Hi I’m Marcie Billen with Ruya Team Realty and Keller Williams Mulinix and I’m in the Oklahoma City metro. I’m a realtor and I visit a lot of for sale by owners and I want to give you three tips for things that I think you need to do as a for sale by owner, before you actually post your sign in the yard and put your house on Zillow.
I’m sure you’re wondering “why on earth is this realtor’s telling me how to sell my house on my own”? Well I know you’re gonna do it anyway, right? You need to keep up with the comps in the neighborhood, meaning you need to keep your house price up so that I can come in and sell the houses too and that your neighbors will be really happy with you.
Three Tips for For Sale by Owners
These are my three tips that you need to follow before you put your house on the market. I’ve listed a lot of homes that used to be for sale by owner and I always make an appointment to go and see the house, and the reason is typically, the pictures before I even go in the house are terrible! Terrible meaning like I can’t tell at all what’s what. I can’t tell the layout of the house, there may be like piles of things that should not be seen as you’re trying to sell something, even if it wasn’t as some – wasn’t something as huge as. like a house.
Are you Ready?
The number one issue that I typically see with for sale by owners, is that they tend to put the house that they’re trying to sell on the market (meaning on Zillow with a sign in the yard) long before they’re actually ready to take that step. If you’re in the process of moving out of your house, there’s boxes everywhere, maybe furniture is in the wrong spot, like maybe all of your furniture is in one room, then you don’t need to be showing your house! Think about it; when you buy a product online, like Amazon, or maybe you’re buying you know, from another website – let’s face it, we all buy from Amazon, right? If the product doesn’t have any photos, or if the photos are not great, meaning that something is broken in the picture, or something is off color, or it’s blurry, are you gonna buy that product? Are you even gonna think about it? Are you even going to read the reviews? No! You’re not going to do that.
Why would anyone step into your house whenever you have furniture everywhere, when there’s piles of clothes that you’re getting ready to move out of the house. You’re not going to do that. You’re not gonna go look at it. So why would any buyer go and look at that house? If you put a sign in the yard and you post your for sale by owner house on Zillow and you get buyers starting to call you, or maybe realtors that have buyers starting to call you about your house, that means they’re ready to buy a house!
1. Prep, Prep, PREP!
My first tip for people who decide to sell for sale by owner is to do the prep work! In other words, your house needs to be fully presentable so you can get the most money for your house when the buyer comes in to look at it, because if it’s not fully presentable, it doesn’t look great; they can’t picture themselves in the house. Do you think they’re gonna pay top dollar for that house? Probably not. Okay so what does it mean?
Staging
What I’m talking about is staging. Some people may feel overwhelmed or lost when I say this, but it’s very basic rules. A really good rule that I follow whenever I’m telling someone how to stage their house in order to get it ready to sell, is to make sure that there is one wall that doesn’t have any bulky furniture on it at all. At least one wall in each room. People need to see how big the space is, and if there is a big piece of furniture or sometimes even a small piece of furniture on every single wall in a room, it doesn’t feel big to a buyer and they can’t feel the space.
Declutter
Also, you need to take down all of your personal items. Personal items meaning any you know, photos of you and your family and personal item – items meaning all religious items. Any type of religious item at all, needs to be taken down because the buyer needs to be able to picture themselves in the house. It’s really important to them.
Clean
You also really need to deep clean your house. Deep cleaning does not mean a light dusting. It means you are moving your furniture, you are cleaning windows, your baseboards; you’re cleaning those. There is not a speck of dust in sight because you’re trying to sell it. And it’s just like you know, if you went to look at a car and the interior was dirty and had dust everywhere, are you gonna offer as much money? I mean, this sounds really petty, but no, you’re not. You need to clean your house very well so that buyers are ready to make an offer and they feel comfortable in the space.
2. Professional Photos
All right tip number two. Even if you are marketing your property as a for sale by owner, you need to get professional photos. Did you know that you’ll get the most online views in the first two days that your house goes up on Zillow or whatever site that you’re on? The most views, meaning that the most eyeballs are going to be on the house you’re trying to sell at that time. Do you want there to be no pictures? We already talked about the Amazon issue, right? If there are no pictures of the product, are you even gonna think about buying that? As a buyer, if there is no picture of the product, meaning the house, are you going to step into the house because you don’t even know the style of the house?
All right before I go on to tip number three, I do have a download; the download is the actual list, the checklist of how to declutter your house. This for sale by owner checklist is just things to go through as you are preparing to put your house on the market. I know it can be overwhelming, and if you want to get a good start on this and have a fun list to check off everything, then you can download that.
3. Safety First
Okay tip number three this is a huge safety tip, but also a sales marketing tip because guess what? You’re gonna be in sales, as you are selling your house for sale by owner. When buyers call, how are you going to track who they are? Are you going to put it in a spreadsheet? Are you going to write it on sticky notes and put it on a board? Are you also going to ask for their IDs? I highly recommend asking a buyer to text you a photo of their ID. Why? This is dangerous, guys – you’re asking strangers to come into your house! Have a system where you know who is coming in and out of your house, and if they won’t give you their ID, they’re probably not interested in seeing your house or buying your house. They may have other plans in mind.
As realtors, we have an electronic system to keep track of showings as they’re going on in a house, but you’re not going to have that as a for sale by owner, so you definitely need to get in there and understand exactly how you’re going to protect yourself as you’re showing your house that’s for sale. The added benefit of having a system like this is that you’ve then created a database of the people who are interested in your home and then you can follow up with them if you haven’t heard anything in a few days.
Was this helpful? I have another video series, it’s just for sellers. Each video is a few minutes long you; may want to watch that next.
