Selling Your Home Without An Agent: What You Need To Know

If you live in a hot real estate market, want to save some cash, be in complete control of the selling process, or have started to invest in real estate, selling a home without an agent may be a no-brainer. Whatever the reason, you should keep a couple of things in mind before you attempt to sell your home.

Who To Work With

Just because you’re selling a home without an agent doesn't mean you’ll be doing everything alone. You’ll have to work with others to figure out legal contracts, title insurance, homeowners insurance, escrow, and marketing.

If you don’t have experience selling homes, it might be a good idea to use a real estate attorney to handle complex legal processes. While this will involve attorney fees, they're generally far less than a person would pay an agent. This is because the lawyer will only handle the contract and the closing - you do the rest.

However, if you’re savvy with contract provisions, you might want to handle the more challenging aspects yourself. But, if something goes wrong, the seller will be responsible for fixing any legal issues that would be better handled by an attorney. It is smart to read through the chapters of any legal code governing home purchases and sales for their given state to gain some perspective.

Marketing A Home

Before marketing starts, the seller will need to come up with a reasonable selling price. Get this wrong and the home will sit on the market indefinitely; many buyers search for homes solely based on list price. Run comparables on other homes in the area to find a good selling price.

Once you establish a good list price, you’ll need to write ads for online and print sales. Some sites will be geared for homeowners who want to sell their own homes without an agent, and other sites will simply be places to list homes. The seller should spend considerable time reading home sales ads to get a good feel for what ads look like. Writing good copy is an art form, but essential to selling a home in a timely fashion.

You’ll also have to take professional-grade photos. If you can, rent a nice camera and run them through an editor on your computer. If you have a high-quality phone camera, it will do in a pinch. Upload these pictures with captions onto your online accounts. The more pictures, the better.

Showing A Home

You’ll have to show your home - a lot. Try to mimic agents at other houses you’ve seen. Be courteous, inviting, dress up, and practice describing the good features. Make sure the home is clean, free of odors, and would give the impression that it would be a nice place to live. If a buyer doesn't feel comfortable in the home, they won't see it as a good long-term investment and not make an offer.