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People tell me all the time. It’s impossible to sell my home myself right now. But your average real estate agent may not be successful in selling your home either. If you are hoping you don’t need to do anything but turn your house over to a real estate company, you may find yourself disappointed. The tougher the real estate market, the more you need to cover all the angles to sell your home. And guess what, you have to do these things whether you sell your home through a real estate company or sell the house by yourself.

Recent home sales are slower than they have been since the 1980s when rates were in the teens, in spite of today’s record low interest rates, however there are several tasks you can do to help your house sell and sell faster, too.

1. First, add some really good curb appeal prior to putting the house up for sale. Without good curb appeal, most buyers won’t bother to come inside

2. Price your home competitively. The key here is a realistic assessment of your competition. An overpriced home is the most common issue that results in a very slow sale whether you are selling your home yourself or through an real estate agent.

3. Paint the outside and inside of your home if it’s been a good while since you have painted. Plain, fresh paint looks good to potential home buyers. Avoid exotic or very bold paint treatments as well as wallpaper. Buyers don’t like them. Do it yourself if you can do a good job. Home stores can assist you with these critical tasks.

4. Clear out all that excess clutter and junk, enough to leave closets, the garage or carport and even interior rooms a bit empty. Your closets should also have nothing on the floor.

5. Clean up and prep your house like it was some builder’s model home. Have it ready for a buyer with virtually no notice. The previous item will make this process considerably less stressful.

6. Let everyone know your property is for sale. You never know, your neighbors might want to choose their new neighbor and help themselves as well as help you. This worked great for one of our homes in the slow upper Midwest real estate market. Our home was sold and closed in 4 weeks surprising the selling agent we hired who had nothing to do with locating our buyer. To illustrate how slow the market was, the home across the street from ours was for sale for over a year and had still not sold when we left.

7. Place an ad for your home in the local newspapers. It worked for us again in another slow real estate market. We didn’t bother with the agent this time. We received an offer from the first prospect and had a closing within 6 weeks.

8. If your area’s real estate market is really bad, try offering owner financing if possible. Those two little words can do more than nearly anything else to get a ton of prospects. Many buyers in the current real estate market, even ones with solid credit have difficulty getting a loan. This is particularly true with self-employed buyers who often have enough money for a significant down payment. Solve their problem if possible. You can still effectively get all cash for your home by selling your owner-financed mortgage note to a mortgage buyer. One point to be aware of. You may have to hold the note for 60 to 90 days for it to “season” a many private note buyers want this seasoning before you sell a note or sell private mortgage to them.

We are in DIY times and home selling is no different. If the normal sales just aren’t happening you can take charge and make things happen for you through FSBO! Take heart in this one last point. Your efforts can have a much greater impact on selling your house than any real estate firm or agent.