How to Sell a Home by Owner: A Step-by-Step Guide

Selling a home through an owner is a very attractive option for many homeowners. Benefits include the flexibility to sell on your own terms and schedules, the ability to repair what you want - or not make repairs or modifications before the sale, and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that you don't have to work with a real estate agent or pay their commission once the house is sold.

However, selling a home by owner comes with its own set of challenges. You must navigate the fluctuating real estate market on your own, with no one to help you market your home, show it to potential buyers, negotiate deals, and close the sale smoothly.

If you're determined to sell the house yourself, here are the steps you can take to do it effectively.

Steps to sell a house by owners.

Selling a home fast for cash by the owner can be complicated depending on how much work your home will need before it's ready to sell and your expectations of the sale. To get started, you need to establish a baseline for your home's value so you can determine the best asking price.

Step 1: Determine the market value of your home

When determining the market value of your home, you can determine how much to expect from the sale. There are several ways to do this:

Talk to a real estate agent. You can ask a real estate agent to visit your home and help you estimate its value. Note that you may get a biased response as they want you to advertise with them for a higher price and commission.

Has an evaluation been done? A formal appraisal provides the most unbiased and accurate estimate of your home's value. However, these assessments can cost upwards of $500.

Make an educated guess. If you do your market research on comparable homes in your area and their average selling prices, you may be able to determine the value of your home. When comparing, consider special features or recent repairs, such as a swimming pool or brand-new roof, that can make other homes more attractive and, as a result, increase the selling price.

Step 2: Prepare for the market

Once you have value as a starting point, you can start preparing to put your home up for sale. This is when you visit your home and decide what needs to be repaired, changed, or updated to get your home market ready. These can be minor repairs such as cosmetic changes to paint colors or carpeting, tasks such as a thorough cleaning of the carpet in your home, or costly tasks such as roof or foundation repairs.

Whatever you decide to do with your home at this point should help ensure that it's ready to sell or sell for a higher price. There's no point pouring money into projects that you won't get back in the selling price - unless they're essential to potential buyers (e.g., damaged wiring/plumbing, etc.).

Part of preparing your home for sale is making your home more attractive to potential buyers. A thorough cleaning, refreshing the landscaping and exterior of the home, and general decluttering of your home are all important steps in selling a home by the owner.

Step 3: Set up your house there

Once your home is ready to sell, one of the most important steps in selling a home in Washington by the owner is making your home available to buyers. Unfortunately, this is often the hardest stage when selling your home on your own. To market your home for owner-occupier sale, here are some ways to get the word out:

Word of Mouth: Tell your friends, share photos on social media, and encourage others to share the news with their network.

List Online: List information and photos of your home on real estate sites like Zillow and Realtor.com.

Printed media: Create brochures and flyers with information about the sale of your home and stick them in visible places.

Hang a Sign: A physical sign for your home is a simple yet highly effective way to build interest in your home.

Host an open house: Even though half of the attendees are nosy neighbors and friends who stop by to look around, if they know someone who's watching, they might keep your house in mind.

Step 4: Wait

Between open houses and visits, all that remains is to wait for an offer. Unfortunately, when selling a home, you are at the mercy of the housing market. If your home has been on the market for a while, you can lower the price or make other home improvements to make it more attractive to potential buyers.

Step 5: Negotiate an offer

If you receive an offer for your home, congratulations! It's a big deal, but you're not done yet. If the offer is much lower than the asking price, you may need to negotiate with the buyer. The buyer may have other conditions for his offer, such as the execution of certain repairs or the assumption of closing costs by the seller.

This is often a situation where a broker can be helpful in soliciting offers and seeing if a buyer is genuinely interested in buying and willing to negotiate. If you are negotiating with buyers yourself, be careful as complete inflexibility can discourage offers.

Step 6: Finalize the sale

Once the selling price has been determined, a written sales contract is drawn up and signed by both parties. The contract contains the final sale price, the conditions of sale as well as the place and time of conclusion.

A closing agent will lead the legal closing process and you will need to follow the process and submit documentation as needed. When the buyer takes out a mortgage to buy your home, the closing process can be even tenser. Many lenders have certain conditions that must be met before the loan can be granted. If your buyer's financing fails for any reason, the sale can't go through and you're back to square one.

Selling your home on your own requires you to be involved every step of the way, which can be time-consuming, expensive, and stressful. If you want to avoid this long and tedious process but still want to sell your home by owner, you have another option: you can quickly sell your home to a real estate investor for cash.

Sell ​​a home by owner to a real estate investor

When you sell to a real estate investor, you can skip the complicated parts of preparing your home for sale, like working with a real estate agent and selling your home quickly and hassle-free. Selling to a real estate investor means:

No repairs, changes, or updates before selling your home

No brokers, listing fees, or open houses

No waiting for a buyer or pending financing

When you sell to a real estate investor, you can effectively streamline the steps of selling a home by owner. They will make you an offer on your home in its current condition for a cash offer based on its true market value. Many real estate investors also prefer to work fast, which means you can sell your home within five days.

Selling a home in Washington, yourself can be a daunting task. If you want to avoid brokerage fees but don't want to go through the entire traditional process of selling a home, a cash offer might be a good option for you. Contact the Propertysolutionsnorthwest team for your no-obligation quote.