Dulce Davis

1. Identify your motivation for selling

Spend some time exploring your reasons for selling. The process can be frustrating, so make sure you’re certain you want to sell before you get too far into it.

Address finances: Call your current mortgage holder to discuss your remaining mortgage balance. It’s your first step toward understanding how much equity you’ll have when you sell. Knowing this figure can help you budget for improvements you’ll need to make before listing or help you plan for your future home purchase.

Make a list of non-negotiables: Make a list of your must-haves and deal breakers. Consider these questions: What’s your time frame to move? What’s your budget for pre-listing home improvements? What’s the minimum sale price you are able to accept? Even though we have lots of information here it will not be nearly enough since every situation is different. Realtors are advocates. We are bound by our oath to keep your private information private so you should feel comfortable discussing private matters that will affect your decisions. 

One example is divorce. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the divorce rate is 2.9 per 1000 population with 45 reporting states and D.C. For Texas specifically the rate in 2018 was 2.6 per 1000. Point is, theres no need to hide things from your Realtor. Those of us with experience have seen and heard it all. You hire a Realtor for a reason; to protect your interests and advise you through the process. Take advantage of our experience. The StarCoast Team with over 20 years Real Estate experience even has separate representation for each side to work with each attorney separately. 

2. Research the best time to sell in your area

Understanding your local real estate market (whether you’re in a buyers or sellers market) can help you identify the best time to sell. If you have flexibility, you might consider waiting for a sellers market, which occurs when there are more buyers searching for homes than there are homes available. It gives sellers the negotiation power and can drive up prices. Your Realtor can discuss this with you. In some cases even if it is a sellers market, a specific neighborhood may still be in a buyers market.

Nationally, the best time of year to sell your home, both to maximize your profits and to minimize time on market, is the first half of May. Homes listed for sale in this window typically sell a little faster. But, what is not considered is that selling during off peak months will give you less competition, and there are still buyers looking for a home. This may also give you more negotiation power and ultimately more profit. There are two sides of thought and it will depend on your personal situation as to which direction is the best for you.

3. Decide how to sell

There are a few options available. There is the decision to sell your house on your own (which is called “for sale by owner”  aka “FSBO”), what is called an ibuyer, or maybe you prefer a real estate agent. 

A couple facts: Just 10% of sellers who sold in the last 12 months completed the sale of their home without ever engaging an agent, that of course means 90% used a Realtor. Another 10% tried to sell on their own but eventually turned to an agent or broker for help. 

Consider the pros and cons of each option, including how quickly you need to sell, the temperature of your local market, and any challenging features of your home that may require expertise in negotiations. If you decide upon anything other than a Realtor for a retail market sale, expect to sell at a discount. Think of it like selling a vehicle. If you sell it on your own to get top dollar you would take the vehicle to a mechanic for maintenance items and repair anything else needed. Then, take the car for a super deep cleaning. Find the best places to market your vehicle, schedule the meetings, test drives, then possibly a visit to their mechanic and place of finance. For many, its worth it to just take the vehicle to a car lot and pick up a check. Same goes for houses. If you do not want the headaches and time spent of all the necessary items to sell your house yourself, a middle of the road trade off is a Realtor. They will advise you what the least amount of work it will take to get you top dollar. You still need to make an effort and spend some dollars likely to get it market ready. If thats still not the route you want to take then selling to an ibuyer may be the choice for you. They will buy your home quickly with the least effort on your part, but it will be at a discount since they are taking on all the work and risk.

More thoughts to consider

If you plan to sell FSBO:

• Prepare your home and market it across multiple channels (which will cost you) — this is why List Agents work full time! They will do all the work for you.
• Research recent comparable sales in your area. Unfortunately, the general public does not have access to much. Realtors have multiple avenues for this information. Above all else do not rely on the online apps sales Zestimates or tax values. Those are never reflective of your area retail market.
• Be on call all hours of the day to let buyers into your home. Buyers need to look all hours of the day and weekends. If they cannot see a home when they want they often remove the home from their list. Unfortunately many will not be qualified too. Realtors make sure their clients are qualified so they are not wasting anyones precious time. Plus, you do not know how safe the people are that come into your home. They could be casing the home to come back later. 
• Hire a professional photographer. They typically charge according to the size of your home. In my experience the fee in my area starts around 90-100 with an average of 150-250. List Agents often include this in their listing package.

If you plan to hire an agent:

• Ask for referrals/testimonials or look on their website. Youll often find them listed. For our list of client testimonials, check pout our Testimonials page. 
•  Interview each potential agent.
• Should you ask for a fee reduction? If a person is willing to give away their own familys livelihood, will they fight for yours?
• Trust your agent’s home-selling advice. They are full time experienced professionals for a reason.

If you plan to sell to an Investor or iBuyer: 

• These online buyers are basically flipping your home for a profit. Some Realtors are also Investors. Through a Realtor you may still sell to an investor if you price for a fast sale, but you will get the protection the general public receives when utilizing a Realtor and all their experience. Investors are either iBuyers, Home Flippers or Landlords, but are often times defined differently by different people. Some people consider Investor as only either landlords or home flippers, but iBuyers are really just home flippers. They rely on the technology and convenience to create lower monies to the home sellers and less time involved for themselves.
• Not all ibuyers are the same either. Some may cost you more to sell to them than others
• One of the largest pros to an iBuyer is that you will often close faster than a typical retail sale. Home Flippers are somewhere in the middle. Some use whats called a hard money lender, and some pay cash. Keep in mind, its all cash to you when its all said and done. Also, many Home Flippers can close just as fast as an iBuyer.
• As stated prior, not all iBuyers are the same. There are several hidden fees to most iBuyers. Read the contract with a strong magnifying glass, and even then you still may not be able to find the hidden fees

 Here is an informative piece I found in an article. 

I found the same information written in several articles as to what the hidden charges and processes were.

Weve not seen an iBuyers yet that did not have hidden fees. They may be out there somewhere, we just have not had any experiences with them. We are also a Local Home Investor (Woman Owned Business) that does not have these hidden fees, check out We Buy Houses Houston Metro Facebook page. Well give you a cash price without the hidden surprises of the credit for repairs or the service fee.