For Sale By Owner SOLD {follow up post}

Nearly a year after listing our home for sale, it’s finally sold.

Not exactly the 1st liner you were looking for was it? Sorry. I wasn’t really happy about that either. BUT. Over a year later, I wanted to do a follow-up post to “How to Stage Your Home to Sell” and  “5 Ways to Advertise Your FSBO Home“.

I’m excited to say that I would still stick to the advise I gave you last May about pictures, signage, using online sites, hosting open houses as well as private showings! I believe all these things are the best way to try and sell your home by owner.

Things I’ve learned in the process:

Guard what you say on social media.

I’m ashamed to admit but I talked about an interested buyer on Facebook. Yep. I just mentioned that I’d gotten a call recently from a “dude” about coming to view our home. I was just shocked that, what seemed like, a young, single, man was interested in seeing our 3000 foot Victorian home. I was actually a little concerned with the horror stories I’d heard of people coming to view a home just to scout it out for a robbery. Whatever my excuse was, I shouldn’t have talked about a specific potential buyer. Long story short, my friends started teasing about him in the comments as well as I; a mutual friend saw it and told him; he called and canceled the viewing. I’ve never been more thankful for God’s forgiveness and His ability to use even the worst situations for good in the long run.

Another thing to guard against is sharing with social media how many people have come to view your home, offer prices you’ve turned down, as well as if you think you have a buyer. All of these things could negatively affect those who have interest in your home.

Learn your home’s strengths.

Having shown my home over 2 dozen times, I became very concise but thorough in walking individuals and families through our home. I learned that people were interested to know if the fire place has a gas log and if it could be converted to wood burning. I learned that some individuals needed help visualizing that the kitchen was actually an eat-in kitchen even though we had an office set up where a table would be located. I learned it was beneficial for them to know that the back half of our playroom/den could be made into a bedroom that is attached to a full bathroom with walk-in closet. You get the idea. Learn your home! Maybe ask a friend to come over and let you practice on them. Have them ask questions that come to their mind or features they love and would spot light.

Be honest about your home’s weaknesses.

I learned things people didn’t really like about my home and helped to create a vision for its potential. Being honest about things like needed repairs you haven’t gotten to will be beneficial in the long run. Buyers won’t back out of a sale when they’re discovered later, you won’t have a bad reputation as a seller, and as a Christian, Christ will honor your honesty. While presenting these weaknesses, don’t act as though they are deal breakers. Try and envision what could fix the issues and help the prospective buyer see the potential. If you don’t have an eye for that kind of thing, again, ask a friend to help or read up on your DIY projects.

Be prepared to answer the FAQ.

Over the months and months of showing our home, I learned that most people were interested to know:

• utility costs
• facts about the neighborhood as well as local schools
• history of the home including when it was built, how many owners, remodels, additions, pets, etc

Be personable.

I learned that people viewing your home were much more likely to share things and build a relationship with you if you were simply kind and open yourself. This is beneficial in what Christ has called us to {make disciples/love others} AND knowing their background you can better present your home as something that would work for them.

Reevaluate.

To be honest, I had to ask myself several times during this waiting process, if God had really ask us to sell our home. Don’t get me wrong, I knew He had ask us to plant a church in another town but I needed to decide if selling is what we were supposed to be doing at the time, rather than renting or other options.

We also had to reevaluate if we were asking the right price. For us, our home was worth more than we were already asking but you have to remember that neighborhood and the town in which your home is located plays a huge factor in what people will actually pay for a home. We also decided that selling our home for what it was worth rather than the minimum of what we needed to pay it off were two different things. We’d invested a lot and had earned what we were asking but {again, for US} selling the home at what it was worth after all our hard work would only bring honor to us and our work.

Sit in God’s Peace as you wait.

After deciding that God had in fact ask us to sell, we waited. He provided His peace in the situation and through waiting, He was able to show us His power to provide above and beyond what we needed. Eventually, a family our home and neighborhood was perfect for came back around and God got the glory for selling our home. God had blessed us with that home 3 years before and we were able to show God’s great providing power and blessing through a steal of a deal to a sweet family. I am so glad it took a year to sell and God was honored in it all!

If your lifestyle makes sense to the world then its likely not a godly lifestyle. Live like no one else and let God be honored in it.