People think about other things beside buying houses.   Now it’s true people do still buy houses in the wintertime, and in fact, if you need to sell your house, it’s a good time to take advantage of lower competition.  But know that it’s just going to take longer in a slow or colder market.   You just have to show it to the same number of people probably, but they’re staggered a little bit further apart so it may take you a few weeks longer than it would in the summertime.

 

Price your property on the high side

 

Occasionally, people like to price their house high for several different reasons.  One reason is thar they think it’s their house and therefore they know it’s in good shape.  The things that they did to it and the way they kept it up is better than the average, and they feel like that should command a higher price.

 

It doesn’t always work that way. It’s okay to think that,  just know that someday you’re going to have to realize that your house is still in competition with other houses when it comes to the buyers’ eyes. Tthe tendency sometimes also is to price the house high, thinking the buyers going to try to get it lower and an undercut me anyway, so I might as well start high and be happy with where I end up.  The error in that is that sometimes when you start too high you don’t get people coming to the dance at all, and unless somebody is there to negotiate, they’re not going to end up anywhere, much less where you want them to.

 

Offer a lesser than average commission

 

It happens sometimes that  when people sell their own houses, they feel they can offer a buyer’s agent commission of any amount that I want to.  Of course, that’s true.  it’s not written in stone.

 

I’m not going to even suggest an average price here because that’s not a good thing for me to do.   We’re going to say here, for the sake of this article that hypothetically commission is 10%.   Some for-sale-by-owners would offer one or 2% instead of 10%.  Some for-sale-by-owners would offer 5% or half whatever.  There’s a little bit of complexity with the offering of a commission whether they’re going to be splitting it with another agent but in your case if you’re for-sale-by-owner, you’re strictly offering something only to the broker who brings you a buyer. It may be good if you can offer a fraction of the usual average commission, but remember that agents may be less excited about selling your house.  if that’s the case, as interesting as it would be to save a thousand, or a couple of thousand dollars, don’t let that do in the sale of your house.

 

Don’t let that get you to the point where you throw up your hands and call in a professional agent.  A professional agent is going to do a couple of things.  First, they’re going to insist on the commission that they want.   Secondly, they are going to probably get you to reduce the price of your house and they will have subsequent conversations most of which will include a pricing of your house in a downward motion.  So if you give up and go with an agent then you’re probably going to be paying more commission, asking less for your house, and still don’t know for sure if you’re going to sell it any quicker.  I recommend www.mlsDon.com for you to find a MLS flat-fee listing with some personal attention, if that’s what you want.

 

Don’t worry about keeping your house in tip-top shape

 

Some people feel that they’ve got a life, and they have to live here in the house so they’re just not going to worry about it being totally beautiful every second of the day. If I’m selling it myself I don’t really have anybody to answer to about the way it looks.  Of course, that’s wrong.  You have to answer to the public.  You have to answer to anybody that looks at your house.  If a house is not neat and straight, then the tendency is to think that the maintenance may be poor on the house, as well in general.  Be reminded a nice-looking house will help the magic happen. Your house will sell when the right person comes through that front door and the magic happens.  Do what you can do to help it happen.

 

Make your house hard to see

 

Some people think that because their house is for-sale-by-owner it’s okay to make it hard to see.   For instance I’ve had people that only want to show their house on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I’ve had people who had classes on these days.  They may want to stick to showing it on the weekends.  But things like that are important.  You must be able to show it when people want to see it.  You are going to have to find a way to make your schedule flexible enough to suit the buyer’s schedule.

 

That’s not always an easy transition for people.  Sometimes it has to be done.   You don’t have to make everything perfect, but if somebody wants to see it in particular time try to let that happen.   Try to get out of the way.  Don’t try to give them the tour, and just don’t worry about you being there, just worry about them getting in the house.  If you have to, I recommend you grab one pf these combo locks that will keep a front door key in it.  And you have gotten the info regarding who you give your combo to.  You might even try one of the RING DOORBELLS with video that everyone seems to be using now , along with your combo lock.

 

Talk and listen to every agent trying to prospect you

 

Lots of times you will find that agents are like any other salesperson.  In order to find people to make money from, they prospect.  One method for real estate agents to prospect is to call for-sale-by-owners.   When an agent calls a of for-sale-by-owner, they’re not usually just asking about their health or the weather.   They want to ask whatever they need to ask, to get them in the front door.   They try to get in front of the seller and try to talk the seller into allowing them to list their house.

 

This tactic may or may not include scaring the seller.  Sellers have a great deal of self doubt already about selling their own house.  The more agents and the more people and friends and neighbors that tell him how crazy they are, the more or a reason to doubt.  So if you try to entertain every agent that calls, you’ll go crazy.

 

You may decide you are tired of dealing with the public

 

Sometimes, after a few weeks of dealing with the public, people find that they don’t really enjoy dealing with the public.  The public has become rather in a hurry.  They’ve been become impatient.  They have become demanding.  The public does not care about you as a person only you are the way for them to get into their house to see if they like it.   You’re going to find ithat they are not always considerate and they’re not always thoughtful.   Different people can put up with that for different varying amounts of time.  Sometimes the public does get a little old, so don’t think that this is all going to be roses.   Selling your own house is a job.  Just be committed to it.  It’s worth it.

Photo by ainsley martin on Unsplash

 

(This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click, or make a purchase by clicking on them, I may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, that will help me continue to bring you valuable content. To that end, not all of the items on this page are affiliate links, as that is not a requirement to be on this page. Thanks for your support!)

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use