- SellForSure University Home Page
- Module 1: Introduction
- Module 3: Working with an Agent
- Why You Should Use a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your House
- Drawbacks to Using an Agent
- Real Estate Agent Designations
- How to Choose a Real Estate Agent
- How NOT to Choose a Real Estate Agent
- How to Interview a Real Estate Agent
- Questions to Ask your Real Estate Agent
- Dual Agency
- Check an Agent's Work
- Communicating with your Real Estate Agent
- How a Real Estate Agent gets Paid
- Discount and Flat Fee Brokers
- Real Estate Listing Agreements
- Your Real Estate Agent's Job in a Nutshell
- Module 4: Valuing and Pricing your Home
- Today's Real Estate Buyers are Savvy and Empowered
- Real Estate Values and Pricing
- What Matters and What Doesn't in Pricing your Home
- Every Home is Unique
- Three Major Factors affecting Real Estate Values
- Online Real Estate Price Evaluations
- Real Estate CMA or Comparative Market Analysis
- Real Estate Appraisal
- Realtor Property Report (RPR)
- Which Real Estate Valuation should I Trust
- The Real Estate Auction Sales Model
- Overpricing Your Home for Sale
- How to Maximize your Home Sale Price
- The Virtue of Underpricing your Home
- Selling your home with little or no equity
- Module 5: Preparing Your Home for Sale
- Inspecting your Home Prior to Selling It
- Preparing a Full Disclosure Package for Home Buyers
- Contents of a Real Estate Disclosure Package
- Making Repairs to your Home prior to Selling It
- Required Retrofits of your Home
- As-Is Real Estate Sales
- Selling as a Certified Pre-Owned Home
- Preparing your Home for Sale
- Enhance your Home's Curb Appeal
- Home Staging
- The Cost of Preparing your Home for Sale
- Module 6: On the Market
- When to List your Home for Sale
- Living in a Home vs. Selling One
- Getting the Word out about your Home
- Showings and Open Houses
- When Buyers are In the House
- Make your home Available, but make Yourself Scarce for Showings
- Offers and Negotiations
- Selling a Home that is Tenant Occupied
- Selling your Home in a Tough Market
- Recognizing the Wrong Price for your Home
- Real Estate Price Adjustment Strategy
- How to Sell a Home and then Buy Another
- Moving after Selling your Home
- Module 7: Negotiating and Closing the Sale
- The Residential Purchase Agreement
- What Happens when you get an Offer on your Home
- Negotiating the Sale of your Home
- Top Negotiation Tactics to use when Selling your Home
- The Buyer's Due Diligence
- The Real Estate Closing Timeline
- Delays in the Home Sale Process
- The Buyer's Appraisal in the Purchase Process
- Real Estate Tax Information for Home Sellers
- 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchange
- How much it Costs to Sell a Home
- Module 8: SellForSure System Walkthrough
- Goals of the SellForSure System
- The SellForSure Home Sale System Guarantees
- Traditional Real Estate Marketing Methods
- Active Real Estate Marketing
- Free Home Inspection and Termite Inspection
- SellForSure Pre-Sale Services
- The SellForSure Web Portal Status System
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 1
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 2
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 3
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 4
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 5
- Launching your Home on the Market
- SellForSure System Listing Syndication
- How to Manage Showings on your Home
- Real Estate Open House Events
- The Perfect Home Sale Schedule
- While your Home is on the Market
- The Two Week Review Cycle
- What to Expect Once your Home is Under Contract
- Closing the Sale of your Home
- Module 9: The Realty World Advantage
What are the reasons to sell your home by owner? I’m glad you asked! Let’s dive into them.
The #1 reason that most people decide to sell their home without using an agent is that they already have a buyer in mind. In fact, the buyer and seller will probably have already casually negotiated a lot of the deal themselves – like the price, terms, financing, and all the rest. The buyer is probably already familiar with the property, and doesn’t feel like they need to do a lot of due diligence.
If you have already identified the buyer for your home, a lot of the content on SellForSure.com is not going to be useful for you (although some of it will, especially the parts about disclosure requirements and the closing process). I suggest getting a copy of the NOLO press book about selling your home by owner to make sure you take care of your legal obligations – or perhaps splurge and spend a few hundred dollars on a lawyer.
If that’s not you – that is, if you don’t already have a buyer lined up for your property – the #2 reason that owners decide to sell on their own is, of course, to save the commission. And commissions can be substantial – tens of thousands of dollars in most cases. If you can save that money when selling your house, why not try?
There are reasons why not to try to sell by owner, but for now, let’s talk about reason #3 why home owners decide to sell on their own.
The third reason home owners decide to sell on their own is that they figure there literally is not enough equity in their homes to cover the commission – that if they need to pay an agent, they would be forced into doing a short sale. And that, unfortunately, is a fact for many home owners, and it is a good reason to at least try selling a home without an agent.
So what’s the fourth reason? It turns out – there is no reason #4. There may be an odd case now and again why, aside from the commission, someone decides to sell a home on their own. But in virtually all cases, it’s simply the reasonable desire to net the most money possible when they go to sell a home.