One real key to achieving confidence about selling a house now is considering having the ability to assess all your options. You have to know the possibilities in order to do what it takes to make a sale. It’s tempting to rely on the opinions and advice of professionals in your area, keeping an open mind of course.
That’s what I had to do as a real estate investor when the oil industry crashed in the 1980s. I watched thousands of homeowners lose all their equity and even lose their homes back then. And now, in the current real estate market, the situation is similar. I, as a home buyer, sympathize with sellers who are selling a house now, and understand that many are struggling financially. It’s easy to lose confidence entirely right now.
Perhaps you’ve heard real estate agents and other industry experts say that the housing crisis is mostly all about public perception. Obviously, it’s fueled by the media and underscored by people’s personal experience. Widespread public opinion influences how we all think about the national economy and it affects our personal expectations. We can sink into a mindset of hopelessness or we can stay enthusiastic and hopeful, depending on who and what we choose to believe.
Selling a house now is basically a do-it-youself project. Sellers absolutely have to understand that they have an advantage when they are preparing to sell a home these days. They have to get busy posting on craigslist and ebay classifieds, running small classified ads in the newspaper and shoppers, and exploring other local forms that may be available for free or low cost advertising.
When I was seeing vacant homes all over my local metro area back in the 1980s and yet I managed to buy and sell properties as an investor, I used direct mail and newspapers. Those were the best methods of advertising available to me at the time. But that was before the internet, and before the world of advertising changed forever. Anyone who is operating a business or selling a house now has to realize that the internet is the number one place that buyers go to look for their new home.
The way to become and remain confident as a seller is to consider all your options, and get started focusing on the internet in particular. Spent time writing classified ads with a lot of detail and great photos so that your potential buyers can see immediately what you have to offer them. Everybody is super busy and distracted, so you only have a few seconds to capture the attention of anyone who is looking for a new house in your local area.
Do you realize that your home sale actually begins in your own positive intentions? If you trust and believe that your house will sell, and you do whatever it takes to get words and photos out there online for your potential buyers to find, you will be miles ahead of other homeowners who do not or will not make the effort required.
There’s a definite shift needed when you go from thinking that your agent or broker is going to take care of everything to knowing that selling your house now is really your own job. That’s a fact that many home sellers simply do not want to accept. When I said that making a sale is basically a do-it-yourself project I didn’t mean to imply that you shouldn’t use a real estate agent to list your home on the multiple listing service. That is still a viable option, and one I use myself most of the time when selling my investment properties.
My point here is that you cannot assume that anyone else, even the agent with whom you list your property for sale, will have the same level of motivation that you have. Nobody else stands to receive the same benefits, meaning as an owner, and so that you cannot expect them to care as much as you do at all. That is the biggest mistake I see sellers making in the present marketplace.
In the past, it used to be enough to simply sign a listing agreement and expect your agent to do everything necessary to find buyers and get a signed sales agreement, but things are very different today. As I said before, the internet changed everything forever. If you list with a licensed agent your home will be listed online on your local multiple listing, and it will show up on various other agents’ websites as well. Many agents and real estate brokerage firms have a portal to the local multiple listing service on their personal and corporate websites.
As the property owner and seller, however, you have a privilege that no licensed agent can claim. You have the ability to list “by owner” on craigslist, which is actually a tremendous advantage. It’s been my observation over the years that I’ve been using craigslist to market my investment properties that many buyers avoid listings posted by agents and brokers.
I’m not saying that’s a good trend, but it is a reality. Many buyers simply do not want to deal with licensed agents because they believe they can purchase a property directly from the seller and save money. That may or may not be the case, but all that matters in your situation as a seller is that many buyers believe it to be true. They want to deal directly with you, and you need to be prepared to help them do so. When a buyer can find you easily, that’s when you have the great advantage over agents who rely on the multiple listing service or broker listings online.
Replying to curious buyers by email, text and phone is the next step when you are selling a house now. When they contact you, that’s the time to get their email address and phone number to pass on to your agent, or to pursue yourself if you are selling my owner. It’s your choice as regards how to proceed at this point, but now you can see what I mean when I say you have an advantage when you are marketing your home for sale online, and that you really need to explore that advantage now.
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