Selling your own home without a real estate agent can seem like a complex and overwhelming undertaking. It doesn't have to be! We've simplified the process and broken it down to FIVE STEPS. Within each of these five steps we will provide the tools, knowledge and materials you need to be successful. Have you ever heard the expression: How do you eat an elephant? The answer is: One bite at a time! We will help you chow down this elephant in FIVE big bites! DISCLAIMER: We don't eat elephants and no elephants will be hurt in the process of selling your home. However, there MAY be some "elephants in the room" that will need to be addressed in Step 1 below...
1. Prepare Your Home For Sale
This step may very well be the hardest part of selling your home! The truth is that most of our homes simply aren't ready to be on the market in their current condition. Life happens. Projects get put off. To-do lists get longer. Clutter gathers. Things get neglected. It happens to all of us! We will work with you and thoroughly go through your home to objectively put together a checklist of exactly what needs to happen before you put your home on the market. Make no mistake, this is HARD WORK, but it can NOT be avoided and you'll have to take it on whether you sell your home yourself, or if you sell with the help of an agent. We have yet to meet a real estate agent who will fully prepare your home for sale for you. In fact, if you do find one, you should hire them on the spot! In order to maximize the profits on the sale of your home, this home preparation checklist HAS to be thoroughly completed. We'll help you address each and every part of the preparation and tackle it like a pro!
2. Price Your Home Accurately
This is the step where a majority of For Sale By Owners make their biggest mistake. It's so easy and tempting to think your home is worth much more than it actually is. That's understandable as we are all inherently biased when it comes to the way we think about the value of our own homes. At FSBO Sherpa we use our extensive experience as formerly licensed real estate appraisers and formerly licensed real estate salespeople to teach you how to accurately come up with the most objective TRUE MARKET value of your home. We'll show you exactly how the pros come up with pricing for homes and teach you their secrets. It might feel a little (or a lot) like tough love going through it, but it is well worth it in the end! Remember: only two things determine whether a home sells or not: Those two things are Pricing and... Step Number 3 - Marketing!
3. Market Your Home Professionally
This is the real secret sauce! We've helped advertise and market literally THOUSANDS of properties for sale for some of the biggest brands in the industry and we will bring that same award-winning professional marketing to your home. Our Marketing Sherpa was awarded the coveted "Real Estate Photographer of the Year" award and brings this level of excellence directly to your home! Photos are most often the first impression buyers get of your home, and yours will be absolutely stunning! Our comprehensive marketing program includes award-winning photography, cinematic high-definition video, detailed floor plans, a dedicated property website, aerial photography and video and a step-by-step guide for getting your home showcased to the maximum number of potential qualified buyers. Loaded with lots of insider tips and tricks, the FSBO Sherpa marketing program puts the power of professional marketing, previously only reserved to real estate agents, right in the palm of your hand!
4. Negotiate An Offer On Your Home
Once your home hits the market, if you've done the first three steps properly, it won't be long before you receive an offer (or multiple offers!) on your home. We'll teach you how to evaluate what makes a "good" vs. a "bad" offer (Hint: It's not just the price!) and walk you through things like Seller concessions, earnest monies, home inspections, etc... We'll also give you tips for keeping your ego and patience in check while negotiating terms that are a "win-win" for both parties involved. Negotiations can no doubt be trickier when your own personal home is involved, but rest assured we will keep you objectively on track through this process to get you right to the final step, Step Number 5...
5. Close The Sale!
Once final terms are negotiated and agreed upon, all that's left to do it to close the deal. You and your attorney (or escrow agent) will handle all the legal paperwork involved. FSBO Sherpa will provide an itemized checklist of all the items you, as the homeowner, are responsible for before the closing, as well as an approximate time line of what happens when. We'll even give you a list of red flags to watch out for as the big closing day approaches. This is it! The finish line. Congratulations! You've made it! You've sold you home on your own and retained a whole bunch of your hard earned equity, rather than paying it out in costly real estate commissions. All that's left to do is decide what to do with all that extra cash! ...And you've probably got a fair amount of packing to do as well!