How to Sell Your House Part 2

This is the continuation of a blog post I started last week:
How to Sell Your House Part 1

My first 4 steps to selling your house are:
1. De-clutter and clean
2. Take lots of great pictures
3. Create a blog
4. Get some comparative market analysis' (CMA's)

Here are the next steps (I am by far not an expert and am only sharing what I did):

5. Set Your Price and List
Once you have had a few CMA's done up you will have a pretty good idea what price to sell your house. I went with the middle price because I wanted to sell fast. I probably could have listed high and dropped my price if needed, but I had already bought my new house and I did not want overlapping mortgage payments.

You can list with a realtor and pay a full 6% commission, or you can list with a limited agent and only pay a 2-3% commission to the buyer's agent (if there is one). I know I am going to get a ton of angry comments for saying this, so I am apologizing to all realtors in advance. I personally feel that listing realtors are unnecessary. It is the homeowners responsibility to clean and de-clutter the house. It is the homeowner who has fixed things up and made necessary repairs. It is the homeowner who has invested all of their money into the house. It is so easy to make flyers and post ads online which is all most realtors do (there are some exceptionally great realtors and I am not talking about them here). I listed my house with a limited agent and paid only $150 for 3 months on the MLS (much better than the $6,000 I would have paid to a listing agent). He gave me tons of great advise and sent me all of the forms I needed. He was there to answer all of my questions and did not charge me a commission. He even brought a sign to my house with a flyer box. He listed my house on the MLS right away and I soon started getting calls from buyers agents wanting to show my house.
To find a limited agent in your area, click HERE.

Having a professional real estate sign instead of a For Sale by Owner sign is so important. It makes you look professional and many realtors didn't know I was a FSBO. I made my own flyers which was really easy with a template that came with my program (I used Pages on a Mac). I offered a full 3% commission to buyers agents. Some agents do not like to work with homeowners and will discourage their clients from buying a FSBO, so I felt a full 3% commission would help encourage realtors more. It must have worked because I had a lot of agents wanting to show my house to clients who saw the MLS.

6. List on Local Classifieds and other Online FSBO Sites
I listed my house in the local classifieds for my area. I learned to post on the ad that I was listed with an agent. If you don't post that clearly, tons of agents will call trying to get you to list with them.
I also listed on Craigslist.org, Zillow, Owners.com and a few other free sites I found.

Here is a great tip from a sponsor:

If your selling a vacent home it is important to inform your house insurance company the property is unoccupied. If you fail to do this and the home gets damaged you could be liable for certian costs due to the change in circumstances affecting your policy. 

To be continued....
Next I will post some secrets I learned that will help you get a higher offer. Many people list with realtors  so that they can get the maximum value out of their house. I had many realtors tell me that they could sell my house for more than I had it listed if I would list with them. I learned the tricks realtors use to get a higher offer and will share them next!