When most people decide to put their home on the market for sale they will generally go through a real estate agent for help. Real estate agents are hired to market and sell homes. But it is not the only way that a house can be sold.

More People Are Doing It Themselves

With the market slumping and prices falling more and more people have decided to try selling their home by themselves, using a For Sale by Owner. Selling your home by yourself can be a positive or a negative experience. Knowing what to expect and how to handle certain situation will help make the experience more successful and less stressful.

Why People Use For Sale By Owner

People turn to a For Sale by Owner option for different reasons. The most popular reason is an attempt to save money on real estate commissions. If money is tight or a homeowner owes the bank close to what their home is worth then the percentage of money that a real estate agent takes from the sale of the property can leave the homeowner belly up after the sale. Some people may feel like they can not afford to hire a real estate agent or they do not want to relinquish any of the profit from the sale of their home to anyone else.

Property owners also may decide to try a For Sale by Owner when a real estate agent has failed to sell their home in what they consider a timely manner. If a listing through a real estate agent has been unsuccessful, homeowners may decide to try to do it themselves.

In the next installment we will look at some more aspects of selling your home using a For Sale by Owner.

Property Options Australia
Property Options Blog © 2006 - 2009

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In the last installment we discussed a couple things to avoid when you are trying to sell your house such as not overpricing your home and getting a true value of what your home is worth by a real estate professional. In this installment we will continue to discuss the top things to avoid when you are listing your home.

Be Sure To Show Your Home To It’s Full Potential

While it seems to be an obvious point it is one that is often overlooked. When you show your house be sure to show it off and make it look as good as you possibly can. You only get one chance to make a good first impression and you will want to wow any potential buyers that walk through your door. Take care of anything that needs to be fixed. Make sure that everything is clean and smells good. This will go a long way in making your home appealing to potential buyers.

Don’t Try To Hard Sell Your Home

Buying a home is a very personal and emotional decision for many home buyers. A home is something to be treasured. If you will be at your home during an open house or when it is shown to potential buyers you will need to avoid trying to push the benefits of your home onto these potential buyers. Do not haggle with them or try to force them into purchasing your property. All that this will accomplish will be to put any potential buyer off and cause them to view your home as a place of stress and uneasiness. When a potential buyer comes to look at your home always make sure that you make them feel welcome and comfortable. Point out the amenities that your home has and answer any questions in an open and honest way, as you would to a friend or other party who was not thinking of purchasing your home.

Sean Rasmussen
Property Options Australia
Property Options Blog © 2006 - 2008

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When you are getting ready to list your home, either with an agent or by yourself, it is important to follow a certain protocol in order to achieve the most desirous and beneficial results. If you follow these simple steps you will find that your experience selling your home will be much more pleasant and should help you to sell your home quicker.

Do Not Overprice Your Home

You obviously have a lot invested into your home and you want to get the most money out of it as you possibly can. But overpricing your home will have the exact opposite effect. When you over price your home you exclude entire categories of buyers who may have been serious about purchasing your home. A property price that is inflated can intimidate potential buyers and lead them to look elsewhere. In addition, when buyers see a high price on your property they will be expecting a lot in return and will be disappointed when your home does not deliver to their expectations. Houses that are overpriced tend to stay on the market for a longer time and eventually sell for a lower price regardless. To save yourself a lot of time and aggravation price your home accordingly.

Refinancing Appraisals Are Not The Same As Resale Appraisals

When you are looking to refinance your home lenders will often give you an inflated property value to encourage you to re-finance with their institution. But a re-finance appraisal is not the same as a fair market appraisal of what the real estate market can handle. The best way to determine what your home is worth on the real estate market is to have an agent do an analysis of comparable properties in your area using recent market information and sales as a guide.

Sean Rasmussen
Property Options Australia
Property Options Blog © 2006 - 2008

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In the last installment we started looking at ways to make your home really stand out and get noticed by prospective buyers. In this article we will continue to look at the sense of smell and how it can enhance your homes over all appeal by using the following things.

• Flowers
  By strategically placing flowers around your home you will give it a beautiful and comely splash of color and sophistication and also create pleasant aromas
• Smells
  The sense of smell very powerful and has the ability to conjure up feelings of pleasure of repulsion. If a potential buyer walks into your home and smells pet odors, cigarette smoke, dirt laundry, mildew, mold, sour food or any other unpleasant smell it will turn them off to the thought of buying your home. On the other hand, if a perspective buyer comes into your home and is overcome by pleasant and pleasing aromas it will create a positive emotion and help in the ultimate sale of your home.

There are a couple different ways to create good smells in your home. First of all make sure that your home is clean. That means counters shining, dishes washed and put away, sink clean and sparkling with no water around the faucet, floors scrubbed and shining and walls washed down and fresh looking. All the dirty laundry should be washed preferably and put away neatly in dressers, but at the very least picked up off the floor in hampers or baskets and tucked away out of sight. After your home is thoroughly cleaned and sparkling you can create pleasing aromas in many different ways such as:

• Baking cookies
• Brewing coffee
• Baking bread
• Lighting candles throughout the home
• Placing vases of flowers throughout the home

Just by creating a feeling of warmth and welcome it will go a long way in helping your home to sell for its full potential.

Property Options Australia
Property Options Blog © 2006 - 2009

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The Inside Of The House Is Just As Important As The Outside

Once you have the outside of your home looking fresh, neat and clean you need to make sure that the inside of your house looks good as well.

• Remove any unnecessary furniture, shelves, tables and any thing else that you can do without. When you have less stuff in your home it makes it appear to be bigger and more roomy than it is. If you have too much furniture in your home it will give the impression that your home is small and cramped with no extra space.

• Make sure that everything is clean. Steam clean your carpets to get all the dirt out. If you need to hire a professional cleaner to do this for you.

• Make sure that there are no cracks or holes in your walls. If there are any defects in the walls make sure that they are patched or fixed before you try to sell your home. Also make sure that all of the walls are clean and free of any marks or dirt. It may also be a good idea to give some rooms a fresh coat of paint.

• All of the doors and windows should be easy to open and close. There should not be any creaking noise when opening any of the doors and windows either.

• If you have any creaking floorboards get those fixed.

• Be sure to fix any leaky taps.

• Smells can leave potential buyers with a good impression of your home. A nice warm and inviting fire on a cold winter’s day will help to warm a buyer’s impression of your home. The fragrance of baking bread or pie will make your house seem warm and inviting, a place to call home. Another great smell is fresh brewed coffee. All of these fragrances can help show your house in a positive and appealing light.

• Make sure that there is plenty of light available in your home, both natural and artificial. A dark home can seem gloomy and depressing, not an impression you want to leave with prospective buyers. A bright and well lit home will appear bigger and more expansive as well.

Property Options Australia
Property Options Blog © 2006 - 2009

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