3 Tips to Choosing a For Sale by Owner Site to List Your Home
By: Jason Kay
Submitted: 2011-09-15 20:59:51 | Word Count: 662
If you have decided to have been thinking about finding a website to list your home, it may be difficult to determine which site to use. There are a large number of websites available to you, but that doesn't mean that you should go out and use every single one of them. If you did, you could easily end up spending as much as you would if you used a realtor. It is important to find a website that best suits your needs. Here are 3 tips to make choosing a website to list your home much easier.
1. Crunch the Numbers
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The very first thing you need to do when choosing which website to list your home on is to crunch some numbers. There are several factors that should go into your equation when determining which websites are best for you. The first thing you need to do is find out what the websites latest HIR or Home Index Results are. The Home Index Results should be able to give you several critical pieces of information. The first is the average amount of days that a listing stays on the market. This number is important be it will let you know how long it will likely take to sell your home. Another number that is important to pay attention to is what percentage of the homes sold for the list price. This will let you know whether or not you need to set your price a little higher than what you want or not.
2. Do They Have Houses in Your Area?
When considering whether or not a website will help you sale you home, it is important to find out how many homes they have listed in your area. Many real estate websites will market their website based on certain locations. This means that if your home is not close to those areas, you may not get a lot of interested buyers. While this is not a concrete indicator of your success, it is safe to bet that if there are a lot of homes in your area listed, that there are also going to be people looking for homes in that area. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean that the other homes to be near your neighborhood, but rather within the same city or county. Most people do not look for specific neighborhoods until they have found a few homes that they are interested in.
3. Do They Use MLS Services?
MLS (multiple listing service) listing systems are giant databases for home that are up for sale within a specific area or local. It is hotly debated whether or not they are a good idea, so here are some facts to keep in mind. First, it is important to understand that the average person cannot get access to these listings, they are for realtors only. That means that if a realtor matches your home with a prospective buyer then they will require a payment. Sometimes this is a flat rate and sometimes it will be a percentage. It is dependent on the websites policies, so keep an eye out for them. There have also been several studies surrounding the use of MLS lately. They have concluded that homes sold on an MLS are sold for less than if the owner had sold them independently. These studies have also reported that homes sold by the owner are sold, on average, 3 weeks sooner than when listing them on an MLS. However, very few of these studies have been done, so there is no consensus either way. It is better to do some research on your own and the whatever decision seems right for you.
It can be hard choosing a website to list your home for sale, but by following these 3 tips it may be easier to make the right choice. Remember to crunch the numbers, see if they have houses in your area, and decide whether or not you want to use an MLS.
