Best Way To Sell Your Home
without paying real estate agents
- It’s the cheapest way.
- It’s the easiest way.
- Neither real estate agents nor For-Sale-By-Owner websites will tell you about it.
- In truth, it’s obvious… but it’s a bit of a long shot.
So what’s the best way to sell a home?
The guitarist. I have a high school friend who one day heard a knock at his front door. He opened it and a famous musician was standing there. The musician said he was interested in buying my friend’s home. My friend and the musician had a mutual friend who had been inside the home and who knew my friend planned to sell it. The musician ended up buying the home.
The friend of a friend. Here’s a more typical story. A friend in my neighborhood used to live in Virginia. When she was getting her home ready to sell – but before she had hired a real estate agent – a friend of a friend approached her and said, ‘Hey, I hear you’re moving to Arizona and you’re going to sell your house, I’d be interested in buying it.’ And, indeed, that friend of a friend ended up buying her home.
No real estate agents were involved in either sale. Each seller kept the 5% to 6% of the value of their homes that would have gone to real estate agents.
A forgotten tradition
The National Association of Realtors estimates that 9% of the homes that are sold in the United States are sold without the help of real estate agents.
About 5% were sold “For-Sale-By-Owner” where home sellers put for-sale signs in their front yards and actively market the homes to prospective buyers.
But there’s that other 4%. That part that is rarely mentioned because it’s not in the best interest of real estate agents or even For-Sale-By-Owner websites to talk about.
About 4% of the homes sold in the United States – that’s over 200,000 homes a year – were sold by Word-Of-Mouth.
These homes weren’t actively marketed by either real estate agents or home sellers. This 4% of homes that sold weren’t traditional For-Sale-By-Owner sales because these homes weren’t actively marketed; no for-sale sign in the yard, no website, no flyers, no traditional marketing at all.
They sold by Word-Of-Mouth before the sellers hired real estate agents.
That’s what happened to my two friends. Both intended to eventually hire real estate agents but both found buyers first. It was serendipitous for them but it’s also the best way to sell a home.
Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
Cheaper
- You save the 5% or 6% of the home’s value you would pay to real estate agents. That’s probably a large part of your equity.
- You put little or no money into marketing .
Easier
- Your put little or no time into marketing .
- You don’t have to get the home looking spectacular.
- You don’t have the inconvenience of showing the home. No “There’s a showing in 20 minutes! We gotta grab the kids and the dogs, straighten up the place and run!” No real estate agents arriving unexpectedly without an appointment and asking you if they can show the home.
Is it pure luck?
Is selling by Word-Of-Mouth just pure luck? Or can we make our own luck? Can we improve the odds that we sell our homes this cheap and easy way?
I think we can.
This is what I suggest you do.
Tell everybody you know
If you’re thinking of selling your home in 1, 2 or 3 months, right now start telling everybody you know that you’re planning to sell your home in 1, 2 or 3 months or whatever your timeline is.
Get the word out to all of your friends and to all of your neighbors.
Neighbors are particularly good because they may know somebody who wants to move into the neighborhood.
- Tell your Facebook friends.
- Tell the parents of your children’s friends in school.
- Tell the people on your softball team.
- Tell the people at work.
- Tell the people at church.
- Tell everybody you know that you’re thinking of selling.
- Tell your Facebook friends again.
And tell them you’ll have a lot more flexibility on price before you hire a real estate agent.
It’s a long shot, so be prepared
You know any great agents? When you’re telling everyone about your plans to sell your home, be sure and ask them if they know any real estate agents they can wholeheartedly recommend.
If Word-Of-Mouth marketing doesn’t work for you – it’s a long shot after all – you’ll want to be all set with Plan B and to start interviewing your list of highly recommended real estate agents. Or if your Plan B is to go full on For-Sale-By-Owner, you’ll want to kick those efforts into high gear.
So that’s what I suggest.
But there’s more!
Know that your work isn’t done when you find a buyer.
The hardest part in selling a home is always finding the buyer, of course, but there are still a lot of other things that have to be done.
- You have to come to an agreement on price and terms with the buyer, of course.
- You have disclosure, inspection and repair issues.
- You have a lot of paperwork that needs to get done.
Just because you find a buyer, those other things still have to be taken care of.
Attorney or agent? I could do hours and hours of videos on your options but if you have done the hardest part and already found a buyer, you’ll find a way to get the rest done. You have lots of options. Hiring a real estate lawyer to advise you and prepare the paperwork is key. Or you could hire a real estate agent who charges a flat fee or by-the-hour to help you.
Can you help me?
And lastly, if you’ve sold a house by Word-Of-Mouth, I would love to hear your story in the comments.
- What worked for you?
- What didn’t work for you?
- What would you suggest other people do?
But the good news is that, You will discover the best way to sell a home with no cost to you and stress free!
The cheapest, easiest and best way to sell a home
I think we can agree that selling a home to a trusted local home buyer before you hire a real estate agent is clearly the cheapest, easiest, best way to sell a home.
That’s where we come in.
Here at Alpha Homes, we are cash house buyers in Virginia. Our business model is to help homeowners who need to sell a house fast (especially houses that need work) by buying your house for cash… then we fix up the property, beautify the neighborhood, and sell or rent it “move-in” ready to a happy new home owner.
We pay for all of the repairs.
We pay for the closing costs.
We do all of the work, so you don’t have to.
Our goal is to make the whole process no hassle for you, so you can move on with your life and put this house behind you.
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