When selling your home yourself you need as many advantages as possible. Without a doubt you will be fighting an uphill battle in the advertising department as realtors typically have large budgets to spend on the advertising of homes. So it stands to reason that your home needs to stand out in other ways in order to garner the attention it needs to sell quickly and for the right price. Two ways this can be done is through the use of a professional stager and holding your own open houses. The latter may be time consuming but you needs to get the word out about your home.
Home stagers are a new breed of home professionals. In recent years the practice has evolved out of the designer field and specializes in the preparation of a home for selling.
This usually involves a large amount of shuffling of furniture and in some cases the outright replacement of items that will not benefit the show. Getting rid of mess and clutter is a big part of staging as is the strategic use of available space. Many homes are a bit too cluttered for a home showing and home stagers are experts at deciding what can stay and what needs to go to make the home more presentable. It is really amazing what a home can look like before and after a proper staging. Many people hardly recognize their own homes!
Holding your own open houses can be a trying event. It can be gratifying to hear the positive remarks that people make about your home but conversely it can be heartbreaking to hear the negative comments as well. Remember you can't please everyone. Also, don't be afraid to invite realtors to your open house. Just because you aren't using one to sell your home does not mean that you can't benefit from their clientele! In fact you may want to consider holding an open house explicitly for realtors. The more people that know about your sale the better. Another thing that any FSBO seller should seriously consider is a flat-fee MLS listing. Traditionally one major drawback to FSBO selling was the fact that FSBO homes did not have access to the Multiple Listing Service. As anyone in the business knows a MLS listing can make the difference between a sale and a missed opportunity.
