With the economy improving I’ve seen more home’s up for sale by owner and with Realtors while driving around. Let the time you spend driving around be informational especially when the homes are in your area. Stop and pick up flyers and see how the home in question compares to your home for square footage, upgrades, etc…and place it in your sale book, we’ll talk more about this coming up this week, but in general a sale book is a book that has all the information that you collect on properties you find for sale. Your sale book can also be used in your open houses to answer questions that prospective buyers ask.  

Some important points for your openhouse:

1. Always have openhouse visitors sign a log when they enter (this is for security measures as well as for follow-up). To show your home online contact Flyers Graphic Design for a website that is dedicated to only to your home. 
2. Try to have directional signs guiding prospective buyers to you home.
3. Have your openhouse at the same time as other’s in the area to reap the visitors from the other openhouses in the area. 

These are just a few points…. we will have more on openhouses including preparation soon.

See you Monday – Good Luck Sunday!

The second most important aspect of making your home sellable is the exterior. It’s amazing what a good power washing of the exterior of your house and roof will do to make your home more desirable. If the paint is chipped a fresh coat of paint, new shutters and a good cleaning on the windows will give you a great return and help sell your home quicker. It’s well worth the cost to do it yourself or have it done by a professional.

If your thinking of painting the exterior of the house maybe change the color up abit. If your home doesn’t have shutters add them. Some DIY stores have computer programs that help coordinate colors for trim, shutters, etc… so check them out because it lessens the guesswork of color selection. If your going to paint buy a good quality exterior paint, it will pay for itself with the extra coverage you’ll get.

The above applies even if your home is sided but it involves more preparation work if you decide to paint. Powerwashing is usually the better option with siding atleast initially. You may have to paint if the powerwashing doesn’t give your home that clean crisp look prospective buyers are looking for. In most cases the painting is done by spraying and involves more preparation work, ie… taping windows, doors, etc… and better weather conditions then if you were brush painting wood.

If you have questions send them to us, we’ll try to answer them quickly.

Talk to you on Saturday….

When prospective buyers are out looking for a home they do whats called a “Drive By”. They get a list of homes for sell from there Realtor or have decided to look in a specific area and just drive around the neighborhood. The first thing you see when you drive by a home is the “curb appeal”. Our first impressions are based off of our thoughts the first 10 to 30 seconds, during that time we decide whether its worth looking at more or just to continue to drive by.

The curb appeal basically makes it or breaks it, it gives the perception that the rest of the home is being taken care of the way the outside is.

Things to do when selling your home in the summer:

* Trim the schrubs.
* Trim the trees.
* Plant colorful flowers.
* Mulch flower beds
* Cut the lawn.
* Edge the lawn.
* Do some lawn patching (if needed).
* Wash (hose) down the driveway.

Things to do when selling your home in the winter:

* Shovel all the driveways, sidewalks, patios, etc…
* If there is no snow on the ground or if you live in an area that
doesn’t get snow (ie… Los Angelos) then the “Things to do
when selling your home in the summer” would apply.

See you Wednesday….

Ok…. you’ve made the decision to sell your home and you want to try it by owner first – BRAVO.

The first thing you need to understand is that there is a reason you pay a Realtor the commission your trying not to pay by selling your home by owner. There is a great deal of preparation when selling your home whether with a Realtor or by owner like looking for any updating that may need to be done to make the house likable to perspective buyers. Also aquiring and understanding the proper forms, ie…the sales agreement, addendums, disclosures, booklets, etc…. Just because your selling your home by owner doesn’t change the law. Most states have certain  legal protocol when it comes to selling Real Estate and your community most likely has certain things that need to get done also like inspections, more forms, etc…that need to be completed before the sale can go through.  

As we move forward with this process we’ll try to give meaningful pertinent information. We understand that sometimes you need the answer NOW and not in a month. If this is the case then contact us and we will try to answer your questions in a timely fashion.

      First you need to do a thorough inspection of your home and its condition. Write down all the things wrong with your home that should be fixed. Once you’ve compilied the list you will need to spend some time going over it to determine which of the items on your list will make the best impression on perspective buyers.
      If your handy and want to save some money you should do all the  or some of the repairs yourself. If your like me you call a professional to do the work. One thing thats very important is – you need to set a budget before starting the work or getting any estimates so you know how much you have to spend, this gives you room to barter with the contracters. 

More to come on Wednesday….

The day is finally here….

The Grand Opening of

www.FSBOHomeRealtyBlog.com

www.FSBOHomeRealty.com

www.FlyersGraphicDesign.com

Between these 3 websites you will have what you need to sell your house by owner.

www.FSBOHomeRealty.com is now offering free listings of your home complete with the ability to upload pictures of your home. This is very important because you can point buyers to this site to see your home before deciding to come out and see it (good for security and protecting your family).

www.FlyersGraphicDesign.com is also offering websites for your individual home for a very good price, contact them if you would like to have this type of service. It’s particularly good for marketing your home “by owner”.

www.FSBOHomeRealtyBlog.com is your information site and I will be posting informative bits on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

With good information, a good marketing plan and dedication you can sell your house by yourself….

Yes, BUT….

In the weeks ahead I will be giving you information on how to sell your home “by owner”. Information that will allow you to sell in any market up or down. I’ll be offering tools such as a website dedicated only to your home not 100 others, another website that will allow you to list your home with other homes (if you want), advice on photographing the interior of your home for the websites mentioned above, staging your home to sell and much more. So stay tuned, only a few days until I have everything set-up.

And yes Realtors are worth there commision if they are the right one for you and if you’ve tried unsuccessfully to sell your home “by owner”.
We’ll discuss this also….

If you have questions please send them and I’ll send a reply.

Hello I just wanted to let you know that I am in the process of setting up a couple of websites (FSBO Home Realty and Flyers Graphic Design) as well this blog to assist you in Selling or Buying your home “by owner” and save money. I have sold houses by owner and have helped others. I can’t sell your home for you because I’m no longer a licensed realtor BUT I can help you in marketing your house. If you have any questions in the interim of me getting ready and having an official launch of the websites please ask them and I will respond.

Thank you for your patience,
Jim C.

While I’m not a Licensed Realtor now, I was. And I’m not here to replace a Realtor, but in this day and age homeowners (that’s you) need a break and maybe an unbiased opinion (that’s me – the unbiased opinion).

Even though I can’t sell your home for you I can help you with sound advice and offer some tools that will help you market your home “By Owner”, ie… A website dedicated only to your home and if you want (I certainly suggest these) a virtual tour or atleast pictures of the rooms in your home.

Let me know if you have a need for any of these services or just sound advice.