SELLING YOUR HOME
What you should know about selling your home
Selling your home is a big step. Once you’ve decided to sell your home, you next need to consider options for actually managing the sale of your property. There are a number of options available to you. Some of the most common are listed below.
Sell the Home YOURSELF-- Selling a home without any outside assistance at all is, at first, an attractive option. You are in total control of who comes to see you house, when they come to see it, and you always know what is and isn’t being said to prospective buyers about property. You can conduct all of the negotiations, and you can potentially save thousands of dollars in commission costs.
On the other hand, you are now in charge of establishing a price, putting up signs, doing all necessary advertising, making arrangements to show the home, holding “open houses,” establishing the qualifications of prospective buyers, negotiating the final price and taking the “deal” through to closing. Selling a home involves knowledge of techniques to get the best price and it involves some relatively complicated procedures along the way. The risk of making a mistake is huge. You may have a good percentage of the family’s assets invested in your home and you want to be absolutely sure nothing goes wrong with the sale
Some real estate companies have been established specifically to assist homeowners who what to sell their own home. They are generally referred to as “For Sale by Owner” (FISBO) firms. These companies provide a menu of services for the homeowner to choose from. At one end, the homeowner might only be interested in buying a few “for sale” signs and picking up copies of the documents that will be required. At the other end of the spectrum is a supervision of the entire process that ends up being no all that different from what is offered by a traditional real estate firm. As can be expected, the fees that are charged will vary with the services performed. These fees are often charged up front – whether or not the home is actually sold.
Remember, Arizona state law requires anyone engaged in performing real estate services for other to be LICENSED, so the principals of any “For Sale by Owner” companies will have to be licensed real estate brokers. These brokers and their companies could just as easily manage a traditional operation – they have chosen instead to specialize in helping homeowners sell their own homes.
Another option is to negotiate with traditional real estate company for a less than full service assistance package. In this case, a seller may be able to deal with the real estate company on a contingency basis; that is, fees are due to the real estate company in the event that the house is sold. Again, the services provided by the real estate companies could vary. One common use of real estate companies in this manner is for the homeowner to list, market, and negotiate the sale of the home and then use the real estate company to manage the transaction through the closing of escrow.
A special word on discrimination—
Whether you sell your home yourself or use an agent, a number of pieces of Federal and State legislation prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religious preference, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin. If you offer your property for sale, you must be willing, with very few exceptions, to sell it to any person or persons who meet the terms of your offer. Failure to do so can result in, at minimum, extremely heavy fines.
Using a real estate agent -- Most people, however, use real estate firms when both buying and selling. Buying or selling a home is a time consuming process – even with professional help. If you decide to use a real estate firm to sell your home, you might think that your first step is to find an “agent.” But, there are several things you can do even before selecting your real estate agent that can save both time and stress as you go through the steps necessary to sell your home.
Gather some facts and figures about your current home – A number of prospective buyers are going to be interested in many things about your home before the sale is completed. Real estate agents will want to know quite a bit; potential buyers will have other questions; lenders, appraisers, building inspectors and perhaps others will have a need for facts and figures.
By gathering some of this information early, 1) you won’t have to do it later on when things could get much busier for you and 2) just gathering the information could help you and your real estate agent arrive at a more appropriate asking price for your property.
If you haven’t lived in your house for too many years, the file folder you created when you purchased the home is a good place to start. While you and your real estate agent will want to verify what is in the folder, much of your work may have been done for you by previous owners and the professionals they used to help sell the house to you.
Spend some time “sprucing up” – Depending on the condition of your home, you may well want to spend a small amount of time and money “putting your home in order” before putting it on the market. Take a walk around the home. View it from the standpoint of a prospective buyer.
Drive or walk around your neighborhood – Make a determination as to how well your home compares with other homes in your neighborhood. If you were purchasing a home in your neighborhood, would your home be one of the homes you would choose? Is it one of the nicer homes in the area, or are there many others that better present themselves? An honest and objective evaluation may help you and your real estate agent arrive at an appropriate listing price for your home.
Select a real estate agent – There are as many ways to select a real estate agent as there are real estate agents in which to choose. Can you remember the name of the agent who helped you find the house you are living in now? If you had a good experience with him/her, you might want to consider using him again, this time to sell your home.
Perhaps you know a friend, relative or neighbor who recently bought or sold a home. Most good real estate agents derive a substantial portion of their business from referrals – that is, they get business referred to them by satisfied clients and customers. Before making a choice, though, be sure to consider geography. A real estate agent who works mainly in Tucson might not be the best choice for someone buying or selling a home in Globe.
There is nothing wrong with interviewing several real estate agents before selecting the one you thing will work best with you.
Prepare for visits from buyers – The homes we live in from day to day are not necessarily the homes we want to show prospective buyers. Kitchen counters crammed with pots, small appliances, etc., distract from the over all view of the kitchen. Similarly, walls filled with paintings or shelves crammed with knickknacks draw attention away from what might otherwise appear to be spacious areas. If you smoke in your house, or if you have pets, you might not notice the smell, but non-smokers and potential buyers who don’t have pets most certainly will.
For the most part, the world is filled with honest people, but it doesn’t make sense to tempt fate. Your jewelry box doesn’t need to be in plain view during a visit, nor does your valuable stamp or coin collection.
Finally, take a look around your house for items that you don’t want to include with the sale of your home. Items of personal property are excluded in the sale of real estate but what is, and what is not; personal property can often be misinterpreted and can result in some contentious moments during the selling process. Generally speaking, if something is moveable and not permanently attached, it is personal property.
That shed in the back yard? If it’s bolted to a foundation its probably real estate; if it just rests on the ground or a foundation you may be able to take it with you. The fancy water softener or reverse osmosis system? Most likely real property. Draperies and window shades? If drapes and window shades are fastened with hooks or snaps, they may be personal property. But the mounting hardware attached to the walls is probably real property. (Most real estate contracts make fairly clear distinctions as to what “goes and what stays" with the property.)
If you have a particular item that you think might be real property and you want to take it with you after the sale, you have two options. You can exclude the item when you prepare the listing of the property. Or, a better solution might be to take down or replace these items with substitutes before the property is listed and shown.
Your real estate agent can give you professional advice in this area. Great, you’ve gathered information, you’ve spruced up your property, you’ve driven or walked the neighborhood, you’ve selected a real estate agent, and you know what to do when prospective buyers visit your home. You’ve reviewed your home for items that you want exclude from the sale. Now you’re ready to list the property.