How to Sell Your Home On Your Own

By Steve Castaneda, Realtor - The MyHomeHouston Team

When we meet someone looking to put their home on the market without the help of a real estate professional, we seek to help by offering advice in hopes of building a great relationship. This is simply because we believe in the laws of reciprocity: if we help them sell their homes themselves, somewhere down the line they may meet someone that doesn't want to sell their home without representation, and our name may come to mind. It's a win for the seller since they get free advice in selling their home themselves, plus we may get a referral some day in the future.

In this article you will learn about the property disclosures you must take into account, how to get your home exposed online, and security risks to take into account when holding showing tours. You will also get some useful advice on preparing contracts and where to close on your home. If you are thinking about putting your home on the market without the help of a real estate professional, this article may help you tremendously.

Your Disclosure To Prospective Buyers

According to Texas Property Code, you must disclose the current condition of your home to all prospective buyers. The form you will use to disclose all information is called the Seller's Disclosure Form*. This is a four page disclosure that will ask you a series of questions about your home, and is provided to the buyer to initial and sign prior to purchasing your home. Be sure to be completely honest and up-front in this disclosure; since you are selling your home on your own, if the buyer decides to sue you for not disclosing a major defect or repair in your home then they will go straight to you instead of your real estate agent.

Getting Your Home Exposed

First and foremost, you must place a for sale sign in your yard. This is obviously the easy part, but be sure that all repairs and cleaning has been performed before putting your sign out as you could very well attract a buyer that day. You want to make sure your home is ready to be shown, and that you will not have to tell the buyer to postpone their tour. They may move on to the next property and pass your home on their list.

There are plenty of free sites to put your home online to be exposed to prospective buyers looking to buy in the Houston market. Some of these sites are Google Base, Trulia and Zillow. For a fee, you may even place your home on MyHomeHouston.com, which currently attracts over 200 visitors a day looking for properties in Houston. You will also want to be sure to place you home for sale on Craiglist, which is basically a national classifieds website.

During this stage of the process you must be patient; realize that over 80% of buyers use real estate agents to buy their next home because it's free. If you are selling your home without representation, chances are that you won't be listed in the local MLS database as well. Real estate agents are not searching through online websites or for sale by owner (fsbo) catalogs to find homes for their buyers. They are searching their Houston MLS database on homes that are listed with other agents, which have their commission already negotiated with the sale.

Security During Showings

When showing your home to prospective buyers, realize that they may or may not have a real estate professional to pre-qualify them, and test their motivation to buy a home. Chances are that you will have a lot of "lookers" that are curious about the homes for sale in your area. When allowing prospective buyers to tour your home there are some key steps to take to make sure you do not put yourself at a security risk.

• Make sure that the front door is left open at all times.
  Having the front door open at all times ensures that in case of an emergency, you will have an easy way to exit the home. You will most likely not know the individual(s) entering your home so it is wise to take safety precautions at all times.
• Do not show homes at night.
  Showing homes at night is not only a security risk, but also it does not allow the buyer to see your home in it's true light. Insist to all prospective buyers that showing tours are only to be performed during daylight hours.
• Do not enter any closet areas or rooms first. Always stay behind the prospective buyer.
  Standing behind the buyer will allow you to see what is going on at all times. Again, you will not know the buyer personally the minute they show up for a tour so be sure to take personal safety very seriously during these meetings.
• Turn on all lights prior to the showing tour.
  Nothing is more awkward than standing with a complete stranger in a dark room. Turn on all the lights before they arrive to your home.

Get Contracts Signed and Close

Since you are not represented during the sale of your home, it is very important to either hire a real estate attorney or real estate agent to at least write up contracts for the sale of Houston real estate. The promulgated contracts by the Texas Real Estate Commission are created to protect both yourself and the buyer in case of a discrepancy or conflict. It is also important to close at a title company to ensure that a legitimate escrow agent and notary is handling your transaction from start to finish. They will also ensure that your home doesn't have any prior liens before selling and will issue a title policy to the buyer so that if any problem arises with the title after closing they will not come to you. Rather, the buyer will take the matter up with the title company that issued the title policy in the first place - as the policy was to insure the buyer that the home was purchased free and clear of all liens and judgments.

Conclusion

In the end, selling your home without representation is quite a daunting task but financially rewarding. If you do decide to take this transaction up without help of a real estate professional, we would be happy to provide any advice we legally can and to help you get your home exposed the right way. In the future, if you ever meet someone looking to buy or sell Houston Texas Real Estate you might think of the MyHomeHouston team and to us, that makes all the difference.

*Form can be sent to you by calling 281-664-8339 and referencing the form in need.