Deciding whether or not you want to sell your house in Memphis is the easy part. The tougher question might be, “Should I sell a house on my own or should I sell my house with a real estate agent? There are a lot of reasons why you might want to sell your house by owner. But there are a lot of other questions that come with going that route. How do you sell a house by owner? Don’t I need a real estate agent to sell my house? What are the steps involved with selling a house on my own? These are important questions you’ll want to ask, especially at a time when the housing market and economy contain a lot of questions and unknowns.
If you want to sell your Memphis house fast, you have a couple of options. You can sell your house with a real estate agent, who will list it on the housing market. You can sell the house yourself in what’s commonly known as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) home sale. Or you can sell your house for cash to a direct home buyer like Fair Cash Deal. Each of these situations come with their own reasons you may want to consider them, but ultimately it depends on your unique situation and how fast you need to sell your Memphis house. While the last two options both don’t include working with a real estate agent, they can move at very different speeds.
So let’s take a closer look at how to sell a house on your own in Memphis. By the end of this article, you’ll be well informed in order to decide the ideal way for you to sell your Memphis home and whether or not an FSBO sale is for you.
Sell A House On Your Own In Memphis
What is FSBO?
Before we get into the specifics of how to sell a house on your own, let’s make sure we understand exactly what an FSBO is and what it entails.
For Sale By Owner is the term given to a real estate sale in which the property owner forgoes the services of a Realtor or real estate agent and handles all aspects of the property same themselves. That means you are your own real estate agent, in a sense. You make yourself responsible for handling everything that comes with a home sale, from the listing to the marketing to the repairs to potential staging to negotiations, and eventually to handling all the paperwork to close. It also means you’re responsible for all the costs involved, as well as making sure you’re getting the best asking price possible.
The biggest reason many people decide they would prefer to do an FSBO sale over working with a real estate agent is that they want to avoid paying a commission fee. When you agree to sell your house with a real estate agent, they are going to handle many of the aspects mentioned but they do so in return for a commission fee that comes off the sale price of the house. Very often, that fee ends up being five or six percent of the final sale price. That might not sound like much, but depending on your financial situation, it can be a big chunk.
For example, let’s say you end up selling your Memphis house for $225,000. The real estate agent commission fee is going to be around $11,250 to $13,500. Not let’s consider that there’s a chance you still have to pay off a mortgage and have other costs you need to satisfy. Losing out on that big chunk can hurt your bottom line.
Now, it’s important to note that both the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent split the commission fee. So even if you decide to do an FSBO sale, the buyer’s agent will still need to get half of the fee. So you’ll probably still end up paying a percentage of the sale price, though now it would be more like three percent. It’s also worth noting that, on average, FSBO sales net smaller profits than home sales made with a real estate agent. That’s because homeowners don’t always have all the knowledge, in-roads, and negotiation experience that comes in handy during a home sale.
An alternative to the real estate commission fees and the potential problems of an FSBO sale is to sell your Memphis house to a cash buyer like Fair Cash Deal. We work directly with homeowners and buy Memphis houses for cash. If time is of the essence and you need to sell your house fast, this can be the ideal scenario.
Selling a House in Memphis
When it comes to selling a house in Memphis, there are some tried and true facts that come with any sale no matter how you do it. And it all starts with preparing a house for sale.
An FSBO sale means that you are responsible for all of the decisions that come with selling a house on the Memphis housing market. So you’re going to have to start by prepping the house, listing it on the multiple listing services (MLS), hosting open houses, handling all buyer negotiations, and working with your financial experts in order to clear the title and close the deal. If you think you’re already an expert in real estate sales, perhaps this is a path to consider. But if you’re not, it can be a risky proposition and there are a lot of potential pitfalls. It might be better to sell your house to a Memphis cash home buyer.
Not understanding how the home selling process works is what usually ends up making an FSBO home sale disappointing. That’s what makes pricing a house correctly so critical. The listing price sets the tone for how buyers will react to your house on their first impression, and it could end up costing you money that you didn’t realize. If you price your Memphis house too low, you’ll be sending the signal that there are problems with it and buyers should be wary. If you price your house too high, you might take some potential buyers out of the running and it’ll end up sitting on the market for months.
Selling a house in Memphis by yourself also could end up getting you into legal entanglements if you’re not prepared. Since you’re not working with a real estate agent, you could be opening yourself up to litigation and legal issues. Real estate agents carry certain types of insurance that cover them if a mistake or error happens. That doesn’t work for an FSBO seller, who is basically liable for any mistakes they make after the fact, especially if they involve lies or bad information. That can be a lot of responsibility if you don’t have the knowledge of how to sell your Memphis house. If you don’t think you’ll have the knowledge needed to successfully sell your house on your own, you should consider selling your house with the help of a real estate agent (which includes commission fees) or sell your house for cash to an investor like Fair Cash Deal (which doesn’t include fees).
Steps To Sell A House On Your Own
If you decide that you want to sell a Memphis house on your own, let’s talk about how you can get started.
If you’re deciding to do an FSBO sale, the first thing you’ll want to do is take an honest look at your house and decide what needs to be fixed. What are the problem areas that could use an upgrade? What issues are you able to address and what will cost money? What can you afford to fix? Since you’re selling your house on the housing market, you still need to make sure it’s in the best condition possible since market buyers are looking for a place to live right now and don’t usually want to deal with a fixer-upper.
If you’re able to make repairs that are necessary, do it. Just know that you’re going to want to get back those costs in the sale price. Regardless of what you can fix and what is too expensive, make sure you give the house a once-over. Touch up any room that needs a fresh coat of paint or some de-cluttering. Remove as much personalization as possible since buyers want to see themselves in the house, not you. If you can afford to hire cleaners, we’d recommend doing that. And if you can afford a home stager and professional photographer, those are costs that will come in handy when it comes to presenting your house in the best light possible.
Know How Much Your House Worth
Do you know how much your Memphis house is worth? This is a critical aspect of selling your house on your own as it’s going to impact how much money you can make and how quickly you’re able to sell.
Head to a real estate website and start looking for other homes similar to yours in your area. Make sure you’re looking at homes with a similar number of rooms, similar upgrades and finishes, and similar situations. Look at homes that have recently sold in order to determine what the market price is for a house like yours. And then look at homes that are currently listed in order to get a sense of how long they’ve been sitting on the market. If you do your research, you should be able to get a decent sense of what your house is worth on the market right now.
Market Your House
When it comes to selling your house on your own, marketing can make or break your sale. It starts with making sure you’ve got some For Sale signs on your property and around the neighborhood. You can also consider paying to create flyers and brochures to play up the highlights and amenities that come with buying your Memphis home. You should talk about proximity to schools or retail, notable features in the house, neighborhood benefits, etc. Next, look online for all the places you can list your FSBO home sale. There are lots of sites out there. And then consider setting up an open house so you can start getting buyers to show up and see it for themselves.
Of course, if a For Sale By Owner sale sounds daunting and expensive, you have an alternative to using a real estate agent to sell your house. You can sell your house as-is to a cash buyer like Fair Cash Deal. We don’t require any repairs or cleaning. We make no-obligation offers fast, often within 24 hours. We can close on your schedule. There are no fees or middlemen to deal with. And we pay you in cash for your Memphis house. Contact us today to find out more!
