The market is better than ever for private home sellers, but the huge amount of channels available can be so overwhelming that getting started can become frightening. One of the first questions private sellers ask is “Where do I sell my house?” The answer is simple: as many places as possible. But you still need to be strategic with your choices. The platforms below will cover all of the important bases while minimizing the burden of financial overhead. The last thing you want is for your listings to eat into your entire profit.
Nearly two-thirds of homes represented by the owner end up selling within two weeks. If that seems like a very quick turnaround, it’s because the numbers are skewed by owners who sold their home to friends, family, or associates. There are advantages to selling your home to someone you know, but you can’t sell your home to a friend unless they know you’re selling.
Facebook may not be the hippest social media platform, but it is the most ubiquitous. That – along with the fact that it’s free to post on – makes it one of the most effective ways to spread the word about your listing. Just be effective with your posting. Signal boost as much as possible, make use of local neighborhood groups, and encourage your friends and family to share your post.
NextDoor
If Facebook’s advantage is that everyone’s on it, NextDoor’s advantage is that it’s targeted solely on people who live in a community – and people who are interested in living in that community. It can offer you the sort of targeted outreach that you need to get eyes invested in your home, and it can help you leverage one of a home’s most essential assets: the neighborhood it’s in.
NextDoor only allows members to see neighborhood posts if they can demonstrate they live in the community, but the word of mouth chain on NextDoor means that you’ll have the opportunity to deal with friends and family of neighbors you may already know. Be sure not to underestimate NextDoor’s secondary value as a resource gathering tool. You can use it to find out targeted – if anecdotal – information on the local market and what prices homes are selling for. Selling a home quick is critical if you want to get the most value from your home, so pricing accurately is important.
HomeLister
There are a lot of websites specifically designed to connect buyers with sellers, but few are as friendly to private sellers as HomeLister. They offer a low flat fee for their listings, but the biggest advantage is that actually listing your home is free. They only charge you when you actually sell your home, so the initial financial risk is negligible. Rather than working as a single platform for buyers, HomeLister will make sure that your home is positioned on all of the popular platforms like Redfin, Zillow, and Trulia.
Even better, HomeLister works essentially as a concierge for the selling process. They also offer one of the more impressive seller interfaces we’ve seen, and they follow through from the first to the last step. You can get advice on how to position and present your home, and HomeLister can manage and schedule open houses and showings. There’s also an option to host virtual tours – an asset if you’re selling a home remotely and don’t want to pay extra fees to an agent. HomeLister also offers a comprehensive interface for handling negotiations and professional advice for handling the complications involved in filling out the paperwork.