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Seven Important Questions to Ask Before Selling
If you are a thinking about
selling real estate in Columbus or Central Ohio, you might be thinking
this is a great time to sell. You are 100 percent correct.
Unless you overprice your home, in
most communities there is an abundant supply of prospective buyers who
can afford to purchase during this second-best home sales season
(spring is traditionally the best time to sell a home when the largest
number of prospective real estate buyers are in the market).
Should you sell your real estate alone and save the sales commission? After you decide to sell your house or condominium, the next issue is whether to list it for sale with a professional real estate agent. Here are the seven key questions real estate sellers should answer before deciding: Can I correctly set the asking price for my home alone?
Unless you are a professional
appraiser with access to up-to-date recent home sale prices of nearby
residences like yours, you probably don't know how much your home is
really worth. Most do-it-yourself home sellers either overprice or
under-price their residences.
If a home is overpriced, it will
languish on the market unsold. Home buyers, and their real estate
agents, know when a home is overpriced based on recent sales prices of
similar neighborhood homes.
If a home is under-priced, below the
market value of nearby home sales prices, the home will sell
fantastically fast. Often, the seller doesn't realize thousands of
profit dollars were left on the table by under-pricing his/her home.
The easy solution for home sellers is
to interview at least three successful realty agents who sell homes in
your vicinity. Even if you think you can sell your home alone, the
agents you interview won't mind.
The reason is they know at least 80
percent of do-it-yourself home sellers decide to list with a
professional agent after 30 to 60 days. Chances are you will list your
home for sale with one of the Columbus or Central Ohio Real Estate
agents you interviewed.
Ask each agent you interview lots of
questions. Write them down in advance so you don't forget what you
want to know. As part of his/her listing presentation, each agent
should give you a written CMA (comparative market analysis). The CMA
form shows recent sales prices of nearby homes like yours, asking
prices of neighborhood homes now listed for sale (your competition),
and even asking prices of recently expired listings that didn't sell.
Each agent will also give you their
opinion of your home's market value, based on their CMA. This is
valuable information, especially if you try to sell your home alone.
Can I successfully market my Columbus or Central Ohio home alone?
Most "for sale by owner" home sellers
attempt to market their residences by placing newspaper ads, holding
weekend open houses, and posting a "For Sale" lawn sign. Some
tech-savvy home sellers even create websites for their homes and list
them on "for sale by owner" websites.
But these efforts are usually not
enough to reach all prospective home buyers in the market. The reason
is, according to a recent survey by the National Association of
Realtors, over 70 percent of today's prospective home buyers begin
their quest on the Internet.
Unless your home is listed for sale
with a member of the Columbus Ohio MLS (multiple listing service), you
will be cutting yourself off from 70 percent of prospective buyers for
your home.
Can I prepare a legally binding sales agreement and comply with the home sale defect disclosure laws?
As part of their listing
presentations, most real estate agents explain all the written
disclosures required by state, federal and local laws. For example,
where I live if I sell my home I must provide a certification my sewer
line to the street doesn't leak.
In addition, when selling Columbus
Ohio real estate there is the all-important requirement of preparing a
legally binding sales agreement. Perhaps you know a local real estate
attorney who can prepare these vital documents for you. Please be very
wary of buying these forms at local stationery stores, as they may not
be up-to-date to comply with the latest disclosure requirements to
keep the real estate seller out of a lawsuit in Columbus or Central
Ohio.
Will I be able to help my buyer obtain a mortgage?
Most home buyers need to obtain a new
mortgage to afford to purchase your home. Can you explain FHA, VA, PMI
(private mortgage insurance) and conventional mortgage alternatives?
Unless you are very fortunate to
receive a purchase offer from a buyer who is pre-approved (not just
pre-qualified) for a home mortgage, even if the purchase offer is
acceptable, the sale isn't a "sure thing" until the buyer obtains
mortgage approval.
What contingency clauses in the sales contract are normal?
Experienced real estate agents
recommend their home buyers include contingency clauses in their
purchase offers for (a) mortgage finance approval and (b) a
professional home inspection. This is normal.
But your home buyer might insist on
additional contingencies, such as for sale of their current home. How
will you respond to such a purchase offer contingency? Are you willing
to take your home off the market while your buyer tries to sell their
present residence?
Who will handle the home sale closing details?
As a do-it-yourself home seller, have
you arranged for an attorney, title insurance company, escrow firm, or
mortgage lender to handle the details of the title transfer? Who will
hold the buyer's good faith or earnest money deposit?
Additional home sale closing issues
include who will pay the closing settlement costs, which party will
pay for the title insurance, and who pays the recording and title
transfer fees? There will probably be additional issues, such as
pro-rated property taxes.
Will the buyer expect a price reduction because you are saving the sales commission?
Additional issues which are likely to
arise include the issues of a price reduction if no sales commission
is paid and if the seller will pay half of a customary sales
commission to the home buyer's agent.
If the home seller refuses to pay
half the customary sales commission to the buyer's agent, that buyer's
agent might refuse to even show your home to their prospective buyer.
Summary
These seven questions are likely to
arise if you decide to sell real estate without a professional real
estate agent. Because of the difficulty selling a home without expert
help, most do-it-yourself home sellers decide to list their residences
for sale with one of the agents interviewed within 30 to 60 days after
trying to sell alone. That's a big reason why more than 80 percent of
resale homes in Columbus Ohio are sold with the help of a professional
real estate agent.
Base content copied from Inman News |
