Should You Sell Your Property as a For Sale By Owner?

Thousands of homeowners ponder the question of whether or not to sell privately. This is a question that gets a lot of attention on the internet, and also spawns an enormous amount of erroneous information. Many people want to sell their own properties, but are afraid of "hidden" problems that may rise up to cost them money, or cause them grief. Fear is the number one reason that people are willing to pay a Realtor to sell their home. Unfortunately, this fear is often unfounded, and all too often promoted by someone with a vested interest in taking your money to sell your property.

For some time now, many articles that pretend to promote selling privately, while in actual fact, they are designed to discourage you from taking on this task.

Obviously, such articles do not come right out and say "Hey don't do it!", but instead they tell you all of the seemingly bad stuff that "could" happen if you dare try it. They paint such a grim picture of selling privately while "encouraging" the reader, that nobody would try it if they chose to follow the advice of such articles.

This article will cover, albeit briefly, the reasons that many people should, or should not sell on their own. I will try to dispel the immense amount of misinformation on the subject of selling privately, and in the end, hopefully, you'll be in a better position to choose for yourself whether or not to sell privately.

In my opinion, selling privately is not for everyone, but most people can do it easily enough, and succeed.

First some basics. You've probably heard the term FSBO. This acronym to describe the term For Sale By Owner.

First question. Do you need a license to sell privately? To the best of my knowledge, no license is required in any American state or Canadian province in order to sell property privately. In fact, your right to sell privately is protected by law.  I will suggest that you check with your lawyer.

I am not a lawyer and therefore cannot give you legal advice.  So check with your lawyer before you do anything.

How much time will it take to sell my property? I am NOT going to try and tell you how long it will take for you to find a buyer who will transact a sale. I will talk about the time it takes to market a property on your own in order to give you a sense of what sort of time commitment you'll need to make to do it correctly. The answer, surprisingly, is very little time, about an hour or two a day at most. In fact, once you've taken the time to set up your sale, which is something I will talk about in another article, it will take little or no time at all, unless you're showing your property to a prospective buyer.

What is the general process of selling a property privately? In many ways it's exactly the same as selling with a real estate agent. Here is the process of selling a property, privately or not. First, the property is advertised to let the public know that it's available for sale. Prospective buyers inquire about the property, ask questions, and arrange a viewing appointment. The prospective buyers come and see the property, sometimes more than once. If they like the property, they make an offer in writing on a legal form. You (or your agent) and they (or their agent) negotiate the terms of the offer, the price, and closing date. Then once everyone has agreed, and all parties have signed the offer, everything goes to the lawyers so they can do their stuff to effectively convey title, and exchange monies etc..

It seems pretty straight forward, and usually it is. First you'll have to market the property, show it to prospective buyers, and negotiate the terms of the sales agreement. Once the agreement has been signed by both the Seller and the Buyer, then your lawyer will do the rest for you. Also, don't forget to get contact information for the Buyer's lawyer. Your lawyer may need this information to begin the process with the other attorney.

More articles will follow.  One thing to consider when selling FSBO is to provide financing for the prospective buyer.  You can become the bank and take back the mortgage.  You can provide financing with a mortgage note or trust deed for a short period of time, then sell the note for cash.

Please read the articles on our blog for more information.  Click here to email us with your questions.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, fsbo, mortgage notes, trust deeds, mortgage note brokers, mortgage loans, refinance, deed of trust, mortgage note buyers, trust deed buyer, debt consolidation, home loans, divorce