For Sale By Owner

Signs are available at many places and they come in all sizes. If you like, you can even have a custom sign made for you by a local sign company.

Contracts, along with financing addendum, are available from several sources. Consider having an attorney write-up a contract for you... or you can obtain and use a contract from a title company. My best recommendation is to seek professional advice if you have any questions. You're dealing with a major financial transaction, you know!

Visit several mortgage lenders and pick up information from them; introduce yourself and get some of their business cards.

If you can build an Internet Site, that would be great. If you can't, check around about getting a site done for you, then add your site to all the major search engines and mention the site in all of your advertising. If you have access to email, you can use it to get the word out on your home sale as well.

Marketing Plan

Step four is our "marketing plan". In other words, our plan for getting this house sold. We need to let EVERONE know that the house is for sale, and provide them with more information when they want it. The first thing to do is get the house ready as discussed in step two. Then, take quality pictures of both the inside and outside of the house and create your information sheets.

Now, it's time to put your "FOR SALE BY OWNER" sign in the yard, and hope that someone buys your house before you have to clean it again!  The next thing to do is walk around the entire neighborhood and hand out the information sheets to all of your neighbors. Tell them that you're selling your house, and ask them to tell their friends and acquaintances at work.

Write an ad for the newspaper and put it in to run this weekend. Don't make any plans this weekend because you'll need to be home to talk on the phone, show the house, and answer questions from people who walk up to the door to inquire. Yes, it's a lot of work - but if you succeed, you'll save the real estate commission... which was the reason you did this in the first place, right?

Moving right along... depending on the price range of your home, consider contacting major employers in the area. Call the HR Department and ask if you can place an ad on their bulletin boards. Also, consider putting your information sheet on bulletin boards in grocery stores, full service car washes and local convenience stores. See if you can put an ad in your employer's newsletter or your neighborhood's newsletter. Check the Internet for "free ad" sites and post your property information there as well. Finally, think about offering a small fee to real estate agents who are willing to show your house to buyers they're helping. You could drop by a few local real estate offices and give them your information sheet along with details on the amount of fee you're offering.

Plan to run some more ads in the newspaper next weekend -- and look for other papers (small locals) where you can advertise to another sector of the population in your general area.

Consider holding an Open House. Although the odds of selling at an open house are between "slim and none", you'll probably eliminate some of the phone calls you're receiving from curious neighbors by simply opening up the house for everyone to see a couple of times.  Put pies in the oven and coffee on the stove to give your house that warm, "cozy" feeling.

One last thing: Think about buying a home warranty. That could help to give buyers confidence in your property. A home warranty is kind of an insurance policy that covers major appliances and systems for a certain length of time. Most builders offer home warranties with new homes. If you do decide to buy a home warranty... be sure to include that fact in all of your advertising.

Closing Strategy - Continued on: [Page 3]