For Sale By Owner Mistakes?

Less than 12% of For Sale By Owner entrants actually succeed in selling their home without the help of a real estate agent.

 

The one thing that 100% of all homes have in common is that they are unique.

 

9 For Sale By Owner Mistakes
It is very possible to sell your home For Sale By Owner, but you need to avoid these 9 common mistakes that I see every day.

 

No Plan – Your home does not exist in a vacuum. Once you decide to sell your home, it becomes a house. And a house is a commodity. A commodities market is ruled by supply and demand and you must have a plan to position your house favorably in a market filled with plenty of competition (and no, a spiffy For Sale By Owner flyer that says a home is a “great buy” is not market positioning). You can acquire a smart plan by sitting down and discussing what you want to do with me a top real estate agent in your market. It is likely that I will be very helpful with the understanding that you will hire me if you decide to work with a real estate company.

 

Miscalculations– Every For Sale By Owner seller that I have ever asked “why are you selling this on your own?” has told me they are trying to save money. But they are always very quick to point out that they will pay an agent to bring a buyer (meaning they are really only trying to save 1/2 of the commission). When I ask them why somebody would want to buy their home, they tell me that by selling For Sale By Owner, they can offer the home cheaper … So that begs the question: Can both the buyer and the seller of the home save the same 1/2 commission not being paid? In my experience, it is far easier to negotiate a contract to a lower price for my buyer if the seller does not have an agent, so who is really saving the commission?

 

False assumptions – Most For Sale By Owner home sellers assume a house will sell itself. I believe that the majority of people who want to sell a home today purchased their home 7 to 10 years ago. In that market, homes did seem to sell themselves. There were multiple offers on most homes, as supply could not keep up with demand during the boom of the housing market. But if you assume things are the same today as back when you purchased your home, you will be a very unhappy For Sale By Owner seller. Another false assumption is that you can sell a home for any amount you want, even though today’s buyer is armed with information. Your home has a value and it is what it is.

 

No brand – When I am hired to sell a home for a client, they are instantly “branded” with the trusted CENTURY 21 name. This in itself does not sell a house, but it certainly brings an awareness that the home is for sale. And it also provides a level of propriety that has yet to be earned by you when you enter the market For Sale By Owner. Homebuyers do not know you and cannot research you like they can a big brand, thus you are not reaching the same amount of the market as you with a firm that is known for selling homes in your market area. To counter this lack of market trust, make sure that you are “research-able.” Be present on Facebook, and make sure that your profile is public. Include enough information about your past to assure buyers that you are not some kind of con-artist out to trick them out of their money. As a For Sale By Owner, you must become the brand.

 

No business systems – When a homeowner hires me for the job of selling their home, I go to work and do not stop until after the new buyer moves into the home. I have systems designed to properly expose the home for sale, thus a For Sale By Owner must be able to do the same for his or her home.

No list –When I list a property, it is in front of millions of people within days. A For Sale By Owner needs to compete with this “buzz” if they want to create a competitive environment for their home. Social media is one way to do this, and a smart plan of using their friends to help the For Sale By Owner to create a buzz could help them replace the “Internet presence that I have developed over _____ plus years of selling real estate in Santa Clara County.

 

No daily marketing campaign – This is the biggest mistake I see. For Sale By Owners observe that most real estate agents do nothing to sell a home, so they think they can “set it and forget it” too. Marketing is a daily job, and if you want to sell a home, you had better be spreading the word each and every day until somebody else owns the house. I work everyday to sell a home.

 

No fast response lead management system – MIT did a study of online respondents and found that when companies returned contact within 5 minutes, they had a 1700% better chance of doing business with the “lead” than if they responded within 60 minutes. So smart For Sale By Owners need to have a plan for handling online inquiries for their home, and for enabling quick showings that can occur on the spur of the moment. Remember, so a For Sale By Owner needs to be able to compete with all the homes that have thousands of REALTORS standing by to show them at a moments notice. Ask about CENTURY 21 Alpha’s LeadRouter Program.

 

No team effort– There is no way that an individual can compete on every daily task that we do to sell a home, so the For Sale By Owner must create a team of people to assist. Get friends and family helping you spread the word and respond to inquiries. It takes an organized effort to get top dollar for a home, but you can do it For Sale By Owner if you commit to doing the work.

The For Sale By Owner Irony
The irony in attempting to sell a home For Sale By Owner is that the majority of people do it to save money (100% of the ones to whom I have spoken), yet the only way that they can compete with a major operation like Century 21 Alpha is to do it on price!

That’s right, you can sell your house For Sale By Owner, but most people cannot come close to the reach that we have so they have to lower their price to attract buyers. I have found that most For Sale By Owners need a low-low price to attract a buyer without a real estate agent. So the money you wanted to save (plus another 5 to 10%) is passed on to the homebuyer.

The marketing that we do at Century 21Alpha draws people looking to buy a home in Santa Clara County every hour of every day. The home sellers that list their home with us get the benefit of what we have been doing, whereas a For Sale By Owner starts from scratch on day one. Ultimately, you pay me for what I’ve done, not what I’m going to do.

My For Sale By Owner Offer
If you have a home to sell, and you think that you can get top dollar for it without hiring a real estate agent, go ahead and give it a go.

 

But don’t be stupid.

 

Talk to me about what I would do to sell your home. Learn from me. Even if you think what I do is not necessary for you to sell your home, doesn’t it make sense to arm yourself with the most current information on home selling techniques on the internet?

 

Knowledge is power, and you should be able to use some of my marketing techniques to give yourself a better chance of selling the home on your own.

 

So, if you are thinking about selling a home For Sale By Owner and want to first pick my brain, just drop me a note and we can schedule a time to discuss what you need to do.

CENTURY21 Alpha, a member of the CENTURY 21 System since 1975.