Selling a house yourself can be daunting, especially when it comes to the process of marketing and advertising – one of the biggest things a real estate agent handles. To help ease the stress, we’re offering you 10 tips for marketing your FSBO house. Hopefully, they will give you a starting point and some ideas for how to successfully market, advertise, show and sell your FSBO home.
10 Tips for Marketing Your FSBO House
1. Be Prepared to Put in the Time
We aren’t going to lie – selling a home FSBO will take time. All of the work that a real estate agent would typically handle falls to you. This means you’ll need to do the research, craft advertisements, answer queries from potential buyers, schedule and host showings and more. There’s a lot of legwork that goes into FSBO, but a lot of homeowners find that it’s worth it.
2. Make Your Photos Perfect
High-quality home photography is key to getting people in for showings. One of the biggest mistakes that FSBO homeowners make is using grainy, poorly-lit or otherwise unappealing photos for their online listings. If you want to give it a shot (pun intended,) here are some tips for good real estate photos. Otherwise, consider making the investment and hiring a professional photographer.
3. Know Your Home Inside and Out
While in a standard sale a realtor would be ready to answer questions about the property, that job falls to you if you go FSBO. Questions about the age of different components, the square footage, acreage and more are standard. Buyers may have more specific questions, as well. Consider assembling a fact sheet that you can read off of or offer to buyers when they come for viewings.
4. List on the MLS
This is another thing that a realtor would typically provide. To list on the MLS, you will need to hire a broker of some sort. Most will charge a flat fee or a small percentage rate to list it for you – still a better deal than the commission a realtor would charge. The exposure and potential buyers you will get from an MLS listing are priceless!
5. Advertise, Advertise, Advertise
Don’t underestimate the importance of advertising your home. List on Craigslist, various online sale websites like FSBO.com and the MLS if you can. Put print flyers up on the bulletin boards at community centers, grocery stores and gyms. The more visible your home is, the more chance there is for people to find it!
6. Do Market Research
This is another thing that realtors typically do – market research. Find out what similar homes have sold for in your area. Know the value of your neighborhood. What kind of amenities are available to homeowners? Don’t forget things like HOAs, since buyers will need to know about them prior to purchasing. What perks are there to living in that location, and what potential downsides?
7. Consult with Professionals
You may have caught onto this, but it bears repeating: don’t be afraid to hire professionals to help you out. Whether that’s a broker to list on the MLS, a photographer or staging professional to help with your marketing or a lawyer to help with the paperwork, don’t be afraid of consulting with and hiring the pros if you’re in over your head.
8. Put Your Safety First
When creating your posters, flyers and any online listings, be cautious about posting your phone number or personal email address. One way around this is to set up a separate email account for buyers to use. When you do schedule showings, try to do them when it’s still light out if possible. If not, be sure to open all blinds and turn on all interior and exterior lights before the showing.
9. Price Your Home Well
This goes hand-in-hand with market research, but it’s so important that we decided to give its own point. Pricing your home is a spot where it’s easy to make a mistake. Most homeowners may accidentally overprice their home, which leads to it lingering on the market and buyers underbidding. Instead, do your research, price it accurately and watch it sell!
10. Be Available for Showings
Finally, one of the best things you can do for marketing your FSBO house is to be available for showings. This can be tricky and inconvenient, but it’s crucial to selling your house.
Going the FSBO route doesn’t have to seem impossible! Be ready to dedicate time to research and some creative resources to marketing, and you can succeed.
Ben Buys Indy Houses is an accredited Indianapolis home buyer who will purchase any house in as-is condition. Ready to sell quickly? Contact us to find out more about what we could offer you! We look forward to hearing from you.
