FSBO Archives - Sell Your House Yourself

How To Take Great FSBO Pictures

Leveral cameras lying in the grass indicating the importance of FSBO pictures. — Taking great FSBO pictures

When selling a house pictures are important. Really important. Here we’ll learn how to take great FSBO pictures. You know the old saying, A picture is worth a thousand words?

That’s a true saying. When selling a house, a picture really is worth a thousand words. Anyone who has searched homes online have seen the pictures of dirty, messy and cluttered homes. Or pictures of one small corner of a room? Pictures like that don’t impress and certainly don’t inspire potential buyers to schedule showings.

Great pictures sell houses. Literally. For real estate agents and For Sale By Owner listings. When home shoppers are scrolling through real estate sites it’s the pictures that make them stop and further investigate. Home shoppers spend more time on listings with great pictures. That means they’re spending more time on your listing which makes them more likely to pick up the phone and schedule a viewing.

Your FSBO pictures are what is going to attract buyers to your home. Attracting potential buyers to view your home is what is going to get it sold. You may have already done all the hard work of preparing your house for market and pricing it right. The great fsbo pictures you take is what will bring the buyers to your door.

Most successful Realtors use professional photographers or own expensive technical equipment and software. You, as a For sale By owner, don’t necessarily have to own a bunch of expensive equipment. There are inexpensive accessories that can be had to use on your camera phone.

9 Important Factors to Consider

There are many important factors to consider when taking your FSBO pictures.

The lens. A wide angle works best so you can capture more of the room. We use a 10-22mm Canon because it takes in more of the space without distorting the size too much.
Natural lighting. Open all the drapes, curtains and/or blinds. Take pictures at a time of day when the light is at its best, usually when the sun is at its highest.
Interior lighting. Turn on all the lights in the house unless they are causing shadows. Use high wattage bulbs, which should be in place anyway.
Shadows, Take your pictures from angles that produce the least amount of shadows.
Positioning. Most of my pictures are taken from the corners of the room to capture more space. That’s not to say that’s always the best angle. Sometimes centering a focal point, like a fireplace or a window configuration, works better.
Honesty. Take pictures that are true representation of the property. Don’t just take good pictures of a crappy house to attract people. It’s a bad idea to over promise and under deliver.
Software. If you have and know how to use photography software such as Photoshop or Paint Shop use it, but use it only to remove shadows and brighten what needs to be brightened. Do not use it to remove defects of the property.
Tripod. Use a tripod. Always.
Flash. Use a flash when needed is darker rooms. A flash can also be used to reduce shadows.

A house living room showing great fsbo pictures.

Great Pictures Attract Home Buyers

You can probably get good quality pictures of your For Sale By Owner practically free if not completely free. What route you take depends on the value of your home, your own confidence in your ability and your time. One could hire a professional photographer if not so inclined to do the job themselves. It isn’t as expensive as you would think.

Whether you take your fsbo pictures yourself or hire it out make sure they are fantastic pictures. Great pictures is what will attract potential buyers to want to view your home. The more buyers you attract the more offers you potentially get. The more offers you get the higher the price is driven up. That’s how you sell your house fast and for the most money!

Buyer Has A Real Estate Agent

by Joel Weihe

What do you do with your For Sale By Owner when the buyer has a real estate agent they want to work with? You actually have a multitude of choices. Remember, you are in control. That’s one of the reasons you decided to do a For Sale By Owner.

You can:

Pay the agent his or her rate..
Tell them thank you but no thank you you will wait for a buyer without an agent.
Negotiate with the buyers agent.
Separate the buyer from the agent.

Buyers agent shaking hands with their client outside of a house. — When your buyer has a real estate agent

Let’s go through these options one at a time. Keep in mind that the reason you’re selling your home yourself is to save money. Lots of money. Depending on your personality, time constraints and stubbornness will determine what’s in your best interest when your buyer has an agent.

Pay The Agent His or Her Rate

When your buyer has a real estate agent you can pay the agent his or her rate. In my state, Kansas, that is most likely 3% of the contract price. Otherwise it would be 6% if you were hiring a listing agent. The bonus to this option is the agent will do all the paperwork for you. You still save thousands of dollars on the listing side.

The agent will want to use their contracts so make sure you read and understand what it is you’re signing. Real estate contracts from real estate associations are designed to protect the real estate brokerage and absolve them from responsibility.

Beware the agent that tries and charge more or even double saying they have to “do all the work”. In my experience it is much easier to handle a real estate transaction when I don’t have to deal with another agent. When I handle the hole thing myself. In reality there’s really no more “work” involved for the buyers agent. Don’t let them fool you into thinking there is no matter how slick they talk.

Wait For Another Buyer

Tell them thank you but no thank you. This is exactly what it appears to be. You’re just not going to pay a real estate agent. In this case the potential buyer missed out on a great house because they hired a buyers agent.

There’s this thing in real estate called Agency. When a buyer is in an agency agreement it is their responsibility to pay the agent if you, the seller, doesn’t. At least in Kansas and most other states that’s how it works. The right thing to do for the agent would be to walk away and go find another client. Most of the time the real estate agent had nothing to do with the buyer finding your For Sale By Owner anyway.

Again, if you have prepared your home for market as we show you how to do and priced it right you will get lots of attention. So much that a buyer may be willing to pay their agent to get your house. So much that a buyer may be willing to fight to dump the agent to get your house.

I have been in this exact situation at times with a For Sale By Owner and simply walked away so my client could get their home. With a lot of these clients we still remain friends to this day and they send me referrals too!

If that makes me sound holier than thou I’m not. I’ve just always lived by the philosophy if you treat people right and fair you will get treated the same.

Negotiate When Buyer Has a Real Estate Agent

There is nothing that says you can’t negotiate with your buyers agent. Tell them you want to sell your house on your own but you’ll think about offering them 1.5% of the contract price. Or 2% or whatever you want to offer. They can see what a good job you’ve done getting ready, and that you won’t have any problem getting your home sold. Plus, once again, you can get the agent to do the work for you.

If you are going to negotiate do so with the buyer present. The agent will try and negotiate without the buyers knowledge, even though eventually he/she has to disclose it. They don’t want their client to know they aren’t getting their dream home because the agent isn’t willing to budge.

Separate the Buyer From the Agent

When your buyer has an agent try and separate the buyer from the agent. This is a little tricky and unless all the stars align might not even be possible. If there is way to have a conversation with your buyer without the agent present you may be able to work something out.

For instance in the past I have had people call me, from referrals, and ask me to help them find a house because they did not like their agent. Ethically I can’t do anything but advise them that if they don’t like their agent they need to break the contract, agency, that they have with that agent. Start by talking to the agent directly. If that doesn’t work talk to the agents broker. Ultimately If that still produces no desirable results call the real estate commision in your state and complain.

You can pass on that advice. If your home is as spectacular as it should be and your buyer has a real estate agent you can probably get them to drop the agent.

Sell Your Home Yourself

The real estate industry is in a great flux and changing rapidly. People are starting to figure out that real estate brokerages are expensive and just not that necessary anymore. Instead of being the caretakers of information, which is all publicly available now, they are switching to a service standard. We call it representation. A real estate agent simply represents.

If you need representation and you don’t have the time or inclination to sell your home yourself than hire an agent. I pay someone to mow my lawn because my time is worth more than if I were spending it mowing.

By following our detailed instruction we can show you how to sell your home yourself for the most money while at the same time saving thousands of dollars. It’s the thing agents should be doing for you to get top dollar and to often don’t.

8 Tips To Always Be Ready to Show Your House FSBO

by Joel Weihe

When you have your house on the market for sale it is important the house is always ready to show. You never know when that full price cash offer is going to request a showing. When they do you certainly want to be ready.

I always tell my listing clients that you never, ever, ever want to deny a showing. The person who is destined to buy your house may buy another on the same day access to yours was denied. That’s not to say the home won’t eventually sell but you could be losing out on a better offer. Point is you just never know.

When I’m scheduling showings as a buyers agent and a showing request is denied it is so very annoying, to me and my client. Sometimes I hear things like “the house is a mess” or “it’s just not a good time”. My buyer’s reaction usually is “they must not really want to sell their house”.

Although it’s not always easy it’s always a good idea to be ready to show!

Assuming you have already done all the work to get your home on the market there are some daily habits and hacks you can preform to make sure it’s always ready to show.

1) Develop new habits

Make it a habit to pick up as you go. If you’re anything like me you probably have routines. Routines like coming home from work or wherever and putting your stuff somewhere. Get in the habit of putting your “stuff”, like papers, receipts, extra pens, pocket change ect in a drawer or somewhere else out of sight.

When you use a dish in the kitchen immediately put in the dishwasher, providing you have a dishwasher. If not, wash it right away. If your reading a book, put it back in the bookshelf when done for the day. Simple things like that will make keeping the house show ready easy.

2) Keep it clean

When selling your home, and selling it for the top dollar and fast, it pays, literally, to always be ready to show. Keeping your house clean can make all the difference. It’s not always easy but it is profitable.

Run the vacuum every night, or have someone in the family do it. Wipe down and/or dust visible surfaces. Basically clean the house every night before turning in. This is not as difficult as it seems if you assign duties to family members and get into a routine. Get everyone excited about the move and make a game out it. It doesn’t have to be stressful.

It’s really not “cleaning” every night, like a deep clean. That’s already been done. This is more of a “straightening up” every evening. It won’t take long.

3) Use storage

Make your life easier during the home sale by getting rid of anything that is not day to day necessary. Many of my clients hire a storage facility or mobile storage unit like PODs to clear all the clutter out of the house. (Not that all your stuff is clutter but you know what I mean)

By having less stuff in the house it shows better and is easier to keep clean, organized and straight.

4) Stash your stuff

Stash your stuff. What I mean by stash your stuff is have places you can put things during showings or when you’re not going to be home. That can be drawers, cabinets, under furniture (yes, seriously) or neatly in a closet.

One of my clients had 6 younger foster children. With lots of toys. We really had a situation trying to figure out to keep the house picked up. As a solution I purchased several nice looking plastic storage totes from amazon. She kept them in different rooms the kids frequented. The kids were trained to pick up all the toys when finished playing and put them in the totes. Every time before they could leave the house for a showing or to go out the kids had to pick up their stuff and put it in the bins. It worked marvelously. They made a game of it.

5) No trash

Have literally no trash in your house. This can go back to developing habits and this one is emptying the trash every morning. Keep whatever you use to line your trash cans close by and simply gather up all the trash, take it outside and insert new fresh liners.

When people are looking at your home they open cabinets, it just happens. If that’s where you keep your refuse receptor they are going to see it. Having an empty trash can is much more appealing then a bag full of stinky ugly trash. Believe or not I’ve seen people open trash cans, decorative stand alone trashcans with lids. Weird? Yes, but it too happens.

6) Get some magic cleaners

There are all sorts of products on the market that make cleaning walls and surfaces fast, easy and convenient. For cleaning smudges, handprints and some writings a “magic sponge” does the trick. There are many different brands and types to choose from. Microfiber cloths are great for picking up dust, lint and pet dander off surfaces.

Keeping items like these handy can make straightening up and “quick cleans” easy, fast and profitable.

7) Avoid odors

While your house is on the market avoid any cooking that produces strong odors. Your cooking probably smells really good and I bet I would like it too but…not everyone has the same tastes as we do. What smells good to me and you may not to others, like that full price cash buyer.

You’ll also hear lots of advice about fresh baking, scentsy’s and other “good” smells. Don’t believe them. What is a good smell to one person may offend another. Plain neutral fresh air is the best.

8) Take a vacation

Just kidding, but maybe not. If you can swing it the least stressful option is to not be home at all. Prepare the house as per DIY Real Estate instructions and take off for a few weeks.

When selling your house yourself, and saving thousands of dollars, it’s not always realistic to take off. It’s still possible though if you could leave someone behind, like a family member. Maybe you have a good friend or neighbor willing to help with showings.

I have actually seen that happen before in my role as a real estate agent showing a buyer a FSBO home. The client wanted to see a For Sale By Owner house. When I called the owner to schedule he told me he was out of town. He gave us a number for a neighbor who let us in.

As you can see keeping your home show ready is possible and can be made to be not all that difficult. If all the hard work of preparing your house for market is done properly beforehand the touch ups for showings should be easy.

Keep in mind the rewards for all your hard work. You get to keep thousands of dollars you would have been paying me, or someone like me. And remember that you end up doing all the hard work of preparing your house for market and keeping it show ready anyway, whether you have an agent or not. No one does that for you so think about what it is you’re actually paying for.

I will show you in detail everything you need to know to have a successful For Sale By Owner. Literally everything a real estate agent should be doing and you can do better to sell your house fast and for the most money.

Click here to learn more about how to sell your house yourself and save thousands of dollars.

Educate Yourself On The Competition

by Joel Weihe

When you sell your house as a For Sale By Owner you need to know what your up against. You need to be better than the competition. It can be with price, condition, concessions or just by being the best. Know that the buyers seeing your home will be seeing others for sale in the neighborhood.

Strawberry market — Competition among strawberry sellers

Attend open houses in the area is one way to get to know the competition. Browsing the real estate internet portals like Zillow, Trulia Homes.com is another way. It’s a good idea to schedule viewings and go see the homes in real time.

Call the number on the sign or hire a buyers agent to show you around your neighborhood. Keep in mind that many Realtors will want to know if you’re pre-approved with a mortgage lender. If you’re buying another home after you sell yours than yes, you should have a re-approval letter. If not call around until you find one one that’s willing to show you listings without a pre-approval. They don’t need to know your not in the market to buy.

Use The Information You Find From The Competition.

Once you are well aware of the competition make sure your home outshines all the others in your area. Whatever you have to do to make your home better do it.

Often buyers are looking in a particular neighborhood or part of town. That means they will schedule several showings in the same area and compare what they see. By knowing what the competition, the other homes for sale around you, are doing you have the opportunity to make your listing the best!

We here at DIY Real Estate write and talk a lot about the WOW factor and first impressions. When a potential buyer pulls up to your home you want it to be the best looking house in the area (first impression). That will get them inside where you have the chance to show them that they can own the best house in the neighborhood.

Seriously, take the time and effort to make it so and you will sell your home fast and for top dollar, maybe even more. And all on your own without paying a real estate agent thousands of dollars just to “list” your house.

Make Sure Your For Sale By Owner is Ready to Sell

Some common complaints I hear from buyers when showing houses;

Not clean
Clutter
Needs paint
Dirty or damaged flooring
Pet smells
Price

This is not an exhaustive list but some of the most common. It gives you an idea of how you can be better. Being better is what gets your house sold. Leaving an impression is what gets your house remembered. Make sure your house is ready to sell before you put it up for sale.

Other Ways to make Your Listing Stand Out

Offering concessions is a way to make your offer more attractive than the others in your area. “Giving away” extra appliances can garner attention. Many buyers need help with closing costs and will ask anyway. Consider offering to pay a portion up front.

Do you have a really nice outside space? If your backyard is set up for outdoor activities or relaxation with games, grill area, cool furniture, a pool or whatever else, think about leaving that stuff for the buyer.

The point is to make your house stand out. make people want to make their own. You’ll sell it faster and you’ll get more money.

You can easily sell your home yourself and keep thousands of dollars in your pocket.

Joel

DIY Real Estate

How To Make The Best First Impression

by Joel Weihe

large brick home with nice front yard for a great first impression.

First impressions are everything. As potential buyers are approaching your house they are already forming opinions. Opinions that matter. That first impression can make or break the sale. So how to make the best first impression?

A bad first impression is sometimes all it takes for a buyer to avoid looking inside a house altogether. I’ve found that many buyers do drive by’s before they decide whether or not to schedule a showing. If you can’t get showings scheduled you won’t sell your house.

It starts on line, on the internet, where your potential buyers search for homes and that’s the first opportunity you have to wow them. The chance to entice them to get into their vehicles and drive by your For Sale By Owner. If they like what they see the next step is to call their agent, or better yet, call you directly and avoid those hefty commissions.

We’ve talked about pictures before and we’ve talked about getting your house ready for market a lot.

Take pictures on a bright day with the sun overhead or slightly to your back to avoid glare. Get the angle that best represents your home and gives it the largest appearance which is generally not a full head on photo. A slight angle will give the impression of a larger home.

Here we come in with the camera closer to ground level and at a slight angle to more fill the area and make the home appear larger. Without wasting valuable space we can still fit all the exterior features in, like catching the edge of the 3rd car garage and showing the yard is fenced. Think of pictures not only as pretty things but also information. Certainly the more information you can fit in the frame the better.

Suburban with yard that makes a great first impression

Make sure the yard is clean, neat, trimmed, mowed and beautiful. That includes bushes, trees and the grass. Make sure all walk ways are clear. There should never be bushes, trees or any other plant life obscuring the view from the street. Sometimes this means taking some bold steps if you’ve lived in your house for awhile and there is overgrown greenery.

You may love your pink flamingos and your yard sports paraphernalia but your buyers may not. In fact best if you take down all personal yard ornaments and take them to your new house. Depersonalize the yard the same way you do the rest of the house. You never want to risk offending someone so best if everything is left neutral and un-opinionated.

Pink Flamingos that should be reomved from the yard to create good first impression

Buyers spend time in the entryway, at the front door so be sure to impress them.

As home shoppers are walking up to your home they get the first close up impression. Make sure it’s a good one. The sidewalks should be swept clean. In the winter make sure no ice is present.

Any furniture on the front porch should be clean and in good repair. If you smoke on your front porch never ever ever leave ashtrays out. Potted plants are a nice touch in the spring and summer. Maybe some colorful mums in the fall.

If the front door needs painting, paint it. The door knob should look nice and function properly. There’s nothing worse than having a bunch of clients standing behind me while I struggle getting a front door open. Definitely not a good first impression. Clean out all the cobwebs, dirt and dust from around the front porch and entry area. If you really want to go all out power wash.

Just remember that first impressions are no joke. Often my clients look online and make lists of homes they want to see. Then they drive by and narrow down the list by what they see from the street. Don’t let your house be one of those that gets crossed off the list.

This is the same sort of information I give to clients during “listing presentations”. I give people a list of improvements they can make and things that can be done to bring in a higher price. Then they do them (hopefully). Why not just cut out the middleman and save yourself thousands of dollars.

Joel

DIY Real Estate