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In this age of do-it-yourself home improvement and do-it-yourself decorating, the DIY home seller has found their niche. For Sale By Owner signs populate the real estate landscape, earning their homeowners the nickname FSBO, (pronounced fizbo).  Are you an aspiring fizbo?

Here are the top five questions to ask yourself before you take the plunge into DIY real estate:

1. What Will Your Marketing Strategy Be?
   Putting out the FSBO sign is easy.  How else are you going to market your home?  Websites devoted to FSBO homes can reach a lot of people, but most potential homebuyers go where the most property listings are, and that’s the Multiple Listing Service or realtor.ca.  To post on realtor.ca you need to be a real estate professional.  If you aren’t on the MLS, you aren’t part of the huge network of potential buyers and their agents actively looking for homes.
   
   
2. How Did You Get to that Price?
   Do you know how to set a selling price for your house that reflects its fair market value?  While you might be able to find out the selling price of a house in your area by a trip to the town hall or county courthouse, realtors can access much more detailed information to make price comparisons.  Besides the selling price, they will know the square footage, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and any other information that’s vital to setting the right price for a house.  
   
   
3. How Are You Planning on Showing the Home?
   Will you be able to show your house when viewers request it?  Some FSBO websites suggest setting aside a certain time in the week and trying to fit your viewings into that one time slot.  You risk losing potential viewers—and sales, if they run on a schedule different than your own.   Most sellers already have a full time job.  Guess what guys? Selling homes is also a full time job.
   
   
4. Can You Be Truly Objective About the Condition of Your Home?  
   The minute you decide that you are going to sell your home, you need to stop thinking of it as “your home”.  A home sale can be a tough experience for those with a sentimental attachment to the property. Potential buyers will not have the same emotional investment in your property. Buyers can be downright rude, annoying, and over-critical. Can you really come to terms with the fact that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.  It is very hard not to take comments and criticisms personally.  However it’s no longer personal, ladies and gentlemen… It’s business.
   
   
5. Can You Handle the Pressure?
   Selling a home is a major financial transaction.  You’ll have to negotiate very large amounts of money with the buyer, or their agent.  Will the pressure get to you?  What happens if you make a mistake?  Real estate brokers carry liability insurance just in case they make a mistake do you?.  Who’s going to protect you from you, if you make a mistake?  But the biggest reason to reconsider DIY home sales is the fact that in my experience, agents have always gotten a substantially higher selling price for their clients than For Sale By Owners.  Before you decide to go it alone, think again.

 

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