subject: Be Sure To Consider The Legal Aspects When Selling Your Own Home [print this page] Sellers who are considering the idea of selling for sale by owner must take time to think about what their decision really means in terms of a part-time job. I'm using that phrase because selling a house is a real job, feel free to ask any real estate agent. So, sellers should take note of this list of items from the 2010 National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Profile of House Buyers and Sellers that I happened to see lately. Following are the percentages of homeowners selling for sale by owner who consider the following issues as "the most difficult tasks" required as part of their house-selling adventure: getting the right price 23%, fixing up the house for sale 18%, selling within a time frame 14%, having time to do everything necessary 13%, understanding and preparing paperwork 10%. I admit that none of these are huge percentages, but they reveal a few basic activities presenting problems to some sellers.
Selling for sale by owner is a project that you should plan out ahead of time. You'll need to have the necessary legal forms and have lined-up the services of a lawyer or a title company to conduct the title search and prepare all necessary closing documents. You just need to be cautious and realize there are some parts of the transaction you can handle on your own and others that you cannot handle when you sell a home yourself. Many for sale by owner transactions are given to an agent to handle the closing, or sometimes the seller gets advice from his lawyer regarding what comes next after a purchase agreement is signed.
Buyers have to provide a copy of the signed sales agreement to their lender in order to initiate the mortgage loan process. And sellers, their lawyers and their title companies aren't really involved in the financing process at all. Without an agent on their team, buyers may be at a disadvantage in the financing process because they are completely on their own.
The reason I'm mentioning the financing issue separately here is because it wasn't on the NAR list, which seems odd. Go ahead and take these statistics for your own benefit as you think about selling your house for sale by owner. Owners who need to sell a home fast may consider selling it themselves without having to hire a realtor or other agent for marketing it.
