Anyone have any experience selling their own house? (Columbia, Lexington: for sale by owner, real estate)

[stevehawk]

Was it difficult? I don't have enough equity to pay a real estate agent and the last real estate agent I used was a nightmare. Thanks for any help.

[jlboney]

I sold my own house last year, but then I am a Realtor, so it'snot the same.

If you want to give it a try on your own, then I will be more than happy to give you some advice here. Obviously there are resources that Realtors have at their disposal that the average person does not, but that doesn't mean there is nothing you can do.

Make sure that the house is ready to show and is ready to sell. Make sure it is as clean as you can get it. Make sure the paint throughout the house and on the outside, if there is any, is in good shape. A fresh coat never hurts. Make sure that if there is carpet that it is clean and in good shape, I would recommend steam cleaning. Be sure that the outside has good curb appeal, this will make people take notice. Keep the grass green and cut. Make sure any bushes are also trimmed and if you have pine straw or mulch, it wouldn't hurt to put down a fresh batch. Also make sure that the inside of the home is decluttered and there are nuetral colors. Nothing loud or outlandish.

Open houses are a great way for FSBO's to get buyers into their house to take a look, so I would say they are good to do on the weekends. Go to lowe's or Home Depot or even Wal-Mart and buy a for sale sign and some open house directional signs. Put up your for sale sign and have a number on it for people to call. Of course you will have some Realtors call who want to list your house, but you must have a way for buyers to get in touch with you to set up appointments. When you do open houses, out out the directional signs drawing traffic to your house from every major road that's close by. Most people ride around on Saturday and Sunday afternoon and most of traffic at open houses comes straight from those directional signs.

It would be a good idea to make contact with an attorney, so you will have someone to handle the legal aspects of the transaction should someone want to purchase the house. Harvy, Casterline, and Villini are good and they have an office in Lake Carolina, one in Lexington, and one downtown off Elmwood. Aun and Mckay are also good and they have a couple of offices as well. Having someone that you can get advice from and someone to guide you through the process is invaluable.

I would also advise you to speak with a lender. They will be able to tell you whether a potential buyer can actaully afford the house and recieve a motgage. It's always a good idea to put buyers in touch with a lender, the last thing you want is to get your hopes up only to find out that the would be buyer can not sercure a mortgage. Jim Kyser with Bank of America and Scott Speer with Home Owner's Morgage are both good and I'm sure they would be more than happy to help.

Do not make it a secret that you are trying to sell the house, the more people that know, the more potential you have to make the sell. The Internet is a huge force for advertising, so I strongly suggest that you make every effort to advertise there. Craigslist, Ebay, and Postlets.com will all let your advertise for free. Postlets.com also sends out you advertisment automatically to several other websites like Google base and this will help you with placement in search engines like Google and Yahoo. Search engine placement for keywords, like Columbia SC real estate, and Columbia SC homes for sale will give you a lot of exposure. You should also be sure that everyone in your community, if you live in one, knows that you are trying to sell. They may know someone that wants to live there, like friends and family.

You also may want to go to the LLR website and see if they have resources available to you. A property Disclosure statement would be a good thing to have and are required by law. You can likely print one from the LLR website if you poke around on the real estate commission portion of it. There are also several FSBO websites like forsalebyowner.com that you may want to check out.

Last but not least, make sure that the price is right. This is one of the, if not the most important step in selling your house. Check home sales in your community for the past 6 months and see how yours compares to those sales. Not what people are asking for their currently listed houses, but houses that have actually sold. Best of luck to you.

[lagoon7]

Originally Posted by jlboney

. Of course you will have some Realtors call who want to list your house

The vultures will start circling as soon as they see "For Sale By Owner."

From selling our house, I think that the most important thing is appearance and simply getting the word out. The house isn't going to sell itself.

Oh, and don't use up a whole lot of money/ink on color flyers for your "For Sale" sign/tube outside. We went through dozens of flyers without so much as a phone call. Expect the tube to be emptied the first couple of times by nosy neighbors and realtors who live in the area.

[Brandon Hoffman]

JL gives solid advice.