Sell Your Home Yourself or Hire a Realtor?

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Selling a Home

Getting a home ready to sell takes plenty of work—of both the physical and the paper variety—and you’re bound to have plenty of questions. We’ve found Web sites with reliable answers and guidance to help you smoothly and quickly through the process, and even offer advice if you fear losing your home to foreclosure.

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Steps to Selling a Home

Selling your home is a busy time (and on top of it all, you’re also planning a move). But ... read more »

Should I Sell My Home?

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Sell Your Home Yourself or Hire a Realtor?

Selling a home isn’t easy and it involves a lot of paperwork no matter how you go about it. Those who want reassurance that everything has been done correctly may benefit from having a realtor sell their home. People interested in saving a little money might decide the best option is selling their home themselves. Either way, we’ve found some of the best resources on the Web to help you make an educated decision about which option is right for you.

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Most realtors have their own Web sites, making the Internet a great place to start shopping around for an agent who can help you sell your home.

If you’re unsure about the legitimacy of an online home listing site or realtor, look it up on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Web site.

Classified ads in your local newspaper or on Craigslist are a great place to list homes for sale. To find the Web site of your local paper just type the paper’s name into a search engine like Google or Ask.com or search for it at the U.S. Newspaper List.

Selling a home may be a particularly emotional process for senior citizens who have lived there for many years. It’s important to ensure that those emotions don’t get in the way of a home sale and cause important steps in the process to be overlooked. Senior Citizen’s Guide published “7 Costly Mistakes To Avoid When Selling Your Home,” that urges caution in making sure seniors are still aware of all details in a home sale, such as finding a credible realtor and understanding the financial costs of home sales.

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To weigh your options …

SmartMoney.com explains the pros and cons of using full-service brokers, discount brokers, and choosing to sell your home yourself in this article.

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To learn about brokers and realtors …

Utah State University Extension differentiates between brokers and realtors, and lists questions you should ask to find a representative who will work with your best interests in mind as you sell your home.

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The University of Chicago Personal Web Pages offers this research report from Steven D. Levitt (one of the authors of the best-selling book “Freakonomics”) and Chad Syverson. The essay, available in PDF form, claims that real estate agents work harder to sell their own homes for a better price than they do their clients’ homes.

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The Real Estate Guide is a blog by a Connecticut-based realtor. This particular entry takes issue with Levitt and Syverson’s findings about real estate agents who sold their own homes, claiming that some important details were left out.

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To sell your home yourself …

For Sale By Owner offers a free guide to selling your home without a real estate agent and also serves as a listing site if you want to place your home up for sale. To find an inspector or appraiser for your home, use the links provided under “Research and Resources.”

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Homes101 helps you determine the value of your home and also provides tips to aid you in making a speedy sale. Visit the “Home Selling Tips” section to review legal issues and learn how to select the best time to sell your home. Take the “Home Seller’s Pop Quiz”: not only will it test your knowledge of home selling procedures, but the answers provided offer a little more information you should know before your sale closes.

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Zillow helps you “Zestimate” the value of your home (or any other home). Search for the address and then use the “My Estimator” feature to adjust the details listed for the home (based on public records) according to any improvements or additions you’ve made to see if the estimated price goes up. List your home for sale on the site and upload photos of the property.

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DoItYourself.com contains a series of articles about selling your home yourself. Learn how to determine home value and find property records on the Internet. Browse other categories of articles such as “Open Houses” and “Selling Legal Issues.”

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RealEstateJournal.com highlights some mistakes you should try to avoid if you want to sell your home yourself.

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Allthelistings.com has for-sale-by-owner houses and land. Place an ad or search through the “Sellers Resources” section.

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eBay is best known for its abundant auctions of collectibles but in recent years real estate has become a prominent fixture on the site. Follow the short instructions posted at the “How To Sell Your Home” link to list your home for sale, or purchase an eBay real estate sign to enhance your selling efforts.

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