How to Sell Your Own Home and Save Thousands of Dollars

Most people take the easy way out when selling their home and hand the responsibility over to a real estate agent, when in fact the average homeowner is capable of selling their own home.

Apart from the satisfaction of making the sale yourself there is the bonus of saving thousands of dollars in agents fees.

So why do people choose a real estate agent to sell their home? Here are a few reasons, I'm sure you can think of more;

- laziness
- lack of time
- Lack of confidence
- Unsure of what is involved
- lack of relevant skills
- lack of real estate knowledge

It may not suit everyone to sell their own home but at a guess I would say that 75% of Australians are capable of doing just as good a job as a real estate agent.

Let me tell you, it's not as hard to sell a house as you think it is. How do I know? My wife and I have sold our last 2 homes ourselves and saved tens of thousands of dollars.

A little bit of common sense is involved. Most people have a pretty good idea what the value of their home is. If not, it only takes a little bit of research or you can employ a licensed valuer for several hundred dollars.

Put most of your effort into presenting your property in its best light. Clean, paint, trim vegetation - do whatever is required to get your place looking spic and span.

The key to getting a sale on your own is not to be greedy. Shaving a few thousand dollars off the sale price makes it easier to sell your home and you still come out ahead in comparison to paying an agent.

Once you are ready to find a buyer then place an Ad in your local paper (not the metropolitan one) and also tell everyone you know and ask them to spread the word.

We sold one house by word of mouth and the other through a local advertisement. With the advertisement we priced the house about $5000 under market value and asked for offers over that amount.

Before you find a buyer you need a contract form. In South Australia where I live you can get it from a Land Broker or Solicitor. In other States or countries it's usually a Solicitor.

What do you do when you've found a Buyer?

Your Land Broker or Solicitor will have given you instructions on how to fill out the contract of sale. Basically it involves recording the details of the property being sold and details of the parties to the contract - that is, you (the seller) and the buyer. Once the contract has been filled out and signed by both parties it is returned to the Land Broker or Solicitor to process. From there on it's out of your hands.

Still not sure you can do it on your own?

If you live in Australia there is another alternative - ANREPS have a range of different services, from Do-it-Yourself with a bit of help, to letting them do it all at a better price than an agent. You can still save thousands of dollars.

There may be a similar service in your country. Type "Real Estate Private Sales" into a search engine like Google and see what comes up. Good Luck.

Copyright 2005 by Robert Scott, LoanSense.com.au

Check out Robert's Home Loan Australia website that is dedicated to helping borrowers get the best possible deal on Home Loans in Australia.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

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They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

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The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.