How to Show a House For Sale by Owner

The Secrets of How to Show My Home

How to show a house for sale by owner is one of the easiest task you will have, when you sell your own house.

The buyers have arrived and are heading up the front step to ring the bell. What now?

First of all, it's your house so you know it better than any one else. You are the professional here! You should be very comfortable to show a home by owner and answer any questions a buyer may have.

First Lesson? - Listen More Talk Less

You can't SELL anyone your house if they don't want to buy your house.

People do not sell houses. Houses Sell Houses

When you here the knock on the door or the doorbell ring, greet the people with a smile and introduce yourself. Don't crowd or start selling. You are here to show a house for sale by owner at this point. You're not here to "sell" the house, or be a Realtor.

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I would like to suggest you read the rest of this page first for some important information about how to show my house for sale by owner and then for more techniques, return to the thumbnail photo links below and make a selection.

Some Closing The Sale Techniques

A Lesson on Reading Some Body Language

Return to the Home Page

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Ask them if they would like to look outside or inside first. Wait for an answer.

If they say outside, tell them to take their time and let them lead.

If they say inside, tell them to take their time and let them lead.

Tell them if they have any questions, you'll be happy to answer them.

Let Them Tour Your House at Their Own Pace

Try really hard not to start selling and going on and on about all the features of your property, when you show the house.

How to show a house for sale by owner during the walk-through is simple. Your job is to follow at a reasonable distance, answer any questions, and watch Body Language. You also want to listen carefully to what they say.

If you are going to say anything, you might want to point out a feature that they may miss. An example would be:

“We upgraded the electrical panel to 100 amps last year so we can run all the technical gadgets we all seem to need now-a-days”.

“After that heatwave we had 2 summers ago, we put in a new air-conditioning system. Boy that sure was worth the investment”

Don't just mention a feature, place a benefit to them in the statement.

Kitchen Magic

No matter where you start or where you end, when following this how to show a house for sale by owner page, head to the kitchen last.

The kitchen is where friends gather and people break bread. It's a comfort zone for almost everyone.

This may not be true of every culture, but when I was in real estate this was one time that I would insist we sit at the kitchen table to conduct business.

Sounds crazy? I did field tests early in my real estate career and to my amazement discovered something.

• When I went to the living room or another area of the client's house to obtain a listing, many times I'd walk away without a signed contract.

• When we sat at the kitchen table, the odds went up well over the 90% range.

Same thing for how to show a house by owner. Go to the kitchen. OK?

If they have some or a lot of interest they will probably take you up on your invitation. Good sign!

If they do sit down keep the conversation light and ask questions about them. Do you have children? How old are they?

What do you do for a living? I noticed you are driving a XYZ vehicle. How do you like it? Wait for them to answer and show interest.

Ask them if they have any questions about the house you could answer for them.

Ask them if they have looked at many other homes and if they have found any that they were interested in.

Ask them where they are living now. Do you have a house to sell before you buy?

The Questions get Tougher

When you sell your own house, don't just fire questions at these buyers. Listen to their answers and volunteer something about yourself as well. Relax. Watch their body language.

As you have seen above, you start off with soft life questions and slowly move to questions geared more towards the goal. Sell My House For Sale by Owner.

Asking questions, not only shows interest in them, but you are gathering information. Questions about their employment gives you ideas about income.

Children can give information about schooling needs. Have they been looking at many homes or just starting. Are they first time buyers or have owned several homes.

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On that note, if they are a young couple, buying their first home, there is a very good chance that one or both of the parents are going to be involved. If this is the case, ask this question.

Q. Is there anyone else you want to look at the house before you make a decision? If they say yes, ask them if they would like to give that party(s) a call so they can set up a time to view the property.

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If they have a house to sell first, they may want to put in a Conditional Offer subject to the sale of their house.

As a for sale by owner you actually have a big advantage over a listed with real estate broker property when accepting a conditional offer.

Keep it Simple

Showing your house is one of the easiest task you will have when selling for sale by owner. There is no pressure because you can't "sell" your house.

Here it is in a Nutshell

• Don't try to "sell" on the walk through.

• Observe what the buyer's do and watch their body language.

• Answer any questions the buyers ask.

• Point out only features that the buyers might miss and state a benefit.

• Bring the buyers to the kitchen table when you have finished the tour.

As you can see, the actual how to show a house part of selling a home for sale by owner is quite simple. :-)

Just a Reminder

Everything on this website including this how to show a house section, is based on the extensive experience I obtained as both a real estate agent and an owner of a for sale by owner company.

Due to the type of person I am, I've always did deep analysis with everything I do. I would keep notes, tweak, try experiments until I felt I had maxed out the potential.

Of course, I would then tweak some more and sometimes, while actually quite often, I'd go backwards. Then I'd adjust, and try some more.

The reason I mention this to you here, is all the research I did over a 17+ year period, is yours for absolutely FREE!

The information on this website is not copied material or based on 2nd hand information. It's based on 1st hand experience and success including this page on how to show a house.

I do supply links here and there to outside website pages that I feel may be of value, to visitors to this website.

Moving On

We'll be covering more about how to show a house for sale by owner including, how to ask closing questions with both soft or trial closes and some more difficult closing questions on another page.

For More Information about How to Show My House by Owner

Please select one of the thumbnail photo links near the top of this page.

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