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People tell me this all the time. I can’t sell my house myself, particularly in this housing market. But your average real estate agent may not succeed in selling your home either. If you are hoping you don’t need to do anything but turn your house over to a real estate agency, you may be disappointed. The more difficult the market, the more you need to cover all your bases to sell your home. And guess what, you still have to do these things whether you sell through a real estate agent or sell the property on your on.

Recent home sales are much slower than they have been since the 1980s when rates were in the teens, in spite of today’s record low interest rates, but there are a number of things you can do to help your property sell and sell faster, too.

1. First, create some great curb appeal prior to putting your home up for sale. Without good curb appeal, most home buyers won’t even come inside

2. Price your home right. The key here is a realistic view of comparable homes for sale. Overly optimistic pricing is the most common factor that causes a slow sale whether you are selling your house yourself or through an real estate agent.

3. Paint the outside and inside if it has been a good while since you have painted. Plain, fresh paint will look good to prospective buyers. Avoid exotic or wild paint treatments as well as wallpaper. Buyers don’t like them. DIY if you can do a good looking job. The big home stores can help you with these important tasks.

4. Clear out all that excess clutter and junk, enough to leave your closets, the garage and even rooms a bit empty. Your closets should also have nothing on the floor.

5. Clean up and prep your home like it was some builder’s model home. Have it ready for a prospect with virtually no notice. The above item will make this step much simpler.

6. Let all your friends, and neighbors know your house is listed for sale. Your neighbors might want to pick their new neighbor and help themselves as well as help you. This worked great for us in the slow upper Midwest real estate market. Our home was sold and closed in 4 weeks surprising the real estate agent we hired who had nothing to do with locating our buyer. To show just how slow the market was, the property across the street from ours had been for sale for over a year and had still not sold when our moving van left.

7. Put an advertisement for your home in the local papers. It worked for us again in another slow housing. We didn’t bother with the agent this time. We got an offer from the very first prospect and had a closing within 6 weeks.

8. If your area’s real estate market is really bad, try offering owner financing if possible. Those two simple words can do more than just about anything else to get a ton of prospects. Many buyers in the current real estate market, even ones with solid credit have difficulty getting a loan. This is particularly true with self-employed buyers who many times have enough money for a significant down payment. Solve their problem if you can. You can still effectively get all cash for your home by selling the owner-financed mortgage note to a mortgage buyer. One thing to keep in mind. You may have to hold the note for 60 to 90 days for it to “season” a many private mortgage note want this seasoning before you sell a note or sell private mortgage to them.

We are in DIY times and home selling is no exception. If the normal sales just aren’t happening you can take charge and make things happen for you through FSBO! Take heart in this one last point. Your work can have a much greater impact on selling your home than any real estate firm or agent.

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