Are you thinking about how to sell your house by yourself in Los Angeles? Even under normal circumstances, selling a house is not an easy thing to do. Fortunately, you won’t have to do it more than a few times in your entire lifetime. Selling a house is also a very expensive process. Unless you have a local Los Angeles real estate agent who will list your home for free, you can expect to pay 8% to 15% in fees and closing costs.
It’s probably unlikely that you know an agent that will sell your house for free. So…I’m guessing that you’re reading this article on How to sell your house by yourself in Los Angeles because of a few possible reasons…
- You don’t have much equity in the property or even no equity at all and you can’t pay the agent’s high commission.
- Maybe you do have some equity but are trying to save money by selling the house yourself.
- You are facing some kind of problem situation like foreclosure and need to sell fast without paying thousands of dollars in commissions
- You can’t wait for months and months which it can take to sell a house in Los Angeles and you want to sell more quickly
Whatever your reasons, this article will give you some short guidelines to help if you decide to sell your house by yourself in Los Angeles.
How to Sell Your House by Yourself In Los Angeles – Let’s Get Started
Get to Know Your Local Market Well
A very important first step is to familiarize yourself with your local neighborhood that is within the Los Angeles area. This means doing some research. You could call a few local agents to get their opinion of value on your house. You can also visit real estate sites like Zillow or Redfin to get recent sales comps. You only want to look at homes similar to yours in size, condition, number of bedrooms/bathrooms and that were sold within the last 6 months. Don’t go any farther than a one mile radius from your home. The closer the better.
Also, take a look to see if there are a lot of houses currently listed for sale and what is the average asking price of those homes. A lot of competition could mean a lower price and longer time to sell.
Doing this research to price your house correctly the first time will help you sell your house more quickly and avoid some of the selling mistakes that occur down the line when the house is overpriced.
If you don’t want to hassle with doing all this research yourself…give us a call at (818) 392-4845 or fill out our online form and we will give you an honest opinion of value of your house for the current retail market (if you are going to wait the 3-6 months to find the right retail buyer). If you are still deciding whether or not to sell your house by yourself in Los Angeles…we can make you a fair cash offer to give you another option to sell your house fast and close within as little as 10 days if that’s what you want.
Take a Good Look at Your House
To sell for top price, your house should be in great condition and show well. Highlight its best features and unique characteristics.
Does your home need repairs? Does the interior or exterior need a fresh coat of paint? What is the condition of the roof? Does the landscaping give the house good “curb appeal?” What part of your house needs updating: popcorn ceilings, shag carpeting, old appliances. All these things will either attract buyers or drive them away…which affects the ultimate price you will get.
After you do all of this, it’s time to determine a fair asking price for your Los Angeles home. A fair price is one that isn’t so high that you will have to reduce the price multiple times which makes it look to buyers that something is wrong with the property. But isn’t too low that you shortchange yourself and leave money on the table. You want to price it so you get a lot of buyer interest and in your first 30 days resulting in multiple offers and a quick sale.
Continued in Part 2…