How to Sell your House by Yourself in California: A Short Guide
Selling your house is something you’ll have to do maybe just a few times in your life. And unless you know a local California real estate agent who will sell your house for free or a hugely discounted commission… it can be a real pain in the rear and an expensive process for you as well.
So… you landed on this page about “How to sell your house by yourself in California” because of a few reasons I’m guessing…
- You have no or very little equity in your house so you can’t afford to pay a real estate agents commissions
- You have equity but want to try to save money selling the house yourself before you resort to hiring an agent
- You’re in foreclosure (or heading that way) and just need to sell fast without incurring thousands in agent commissions
- You can’t wait the months and months it sometimes takes to sell a house in the California area in this market so you want to try to sell it more quickly
Whatever one you land in… there are ways to sell your house yourself here in the local California real estate market.
Since 2013, the housing sector has been experiencing a major recovery. Selling your house at this time will definitely be profitable if you do it right. In most cases, it is about using smart marketing strategies and being realistic about your expectations on what you want to achieve with this sale.
This article will provide some guidelines to help you sell your California area house yourself.
How To Sell Your House By Yourself In California – Let’s Dive In
Know The California Real Estate Market Well.
The first and most important step is doing market research on your neighborhood in the California area. This step involves visiting various home marketing sites (Zillow, Eppraisal the Chase home value estimator, etc), calling a real estate agent or two to see what your home is worth, or reading about the various market pricing techniques. Proper homework on these issues will allow you to come up with the right price for your house and also helps you to avoid making certain selling mistakes.
If you don’t want to hassle with trying to come up with a home value yourself… give us a call at (210) 547-7505 and we’ll give you an honest fair valuation of what your house is worth on the retail market (if you’re going to wait the 3-6+ months to find the perfect retail buyer). And if you want to… we’ll make you a fair all-cash offer on your house to give you that option of selling quickly (we can close in as little as 7 days if you want to).
Assess The Market.
This step is almost similar to conducting market research, only that in this case, you are bound to your neighborhood and similar houses. Are there lots of houses for sale in your neighborhood here in California? If so, what is the average that they are listing for? Are there lots of foreclosures in your neighborhood? That may drag your house price down.
Assess The House.
As a seller, your house should be in top condition or shape in order to sell at a good price. Identify certain unique characteristics about it and emphasize them during marketing. For example, in California, a house with a drive way parking may be more attractive to buyers compared with one with a garage parking.
Also, does your house require repairs? Does it need to be repainted inside or out? How is the condition of the roof? Is the landscaping in good shape? Is the house outdated at all? (you know, those popcorn ceilings ;-). All of these things can make the house more attractive or less attractive depending on the buyer… which changes the price they’re willing to pay.
After all of this… come up with an asking price for your California home that is fair… isn’t so high it’ll take you 12 months to sell the house… but is attractive so you get a frenzy of buyers who are ready to buy it quickly.
Use Photos Or Videos.
California buyers are obsessed with media. Taking walk-through videos of the house and using the videos to advertise will enable you to reach a wider market. In fact, these videos are considered more transparent than taking photos. However, this should not stop you from using the latter option since it is more affordable compared to the video.
So take some great pictures. Take a picture of every room in the house that helps show it off. Take a picture of the house from the outside in a few different angles… people want to see the house before they ever show up to see it. So having great pictures of your house online could be the difference between getting the right buyer quickly… and waiting months and months to sell.
Get Your House “Listed” On The Local MLS.
You can find no or low fee real estate brokers these days who will charge you a few hundred bucks to put your house on the local California MLS. This gets your house in front of all of the real estate agents quickly (so be prepared to pay those “buyers” agents a 2-3% buyers broker fee if you plan to have their support in helping you find a buyer.
Place ads in the local newspaper signs on the roads, and hold an open house.
All Of This Sound Like A Lot Of Work To Sell Your California House Fast Yourself?
It can be.
And in the end, many California house sellers think they’re saving money and time by marketing the house themselves… when in the end it costs them more money to go that route.
When you sell your own house here are some things you need to consider…
- If you’re not a good marketer or aren’t ready to spend a bunch of time marketing your house right… selling it yourself may not be your best bet
- If you don’t do a good job preparing the house and the marketing materials… and working with buyers to really build the value of your house in their minds… you may actually sell the house for 3-8% less than you may get for the same house an experienced person marketed the house for you
- Too many sellers never think about holding costs or opportunity costs… every month that your house doesn’t sell means another mortgage payment, tax payment, insurance, utilities, etc. If your mortgage payment is $1,500/mo… and $1,300 of that is interest… if it takes you 7 months to sell your house… that cost you an extra $9,100 (not to mention taxes and insurance you paid during that time). So, if you were able to sell that house more quickly… would it make sense for you to provide a buyer a discounted price today so you can close quickly and move on? Something to think about.
If you’d rather not put up the hassle of trying to sell your California house yourself… and would rather just sell it quickly for a fair price without paying any commissions or fees…
… here at Cyber Homes we actually buy local California houses.
We’d love to make you a fair, NO OBLIGATION and NO HASSLE cash offer on your house.
We can close quickly (in as little as 7 days if you wanted to)… which would save you thousands of dollars vs. trying to sell the house yourself and waiting for months.
Also, when we buy local California houses we do all repairs that are needed (we pay for it ourselves) so you don’t have to worry about that.
If you want to see what we can pay for your house, give us a call today at (210) 547-7505 or just fill out the quick simple form through the link below.
