If you've decided you want to market your property without paying a significant portion of the proceeds on your property to a real estate agency, you can do as many homeowners are doing today--selling it under a 'For Sale by Owner' transaction. When you sell as FSBO property, you as the owner, are totally responsible for all aspects of the sales transaction. You do the listing, you do the open house, you do the marketing and you complete all the documents right up to the closing. You can elect to have a real estate agent assist you with such things as determining a market or asking price for the property.
When you are considering how to advertise for your 'For Sale by Owner' home, there are many ways that you can advertise without spending an arm and a leg and still not being able to move the house. The most common way to advertise your FSBO property is in the local newspaper. Today, there are web sites on the internet such as zillow.com that allow you to prepare and post real estate classified advertisements.
Make sure your ad is distinctive and has a headline that jumps out at the reader. You want people's attention to be snagged so that they slow down and read the rest of the ad. Your ad should definitely make mention of the best features of the property. If may be the price of the house, but perhaps you would rather mention the location or style of your FSBO property. If you want buyers to come and look at the house and make a trip to see it, the property must be cunningly advertised to really stand out.
Advertising for an Open House is a great idea. Many people enjoy just looking at homes for sale well before they decide to purchase. Usually an Open House is held on the weekend, but you should be sure that your Open House is not running competition with any local events or the turnout may be much lower than expected.
When you get to the closing of the ad, it too should grab attention. Saying something like, "Get this property while it's still available" will make the reader stop and think before moving on. If you're holding an Open House you must be sure to present your address. The contact information must be mentioned in the advertisement as well.
Directional signs should be put out when you are ready to hold the Open House; Balloons are a nice touch to attract attention to your FSBO property. Be sure to have plenty of informational flyers made up so that they can be placed in a waterproof envelope with the FSBO sign. You can also use these flyers for posting on a community bulletin board or by placing them under the windshield wipers on a supermarket parking lot.
A website that advertises and presents the best features of the house is another type of effective advertising. The seller can create their own website or use the advertising and name recognition of sites like craigslist.com. Cable television in many communities allows the placement of advertisements on a rolling menu similar to a teleprompter.
Of course, you will want to use word of mouth advertising. Sometimes there are 'FSBO' sites on the internet that advertise widely through the search engines. This will help you get the information about the home out to potential buyers.
Another type of advertising that many people do not realize is available is through a process called flat fee multiple listing service. For a fixed price, usually $300 to $600, your FSBO property can be placed in the Multiple Listing Service book for your community. This allows all the real estate professionals in the area to access your property listing when they are looking for potential buyers to match up the property you have for sale. If your property sells through the Multiple Listing Service, with a buyer's agent, you will be required to pay for the commission of the buyer, but it can typically be negotiated down from the standard commission of 3 percent.
Increasingly, property is being sold through online auction sites. This becomes a type of advertisement for your FSBO property that is very widely distributed. You'll want to make sure you understand the rules of the site so that you lose your property at a price much less than you had intended to receive.
Other less commonly used advertising methods include company bulletin boards, church informational boards and even billboards.
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