By Joel McDonald
Most sellers selling their home themselves limit their marketing to putting a sign in the yard, and putting an ad in the newspaper. However, by only doing that they are limiting their potential audience by more than 70%! This is largely due to the fact that most buyers are from out of town, and only a small fraction of the local buyers look for a home in the newspaper. In addition, the majority of the phone calls received when selling "by owner" are going to be from real estate agents who want to help sell the home for a commission.
Weed out the tirekickers, and deal only with the serious buyers
The biggest hassle with selling a home yourself is fielding the endless amount of calls that will come in from buyers who aren't looking for one like yours (or the buyers who aren't yet serious, and are only calling you because they figure that they won't pressured by calling a real estate agent.)
Instead of tying up your home phone line or cell phone with all of the calls you'll receive, get a hotline dedicated exclusively to telling callers about your home. You can get a hotline for your phone for as little as a few bucks a month, and by doing so, you can leave as long a greeting as you like for callers. Instead of sounding like a broken record every time someone calls your home phone, you can simply leave a detailed description of your home on the hotline. Potential buyers can simply listen in, and if the home fits their needs, they can leave a message. If they're not interested, they can just hang up and you won't have to deal with the call.
If you're worried about not getting the chance to talk the buyers into looking at your home, don't. You'll find that you get 3 to 10 times as many calls by directing callers to a recorded message. By having a hotline, callers can call at 2:00 in the morning because they know they won't be bothering a human being -- and they will -- at least twice as often! Buyers will be two to five times more likely to call simply because it is a toll-free hotline. You'd be surprised at the number of people who won't call long distance, and your hotline solves that problem. Get 3 to 10 times as many incoming calls about your home by advertising your hotline instead of home phone number, and you've got 3 to 10 times as many chances to get your home sold! No pushy sales tactics required.
Screen out the pushy salespeople.
Using a hotline is a great way of screening out all of the Realtors that would have otherwise called you week in, and week out on your home-phone to solicit you. When you record your greeting, simply include the following statement: "If you are a Realtor with an interested buyer, you are welcome to leave a message, and we'll call you back. If you are calling to ask us to list our home for sale with you, please hang up now." Your "pushy salesperson" problem is now solved.
Track all of your calls
Depending on the company you choose, you can receive reports via email every day, every week, and/or every month summarizing all of the calls made to your hotline. If you're not getting enough calls, this can be an indicator that you need to change your description or your price. If you're getting too many -- just think how much time you're saving by not having to field each of those calls yourself! In addition to convenient reporting, most hotline companies allow you to have messages forwarded to your phone, saved in your account until you login, or delivered via email.
You CAN do it!
The National Association of Realtors states that over 75% of sellers selling themselves eventually list with an agent. This is largely due to the fact that those sellers are simply tired of dealing with all of the unqualified calls that come in. Maybe now, you can change your odds of success. To find the hotline company that best fits your needs, simply conduct a search on the internet for "800 hotlines" or go to http://www.freedomvoice.com
Good luck! You can do it!
About the Author: Joel McDonald is the owner of a Denver Colorado real estate company. Visit Automated Homefinder to start your own search for Denver real estate.
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