Here are some more issues to ponder if you are seriously considering trying to sell your home by yourself:

Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

 Marketing - are you a marketing expert? Do you have a digital camera so you can take lots of high-quality photos? Having lots of photos is important, as buyers always want to see photos of homes in listings and property flyers. Do you know how to do a virtual tour (again, buyers like to see this sort of technology and it will provide a competitive edge) and how much are you willing to spend on this? Do you know how to format a quality property flyer that will showcase the features of your home and include photos? You will also need to think about advertising, both in print as well as the Internet. What publications are you going to use and why? How much money do you have to spend on advertising (a small ad with a photo can cost several hundred dollars, or more)? What websites are you planning to use to advertise your property? If you are going to be offering a commission to a licensed buyer agent who brings in a qualified buyer, how are you going to get the word out to the real estate community? In summary, with the competition in this market, how are you going to maximize your exposure in order to capture the interest of buyers in the target market?

 Open Houses - are you going to run an open house? Do you know how to set up and advertise an effective open house? Do you have the time (at least 2-3 hours on the weekend or during the week) you can set aside to sit the open house (not counting prep time)? If the house does not sell you may want to hold multiple open houses - do you have this kind of time? When buyers arrive, how are you going to manage the open houses? What questions can you safely ask? How do you avoid turning a buyer off to your home? How will you qualify prospective buyers that come by? What about the lookers? How re you going to follow-up with all the attendees and do you have the time to do this?

Stay tuned for my my last 2 posts on this topic in the next day or so. Enjoy the rest of your Holiday Weekend!

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Many of you coming from other areas may not be familiar with Value Range Marketing in terms of pricing homes on the MLS.

Sellers and buyers often have a price range in mind when they are looking to sell or buy. Here in Southern California (and other areas as well) it is becoming more common for sellers to state a range of price when listing their homes, at the urging of their REALTOR, in order to more effectively market the home, say proponents of the method. For example, a home may be listed at $575,000 - $625,000 and the listing will state that the sellers will entertain offers in that range. VRM stands for the numbers on the dial pad of your phone that correspond to these letters, and it is fairly common to see the last three digits of the price range be 876 ($625,876), especially if the MLS will not allow you to put a range in the price data field. Sometimes the range may be very broad, especially for higher-priced homes, while other ranges may be quite narrow. You will often see a spread of about 10 - 12% but there seems to be no agreement on how it is done.

There is no guarantee that an offer in the range WILL be accepted, however, since the contingencies may not be satisfactory to the seller. And the final offer that is acceptable to the sellers may be near the top of the range or closer to the bottom. And buyers can, if they wish, submit an offer lower than the range, which may or may not be acceptable. Proponents of the technique say that, because it opens up a wider range of buyers due to the broader price range, homes priced this way sell faster and for more money. But there are studies that suggest this may not be so.

While more common in this market, this method remains somewhat controversial both with consumers and agents, and many do not understand nor agree with it. But now you know a bit more and will be better prepared when searching for a home. Talk with your REALTOR so you will know how to proceed.

And if you are listing your current home for sale, you may want to discuss this strategy with your agent. If this method is common in your area it may make sense. But if  no one uses it, acceptance and understanding will be more difficult. It may be helpful, or not.