Four Ways to Sell Your House
The most common method of selling a home is to list it with a realtor. You the home owner, do very little work in finding the buyer. The realtor does this by entering your home in the multiple listing service or MLS; a real estate computer data base. The MLS is extensive and open to the puplic for searching and viewing, but restricted to realtors for data input. Only a licensed realtor can enter your house into the system, which they would love to do with a signed listing agreement, their commission insurance policy. MLS is a great tool and in the hands of a good agent has sold many houses. Be sure to pick a good realtor. This will either make your selling experience a happy, pleasant one or a misserable, regrettable one. Choose a true professional, one with a good success record and not one of the 85% who are amateurs. If you are confident you have a good agent, go ahead and list it for six months. If you are not sure about their selling ability, then list for three months or less. And be careful about the initial listing price. A professional will be truthful and realistic about what your house is really worth. An amateur will promise you "pie in the sky" just to get the listing and then lower it after it sits on the market for a while. The danger with a high initial listing is that the good potential buyers have, in their minds, written off your house as overpriced and most will not return for a second look after the price is lowered.
The second way is to do it yourself. This is called a FSBO which means, "For Sale By Owner." Selling the house on your own can save you a 6% sales commissions, but marketing a house requires action and know how. When my company sells one of our houses we run an ad in the newspaper, canvas the neighborhood with flyers and do open houses both Saturday and Sunday every weekend until we find a buyer who can qualify for a new loan. And we don't take their word for it. We investigate the buyer's financial strength ourselves to make sure they are actually loan worthy before signing a contract. The most effective selling tool is the open house. Plan it out! Start at 2 pm and go to 6 pm. Map it out! Put up lots and lots of arrow signs on the main roads and all along the way to lead prospects right to the front door. Deck it out! Stage the house with floor rugs in the living room, towels in the bathroom, dishes and glasses arranged in the kitchen, music and cinnamon potpourri all around and anything else you can think of to make the home feel warm and cozy. If the house is already lived in make sure it is clean and neat. Figure it out! Have sales sheets ready with all details printed. Have a mortgage person ready to verify financials over the phone. Have a completed seller's disclosure, and have a blank contract ready to sign.
If you get no results with the MLS or FSBO then you could try leasing your house to a qualified buyer and give them an option to purchase at a later date. This method is called a lease/option and it has its pros and cons. The pros are your house will be occupied by someone who will take good care of it because one day it will be theirs. Also your monthly payment is covered so you are not making two payments. And a lease/option buyer is easier to find than someone who can qualify for a new loan. The cons are you do not get your money up front so if you need to get your equity, this method is not for you. And realistically, most lease/option buyers never go on to exercise their option and close. Which means at some point in the future you will be doing it all over again.
The 4th and final method for selling your house is to call a professional investor. The good thing about investors is you don't have to do any repairs. You can sell the house "as is" "with all faults." Those faults, if extensive, will make the house unloanable. But with ivestors leaky roofs, moldy walls, cracked slabs, aluminum wiring, blown a/c compressors, outdated kitchens and bathrooms or whatever else may be an issue with you is not an issue with them. With an investor you don't have to worry about getting your buyer a new loan because your buyer is an investor who pays cash! Usually they can close in less than a week. The bad part is you will not get as high a price as you would with a retail, new-loan buyer. But when your house is not new-loan worthy, an ivestor is the way to go. If this is your situation I would be glad to make you a fair offer, pay all cash and close in less than a week.
Mexico 2009
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