Selling your home yourself?

WSJ has yet another interesting article on how to sell you home yourself. But … when marketing one’s home, consider where you will be marketing it.

The Internet can be a big help in marketing a property. Sites ForSaleByOwner.com and Owners (archived: 2019).com, for example, allow a seller to post a listing to gain Internet exposure.

In the Charlottesville area, these sites just don’t have the marketing pull yet. A very small segment of the market is going to be searching on these sites; when marketing one’s home, it is important to market to both the niche you are targeting (medical residents, eco-friendly buyers, tech sector folks, NGIC employees, etc.) as well as everybody else. There are better options in the Charlottesville area than these sites.

Courtesy of Statsaholic (no longer available): (with the caveat that Alexa’s data is suspect)

Courtesy of Google Trends:

And perhaps the most important tip, which should be a no-brainer:

“When it does come time to deal with a buyer, it’s a good idea to have a written preapproval,” Udelson said. Working with a buyer who is preapproved for a mortgage will remove some potential surprises from the closing process.

Nichole said that one of the most common problems that a for sale by owner will run into is getting to closing only to find out that the buyer couldn’t afford the house — “causing them to start the selling process all over again.”

One thing that is lacking – both nationally and locally – a one-stop open house aggregator.