Maybe only a few times in your life will you have to sell your house. And if you don’t know a local Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia real estate agent who will sell your house for free or for a very low commission, it can be a real pain and cost you a lot of money.
So, I’m guessing that you came to this page about “How to Sell Your House on Your Own in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia” for a few reasons…
You don’t have much or any equity in your house, so you can’t pay a real estate agent’s commission.
You have equity, but you want to try to sell the house yourself before hiring an agent to do it for you.
You’re in foreclosure or about to be, and you need to sell quickly without having to pay an agent thousands of dollars in commissions.
In this market, you can’t wait the months and months it can take to sell a house in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia, so you want to try to sell it faster.
No matter which one you end up in, there are ways to sell your house in the real estate market by yourself.
Since 2013, there has been a big recovery in the housing market. If you sell your house now and do it right, you will definitely make money. Most of the time, you need to use smart marketing techniques and have realistic goals for what you want to get out of this sale.
This article will give you some tips on how to sell your own house in the area.
How to Sell Your Own House in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia- Let’s Dive In
Know the DMV real estate market inside and out.
Doing market research on your neighborhood in the area is the first and most important step. This step involves going to sites like Zillow, Eppraisal, the Chase home value estimator, etc., calling a real estate agent or two to find out how much your home is worth, or reading about the different ways to price a home on the market. Doing your research on these things will help you set the right price for your house and keep you from making some common selling mistakes.
If you don’t want to try to figure out the value of your home on your own, give us a call at 202-235-2323 and we’ll tell you what it’s worth on the retail market (if you’re willing to wait 3-6+ months to find the perfect retail buyer). And if you want, we’ll make you a fair cash offer on your house so you can sell it quickly (we can close in as little as 7 days if you want to).
Check out the market
This step is almost like doing market research, except that you can only look at houses in your area that are similar. Are there a lot of homes for sale? If so, what are they listed for on average? Are there a lot of bank-owned homes in your area? That could make the price of your house go down.
Check out the house
If you want to sell your house for a good price, you should make sure it is in great shape. Find out what makes it special and focus on those things when you market it. For example, in the DC metro buyers may be more interested in a house with a driveway parking spot than one with a garage parking spot.
Also, does your house require repairs?
Do you need to paint the inside or the outside?
What does the roof look like?
Does the landscaping look good? Is the house at all out of date? (You know, those ceilings with popcorn on them ;-). All of these things can make the house more or less appealing to a buyer, which affects how much they are willing to pay for it.
After all of this, come up with a fair price to ask for your home. The price shouldn’t be so high that it will take you a year to sell the house, but it should be appealing enough that you get a rush of buyers who are ready to buy it right away.
Use Photos or Videos
Buyers are crazy about media. By making walk-through videos of the house and using them to advertise, you can reach a larger audience. In fact, making these videos is seen as more honest than taking pictures. But that shouldn’t stop you from going with the second choice, since it’s cheaper than the video.
So take some amazing photos. Take a picture of every room to show how nice it is. Take pictures of the outside of the house from a few different angles. People want to see what the house looks like before they even go there. So, having great pictures of your house online could be the difference between getting the right buyer quickly and having to wait months and months to sell.
Put your house on the local market’s “list.” MLS And How To Sell It
You can find no-fee or low-fee real estate agents who will put your house on the local MLS for a few hundred dollars.
This gets your house in front of all the real estate agents quickly. If you want those “buyers” agents to help you find a buyer, you should be ready to pay them a 2-3% buyers broker fee.
Put ads in the local paper and road signs, and have an open house.
Does all of this sound like a lot of work if you want to sell your house quickly in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia by yourself?
It might be.
And in the end, many house sellers think they’ll save money and time by marketing the house themselves, but it ends up costing them more money.
Here are some things to think about when you sell your own house…
If you’re not good at marketing or don’t want to spend a lot of time doing it right, selling your house yourself might not be your best option.
If you don’t do a good job preparing the house and the marketing materials and working with buyers to really build up the value of your house in their minds, you may get 3-8% less for the same house if an experienced person did the marketing for you.
Too many sellers don’t think about holding costs or missed opportunities. For example, every month that your house doesn’t sell, you have to pay your mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc.
If your mortgage payment is $1,500 per month and $1,300 of that is interest, and it takes you 7 months to sell your house, that costs you an extra $9,100. (not to mention taxes and insurance you paid during that time).
So, if you could sell that house faster, would it make sense to offer a discount to a buyer right now so you could close quickly and move on? Something to consider.
If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of trying to sell your house yourself… and would rather just sell it quickly for a fair price without paying any commissions or fees…
We actually buy houses in here at Capitol Cash Offer.
We’d love to make you a fair cash offer on your house with NO OBLIGATION and NO HASSLE.
We can close quickly—in as little as 7 days, if you want—which would save you thousands of dollars compared to trying to sell the house yourself and waiting months.
Also, when we buy houses in, we pay for and make any repairs that are needed, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Call us today at 202-235-2323 or fill out the quick and easy form through the link below to find out how much we can pay for your house.
Do You Want to Sell Your Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia House Yourself?
Get a cash offer from us before you waste time, money, and energy trying to sell it yourself >>