Selling your home doesn’t have to be stressful. You can find a great way to sell your home as a FSBO listing even if you’re a working professional who doesn’t have a lot of time. Here are some of the best for sale by owner tips to get you started on the right track to getting your house sold quickly and for the best price.
1. Can a neighbor help you out?
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If you’re not home much of the time, it can be hard to sell your home as a FSBO listing. With an agent you would probably have a lockbox on your house, and showings could take place while you were at work. As a FSBO you don’t have that option, but you may have other people you can trust to help you get your home sold. If you know any of your neighbors well and they are home during times when you aren’t, you could get some extra assistance to show and sell your house.
Naturally, that won’t work for everyone, but it’s worth considering. As a working professional it’s not realistic for you to take time off every time someone wants to see your home. You do need to get it sold, though, and choosing to sell as a FSBO can present challenges. When you have a neighbor or two who can help you out, they can show your home and let you know how it went when you get home from work. Just having that option to let a potential buyer see the house when it’s convenient for them could make a difference in how fast it gets sold.
2. Should you hold an extra open house?
You may not be able to be there during standard, weekday working hours, but you can be there on the weekends. Holding on open house during your days off can mean that buyers have the opportunity to come look through your home more easily. Instead of having to coordinate schedules for a showing, they can just drop by on their day off and take a look. They don’t even need an appointment. It’s a great way to get more people to your house.
Since you have limited opportunity to show your house while you’re working, holding an extra open house may be well worth doing. You can open up your home on Saturday and Sunday, or you can set aside a couple of weekends instead of just one. It can be tiring, especially when you’ve worked all week, but it’s well worth the time and effort if it sells your house
3. How quickly can you show your home?
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Being able to show your home on short notice is a big benefit if you want to find a buyer. As a working professional you probably don’t spend a lot of time at home, but it’s very important that you keep it clean, decluttered, and staged throughout the entire selling process. The faster you can show your home to someone when you are home, the better the chances you’ll locate a buyer in a reasonable amount of time.
By keeping everything picked up and making sure things like dishes and laundry don’t accumulate, you can show your house on very short notice to any buyer who’s interested. That might seem like a very small thing, but it could make the difference between selling your home or losing out to another seller who can show the buyer their house right away.
4. Is a temporary schedule change an option?
Some careers are more flexible than others based on the hours you can (or must) work. Not all working professionals are on a Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 type of schedule, either. No matter how your career is structured, if you have the opportunity to adjust your schedule to make it more convenient that could be a good thing. Then you’ll have the chance to show your home to a larger number of buyers, and may see a quicker sale for a better price that way.
While changing your schedule around for a few weeks or months may not be a good option for everyone, it’s worth considering. If you can arrange to be home when the majority of buyers want to see your house, that’s generally never a bad thing. If the buyers who contact you don’t seem to have much of a pattern for when they want to see the house, though, changing your schedule might not provide you with any real benefit. Only you can decide if it’s a good idea in your situation.
5. How is your advertising budget?
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Advertising is a big part of getting your house sold, especially with a FSBO listing. How much you spend on advertising, and where you advertise your house, could both be very important to a quick sale for a fair price. That doesn’t mean you have to spend thousands to sell your house, but you do want to be realistic about getting it sold. That’s especially true if you need or want to sell quickly. It’s not realistic to stick a sign in your yard and expect the buyers to flock to you.
Resources and options for FSBO sellers are always going to be different from those who use agents. That’s to be expected, but you can take full advantage of the choices you have with your FSBO listing. By advertising your home well and giving buyers every reasonable opportunity to see your home and make a decision about buying it, you’ll be doing all you can to get a quick sale at a price you feel good about.
