For Sale by Owner

Five steps to take if you're
trying to sell your home
ElPasoNews.com

Some people try selling their home without a real estate agent. But every home seller should hire an attorney. Sellers get sued routinely. Sometimes things go wrong when selling a home. Paying a real estate attorney a couple of hundred dollars to protect yourself in case anything goes contractually wrong is wise.

The main service a home sellers' attorney provides is reviewing and possibly amending the contracts home buyers present. So find an attorney, get some of his or her business cards, and give them to people who want to make you an offer. Tell them to present their written offer to your attorney.

If a prospective buyer makes an oral offer for less than your list price, or asks what your minimum price is, respond that you'll consider all reasonable offers presented in a contract to your attorney. Don't negotiate price face-to-face with buyers.

Setting the sales price: Hire an appraiser and get an appraisal. Or have someone knowledgeable about residential real estate values give you an estimate of the price your home should sell for. And call the Central Appraisal District or visit its Web site at www.elpasocad.org to get the taxable value of your home and its square footage of living area.

Get the prices of comparable homes selling in your neighborhood, find out their living area and calculate their sales price per square foot. Calculate the average square-foot price for these homes and multiply by the square footage of your home. This will give you a rough idea of your home's value.

Hire an inspector: Home sellers are legally obligated to disclose in writing what is broken or defective with their home. An inspector is trained to detect things needing repair that a homeowner is unaware of.

Then call the appropriate contractors for estimates for the costs for repairing or replacing the items noted in the inspector's report. Now with this information in hand, you can set your listing price.

Financing: Visit mortgage providers and get the business cards of loan officers so that if you get someone who is unfamiliar with mortgage financing, you can give them the business cards of the loan officers you met.

Marketing: Buy a "For Sale By Owner" sign with an attached waterproof container for fliers. Compose a flier stating the features and amenities of your home, the sales price, and your phone numbers. Add "Shown by appointment only."

Do not include the square footage of the home. People get sued over this routinely. If someone asks how many square feet your home has, tell him or her to come by to see if your home is large enough.

Run an ad until your home sells. The newspaper's staff will help you compose the ad. Running an ad daily should run you less than $100 a month.

Make inexpensive cosmetic repairs like painting walls and replacing carpeting if needed. Clean up the front and back yards, and mow the lawn. Be careful of strangers in the home.

Raul Amaya, a financial services entrepreneur, may be reached at 383-7732 or by e-mail at raula.1@juno.com