Even though about 33% of new home buyers use a realtor when it comes to selling their home, the truth is, you can do it yourself. 

When you decide to sell your home on your own, it does take some work, but it saves you the 6% you would be handing over to a realtor. If you’re ready to put up the ‘For Sale’ sign in your home, keep reading to find out how to sell your house without a realtor.

Benefits of Selling Your Home Yourself

At first, putting your home up for sale alone might seem like a daunting task. But some benefits can keep you motivated. 

Homes sold by their owners tend to sell more quickly than those using a realtor. 

You also have full control over price, open houses, and have a unique perspective on the neighborhood. You’re not juggling several homes and clients at once. 

As mentioned before, you can save yourself a chunk of cash. Depending on the agent, the standard rate is around 5% or 6% of your home sale.  

How to Sell Your House Without A Realtor: 10 Steps

There are several reasons you might be interested in selling your home on your own. Whatever they may be, follow this 10-step guide to sell your home yourself. 

1. Clean Your Home

When you’re prepping your home for buyers, you don’t want to do a quick sweep and tidy up. Prepping your home may include decluttering, finish any projects, removing personal family photos, repainting walls neutral colors, and fixing anything that’s broken. 

Your goal is to help the buyer to envision living in this space and making it their own. Make sure to create space and stage it well. Be sure to take photos when you’re finished and use them in your listing. 

2. Decide on A Price

One of the best things you can do is to make sure that the price of your home is fair. This is where hiring a realtor can be of some benefit. They understand the neighborhood and your home’s market value and could offer some suggestions. 

If your home isn’t priced well, you won’t receive many offers, and you could become stuck. It’s so crucial that not you’re subject here. Listing your house at what you think it’s worth is not going to be viable – you must do your research and evaluate your home objectively. 

3. List Your Home And Give Details

Once you’ve landed on a price, put your home up for sale!

To get people excited and interested in your home, including many details of the house as you can. Point all highlights that you love about the home and the home’s potential if there’s work to be done. 

Take as many photos as you can, ensuring that there’s good lighting and the images are clear. The quality of the photos matters because people shop by viewing the photos first. Consider hiring a professional photographer to take the pictures, so you have the best ones on your listing. 

4. Advertise

Before the rise of social media, listing your home for sale in the newspaper or by word of mouth was typically the only way to gain any interest. Nowadays, you can leverage social media to get your house seen by a variety of different people on different platforms. 

Be sure to utilize realtor websites, classified websites, or even consider creating your website with the photos and descriptions you have. Staking a sign outside your home that says, “For Sale, By Owner” is still valuable. 

5. MLS

The Multiple Listing Service or MLS is a website with a collection of all the real estate that’s for sale. They do charge a flat fee, which could be several hundreds of dollars. However, you will get your house displayed to a broader audience, which could be worth it in the long run.

6. Host an Open House

After you’ve done a fair amount of advertising, it’s time to host your open house. 

Hosting an open house isn’t hard, and will typically take a small portion of your afternoon. Weekends are the best because most people are available. Place a sign outside with the times you plan to have the open house and stay to answer any questions buyers have. 

Provide literature to take home for people who come to the event, as well as refreshments like cookies or bottled water. 

7. Negotiate Offers

Once you have offers coming in, it’s time to negotiate. 

Since you are selling yourself, you will have to be in direct contact with the buyer. The buyer will write up a contract to the seller, most likely with a price lower than what you’re asking. For people who’ve never sold a house, hiring a lawyer to assist with this process could help. 

There will be plenty of going back and forth until each party agrees to the stipulations in the contract. 

8. Make Sure Everything is Legal in Your Contract

There are laws governing the purchase of a home. For example, you cannot discriminate your sale because of race, sex, or religion, according to the Fair Housing Act. Before anyone signs, anything, have a real estate attorney to review your contract. 

9. Be Patient

Sometimes selling a house takes time, even when you do it yourself. You may need to host multiple open houses or go through various contracts to get there. But as long as your home is advertised well and well-maintained, you’re likely to have some interest. 

For Sale By Owner: You Can Do It

If you’re still wondering how to sell your house without a realtor, it can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. Putting a little elbow grease into your home and taking your time could yield you a great sale with extra cash in your pocket. 

Are you looking for more information on real estate in Arizona? Keep browsing our website to learn more information to help you out!