Steps to Selling a House

Not every seller wants to hand over 3% of their home’s sales price to a listing agent. But then again, most sellers don’t have any experience selling a home. 

So if you decide to go it alone, what are the steps to selling the house yourself?

Fortunately, today’s technology makes it easier than ever to sell a house FSBO (for sale by owner). And yes, that includes listing your home on the MLS for a flat fee. 

Follow these steps to selling a house on your own, to score top dollar without paying a Realtor commission. 

Steps to Selling a House

While the steps to sell a house by owner might seem intimidating, most of them fall under the category of “common sense tasks you just need to remember to do.”

Keep the following steps in mind, and don’t forget that you can always hire a real estate agent later if you struggle to sell your house as quickly as you hope. 

1. Start Preparing the Home for Sale

You don’t need to know exactly which repairs or improvements you want to make at this stage. In the beginning, you simply need a plan. 

That starts with a timeline. When do you want to list your home for sale? Keep seasonality in mind: homes sell for more than 10% above fair market value in the months of April, May, and June, according to a study by Attom Data Solutions. If you can afford to wait until early spring to list your home for sale, it can pay to do so.

In the meantime, start cleaning out your home. The more furniture and decor the house has, the smaller each room looks. As a general rule of thumb, aim to remove fully 50% of the furniture, decorations, and other personal items from every room before prospective buyers start touring your home. 

Now also makes a great time to start writing a list of known problems or issues with the house. You don’t have to commit to any repairs just yet, just look at your home through the dispassionate eyes of a prospective buyer and ask yourself “What imperfections jump out? What feels dated compared to new construction?”

That list will serve you as you start comparing your house to other recently sold homes nearby. 

2. Research Market Pricing

Hop on Zillow or Trulia and start researching comparable home sales (comps) in the last nine months. The more recent and more similar to your home, the better. An ideal comp sold yesterday, right next door to your home, with an identical layout, appearance, and condition. 

Of course, you almost certainly won’t find “ideal” comps. You simply need to look at the various homes that have recently sold nearby, to develop a feel for the local housing market. 

Start getting a feel for your home’s value based on the comps. How do more (or fewer) bedrooms impact similar home sales? What about square footage? What do more dated homes sell for, compared to pristine renovated homes? 

In particular, start gauging which home improvements might actually lead to a disproportionately higher sales price — or whether you should just sell your home as-is and call it a day. 

3. Optionally Make Property Improvements

You probably read somewhere that kitchens and bathrooms drive home values. Don’t believe everything that you read on the internet, especially oversimplified advice that could cost you thousands. 

Many buyers would prefer to install their own customized kitchen and bathroom fixtures, rather than pay a premium for someone else’s preferences. Renovating the kitchen and bathrooms may cost you far more than they’d add to the purchase price. 

Instead, start with obvious fixes, especially those that a handyman could knock out in an afternoon. What doesn’t work the way that it should? What takes away from the property’s curb appeal? 

If you do nothing else, consider repainting the property inside and out, and possibly replacing the carpet if it has any stains or discoloration.

Whatever you do (or don’t do), just make sure your decision is informed by your local real estate market. And once you completed any minor improvements, make sure you clean the house to a sparkle — and keep removing your personal belongings from it. 

4. Work Your Network

Your network, even just one degree of separation removed, is broader than you think. If you know 200 people, and each of them knows 200 people — well, you get the idea. 

Start telling everyone you know that you plan to sell your home, and ask them if they know anyone looking to buy a house. That includes not just close friends and family, but also your neighbors, coworkers, gym buddies, favorite barista or bartender. Post about it on social media. Shout it from the rooftops for all the world to hear.

People prefer to buy from someone they know, or at least were referred to by someone they know. You may be able to skip listing the property on the MLS entirely. 

For that matter, you may be able to skip making any property repairs. Your prospective buyer may prefer to buy the property as-is and make all their own custom repairs and improvements. 

5. Professionally Photograph the Property

Before you just snap some photos with your iPhone, consider hiring a professional real estate photographer. 

They’ll capture your home in its best light — literally. From the right lenses and angles that make rooms look larger to lighting and time of day, professional photos can make your MLS listing pop.

That in turn will drive more showings, which will generate more offers, which puts you in a better bargaining position to negotiate a higher sales price. 

Toward that end, explore several staging options. Traditional staging costs a pretty penny, but in today’s world, you don’t necessarily need to park new furniture and decor in your property for months on end. Some real estate photographers offer to stage your property for only an hour or so while they shoot the photos, then immediately remove all staged furniture and art. 

Better yet, recent online platforms powered by artificial intelligence offer virtual staging. They digitally modify your photos of empty rooms to insert tasteful furnishings and decorations. And they do it for a fraction of the cost of physical staging. Check out Virtual Staging AI as an example. 

6. Start Marketing the Property for Sale

First and foremost, find an MLS listing service. That could include a flat-fee listing service like ISoldMyHouse.com or Unreal Estate, or you could consider a discounted real estate listing service that comes with more support such as Clever Real Estate. 

Your MLS listing service will likely provide you with yard signs, so make sure you install them properly. Drive-by traffic can create more buyer leads than you realize. 

Most real estate agents recommend pricing the property above the expected sales price, to leave room for the buyer to negotiate and feel like they scored a bargain. Just don’t overprice the property or you won’t attract any showings or offers. 

If you don’t start receiving offers within the first ten days, consider hosting an open house. Make sure you update your MLS listing to advertise it, and consider hanging flyers at local businesses such as grocery stores, coffee shops, and gyms. 

Finally, remember that you have to maintain your property’s curb appeal week after week. That includes mowing the lawn and other landscaping, and periodically cleaning — especially after an open house. Every prospect who tours your property should get a great first impression if you want to receive top-dollar offers. 

7. Work Well with Real Estate Professionals

You may not have a Realtor representing you, but your prospective buyers probably do. 

As someone representing themselves in the transaction, aim to step up and bring the same professionalism that a real estate agent would otherwise provide. Respond immediately to all inquiries and showing requests. Don’t sabotage your negotiating position by sharing your urgency (or desperation) to sell. 

Add automated access to the property, so prospective buyers and their agents can unlock and tour it without you having to let them inside. You can use something as simple as a $15 mechanical key box or something more sophisticated, but make sure this process feels painless for prospects and their agents. 

Finally, remember to collect feedback from every prospective buyer who visits your property. Follow up with their real estate agent to ask about their client’s impressions. If you hear consistent complaints, such as “They worry about the condition of the plumbing, given the leaky bathroom faucet,” spend $100 on a handyman to go fix the faucet. 

8. Navigate the Sales Process

Hopefully the offers start rolling in, as you play-act the role of real estate agent well. Just beware that sometimes buyers ask their agents to feel you out before making an offer, trying to get a sense for how low of an offer they can make without you slamming the proverbial door in their faces. 

They may ask whether you have any other offers, or how many showings the property has seen over the last week. They may ask why you’re selling the house, trying to scope out your urgency for a quick sale. Answer all questions honestly, but tactfully and perhaps vaguely. You don’t owe anyone your life’s story. 

As offers come in, look beyond the offer price. Many buyers will ask for a seller concession, reducing your bottom line number. Look at their financing, earnest money deposit (EMD), and timeline to close. 

Most important of all, pay close attention to the contingencies they included in the contract. Can they walk away with their EMD in three weeks from now if their financing falls through? Did they ask for a home inspection contingency? While these are common, make sure you keep an eye out for other contingencies, and don’t rule out selling for a slightly lower price to a more certain buyer. 

If you want to continue living in the property for an extra week or two after the projected closing date, make sure you mention this now. Write the move-out date into the purchase contract so everyone understands and agrees to it before settlement. 

Finally, don’t shy away from negotiating a higher price or better terms. When an offer comes in that you don’t like, respond with your own counter offer. You can negotiate every aspect of the sales contract, not just the price. 

9. Executing the Contract of Sale

Don’t necessarily sign the first purchase offer that comes your way — make counter offers and play prospective buyers off of one another to score the best possible price and closing. 

Note that sellers must disclose all known defects or problems with the property. As part of the sales contract, you fill out a Seller Property Condition Disclosure Statement (the exact name may vary by state). Don’t try to hide anything. The home inspector will find it, and even if they don’t, the buyer can come back and sue you later if they discover you sold the property with a known defect.  

Before signing on the dotted line, consider paying a real estate attorney an hourly or flat fee to review the contract for you. They can ensure there aren’t any surprises or escape clauses that you didn’t fully understand. 

If you know anyone who works in real estate, you could alternatively offer to buy them dinner if they review the contract for you. Try to get some more experienced eyes on the contract before signing to double check that it serves your interests. 

10. Closing the Sale

Your responsibilities as a seller don’t end the moment you sign a contract of sale. You haven’t “sold” the property yet — you still own it until you sit down at the settlement table to sign over the deed and walk away with a (hopefully large) check. 

Stay in frequent communication with the buyer’s agent to ask about the status of their financing. Work with them to schedule the appraisal and the home inspection as promptly as you can. Just as you stayed responsive and proactive when marketing the property, you need to continue that vigilance now. 

If the home inspector discovers problems with your property that you didn’t know about, the buyer may come back asking you to either make the repairs yourself or discount the purchase price. Call several contractors out to the property to confirm the problem and price out the cost of repairs. You may discover that the “dire” issue that the buyer demanded a $5,000 price reduction to cover is actually just a $500 repair that you can fix in an afternoon. 

The buyer’s title company may contact you asking for supporting documentation. Make sure you provide it immediately to avoid holding up the settlement. 

As the closing gets closer, get a copy of the Closing Disclosure when you schedule the settlement. The Closing Disclosure lists every penny that’s changing hands as part of the transaction. That includes closing costs, transfer taxes, recording fees, prorated property taxes, and every other cost coming out of each party’s pockets. Review this document line by line, and don’t hesitate to ask the title company questions about anything that you don’t understand. 

There should be no surprises once you sit down at the settlement table. You should show up, sign the deed, hand over the keys, and walk away with the exact amount listed at the bottom of the Closing Disclosure. 

11. Post-Sale Considerations

Congratulations! You’ve worked your way through all of the steps to sell a house by owner, without the help of a real estate agent.

Some bright news on the tax side: the homeowners exclusion, also known as the Section 121 exclusion, allows single homeowners to avoid paying taxes on the first $250,000 in capital gains ($500,000 for married couples). You must have lived in the property as your primary residence for at least two of the last five years to qualify. 

On the downside, if you take a loss when selling your home, you can’t write it off as a deduction. 

If you haven’t moved out, plan your move now. Hire movers or offer to pay your friends with pizza and beer. You may have to store some of your belongings, if you haven’t found a new permanent home yet. 

Leave the property in clean, move-in condition for the buyers, and go celebrate with your family and friends. 

Final Thoughts

The steps to selling a house for-sale-by-owner aren’t rocket science, but they do require diligence on your part. 

You have to research the market value of the property and price it appropriately. You have to market the property effectively, keep it clean for showings, maintain the exterior and landscaping. And then comes negotiating the sales contract, navigating inspections, and coordinating the closing. 

You don’t need a background in real estate or finance to sell a house FSBO. You do need confidence, a willingness to negotiate assertively, and a rugged do-it-yourself attitude. 

And if you decide that the steps to sell a house by owner are more than you want to tackle by yourself, you can always take the hybrid approach of hiring a discount real estate listing service. They can provide support without charging you the full 3% standard commission.