Selling something as expensive as a home can make you nervous. It is not as easy as it sounds. Selling a home and getting the right price in return is much more than putting a sign in your yard. If you want your home to get maximum exposure with several buyers waiting to stroll in, then you might have to take the help of a real estate agent that offers a listing on MLS. FSBO websites can help you list your home and leave the process of selling the home to you.
So, are you ready to sell your house on your own? if you are thinking about whether you should select For Sale by Owner or FSBO or not, then here we share all the details with you.
What is For Sale by Owner?
Sale by Owner or FSBO is when you want to sell your house on your own. There is no real estate agent representing you or helping you with the selling process.
Should you opt for ‘For Sale by Owner’?
Most home sellers want to choose FSBO because it offers them more savings and more control over the sale of the home. However, it is being said that it involves a lot of hassle and gets lesser money on the home sale too. As per the data, around 1 in 10 homes use the FSBO approach and they were able to sell their homes at an average price of 11% less than those who went with the real estate agent.
Selling a house by yourself and not using an agent has its benefits too. Let us know about it.
Reasons for choosing For Sale by Owner
FSBO is not a bad idea, but you should know why to choose it? Here are some of the top reasons why some people choose FSBO
Cut Agent’s Commission
You can save money by avoiding the commission fee of the listing agent. You can avoid paying a magnanimous amount of 3% listing agent commission for selling your home and choose to sell through FSBO. You can take the help of the FSBO websites that allow you to list your home on the MLS for getting maximum exposure and at the same time, you can avoid paying the hefty commission to the agent.
Speed Up the House Sale
FSBO homes have a record of selling faster than agent homes. Many FSBO homes were sold in less than a week compared to the agent-assisted homes which sometimes take a month. However, you also need to consider the fact that some FSBO homes were sold to a buyer who was known to the seller. FSBO is the best option for you if you already have a buyer lined up.
Expertise
If you think that the real estate business is an easy task for you and you can easily sail through the complicated paperwork, negotiating, setting the price of your home, marketing your home, clicking the professional pictures of your home, and more, then you can choose FSBO and find a good buyer. If you don’t know so much about real estate and think that the home selling process is not going to be easy for you, then consider hiring a real estate agent.
How to start FSBO
FSBO is like a full-time job. There is a lot of work involved in finding a buyer and selling a house in the market. Here are the things you will have to do on your own if you go for FSBO:
Price your home
Pricing your home is the first crucial step. If you do not price the home correctly, then you may miss out either on the buyers or the price. Gather data to compare your home to other homes in your region that were recently sold and price your home accordingly.
Stage your home
The next essential step is to consider home improvements before you put the same on the sale. There needs to be good home staging so that the house looks appealing to the buyers.
Post Pictures
To find the right buyers for your house, it is imperative to click great images and post photographs as well as virtual tour videos on sale by owner MLS listing websites. You can also consider arranging home showings.
Negotiating the price
If you have got an offer from a buyer, then you will have to negotiate with them to get the high price of the home. If not done correctly, the deal may slip out of your hands and you could end up hanging the deal for a long time.
Manage paperwork
Though this is the boring stuff but very important. If you do FSBO, ensure to keep a track of all the paperwork and documents. You need to know when things are missing. You will be the only one responsible for doing the agreement and contract correctly with all the specifics.
Best Sale by Owner Websites
Houzeo.com
Houzeo is one of the top real estate websites to allows you to sell your house efficiently without needing to spend heavy realtor fees. This online real estate company ensures listing on MLS to provide maximum savings to you. By using cutting-edge technology and the best customer support, they ensure thousands of savings on realtor commissions. Rather, the company charges just a small flat fee for listing your home on the MLS. The syndicate your listings to the MLS, Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, Trulia, and many other popular websites. The website offers advanced features such as:
- IntelliList Listing Management System
- Houzeo Showing
- Houzeo Offers which you can view, counter and compare.
- Buyer Search
- Houzeo Settlement Agent Platform
Do check out Houzeo reviews for more information.
FSBO.com
FSBO.com is one of the oldest sale by owner MLS listing sites. It is present nationwide and offers cost-effective packages. You can go for the basic $99.95 package but it does not provide any exposure to your property and has a restricted listing too. but if you choose the $399.95 package then you can create an MLS listing for your home and get some of the good features too.
However, the FSBO platform uses outdated technology and their processes are mostly manual such as printing and scanning documents, you can have some challenges working with them. The website will provide you with a local broker who manages your area or state. The person will get your house listed on the local MLS. Since the brokers are not onboarded, there is minimal control over the home selling experience.
For sale by Owner
ForSaleByOwner.com is another website that does listing on MLS. The site’s visitors can view the listing, but they are scarce in number and hence, your access is limited. The listings are not syndicated to the MLS. In their $399 package, you get exposure to 300,000 visitors. Most of their real estate agents keep marketing their 6% full-service commission brokerage to the clients.