You are attempting to sell your home for sale by owner, but you can't get to
the finish line without a little outside help. You need to get your team
in place. Your team should be made up of: You, Your Banker, or
Mortgage Lender, and Your Real Estate Attorney. What exactly will your
team do?
You. You of course are the very important to the team. You
will be in charge of staging your home to sell, marketing your home, finding
buyers, and negotiating the contract.
Mortgage Professional. You will need to find a good mortgage
lender, or banker (aka Loan Officer). Ask around for referrals from
friends and family. Look for a lender who is knowledgeable and
professional. Your lender will be able to help you in many ways.
They can:
- Prepare highlight flyers or sheets. These flyers give
potential buyers a breakdown of the financing. Basically if your sale
price is going to be $100,000 the highlight sheet would estimate their
monthly payments with different interest rates. This is important
because buyers will feel more comfortable making an offer if they know they
will be able to afford the monthly payment. You can attach these
sheets to your flyers in your brochure box, or hand them out at your open
house.
- Pre-qualify potential buyers. If someone wants to make an
offer on your home it is imperative that they get pre-qualified. You
don't want to tie up the sale of your home with someone who has no chance of
getting a mortgage loan. Pre-approved does not mean that they will be
able to get the loan 100%, but it is a good indicator.
- Pre-Qualify you. It might be a good idea to get pre-approved
for a loan for your next home. This is based on the assumption that
after the sale of your home you plan on buying another home. It is a
good idea to get pre-approved for a loan so that you have an idea of what
you need to get out of the sale of your current home. This can be very
helpful when negotiating the contract. You can never be too
prepared. This will also help you know what price range to start
looking at when searching for your next home.
Real Estate Attorney. Your real estate attorney can help you in
many ways. You may want to meet with your attorney before you even put
your home on the market. An attorney can give you advice on writing a
contract so that you the seller are protected. You may want to obtain a
standard real estate sales agreement, or offer to purchase real estate form and
take it to your attorney. You can also have your attorney draft a
contract. You can go over standard contingencies, and your attorney will
be able to guide you when you actually get an offer. An attorney can also
help you fill out any other forms that you may need like disclosure forms.
Since every real estate transaction is unique the advice of an attorney is
imperative.
