5 Tips for FSBO Homeowners Still Trying to Sell Their Homes

Selling your home by yourself can be a difficult endeavor to undertake, and it isn't one that many people opt to do the majority of the time. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) only 13% of homeowners opt to go the FSBO route annually in the U.S. By cutting out the realtor you can save a lot of money, but selling your home by yourself will have a lot of work involved! The following tips really can make a huge difference in selling your home by yourself. 

1. Hold Open Houses with Refreshments 

Selling your home by yourself always involves interacting with lots of strangers, so you might as well try to consolidate the social expenditure by holding open houses frequently. Offering beverages (preferably clear liquids) and small snacks like cookies, help people associate a positive memory with your home.   

2. Let Everyone Know Your are Selling Your Home by Yourself 

According the NAR around 45% of FSBO sales were between two parties that knew each other. If you are selling your home let everyone around you know. Put up statuses on social media, post fliers at work, and tell everyone you run into to make sure if anyone is in the market for home, they may consider buying your home.  

3. De-clutter the House with Self Storage 

One of the best things you can do is keep your house as empty and clean as possible when you are selling your home by yourself. This allows the buyers to envision what they could do with the space. You can utilize self storage to stow away anything you don't need at the moment. Also, throw away, donate or sell any items that you don't plan on moving to your next home before potential buyers start seeing your home. 

4. Professional Photos 

If you look at online home listing sites like realtor.com, you'll notice that a lot of pictures are of low quality, if there is even a picture at all. Modern media has made it so people are very used to accessing images to what they want to see, when they want to see it. Even in the olden days of real estate, it was common to at least have on picture of homes for sale. 

Hiring a professional photographer to get high quality images to put on our fliers and online listings really can make a huge difference when it comes to selling your home by yourself. A picture taken with an iPhone looks a lot less appealing than a picture taken by a professional photographer. Usually this service will run for only around 50-100 dollars, so consider making the investment for your FSBO process. 

5. Make all Minor Repairs 

Loose knobs, hanging cabinets, broken screens, burnt out light bulbs and tiny little repairs really can be an eye sore. What is worse is that they can knock off thousands of dollars when your buyer makes an offer. Make sure that before you show your home you make any minor repairs that you can. People tend to remember more readily what was wrong with a place rather than what they like about it, so make sure they don't remember your home for something like the light bulb being burnt out in the basement.  

Calling all renters! Manage your bills with these 3 apps

Remembering to pay your bills is a thing of the past with new smart phone apps. Using these three apps (that are available for Android and Apple) you'll never have to worry about managing your bills again. Budget, pay bills and pay rent automatically all from your smart phone.

1) Budgeting App

The Level Money is a simple app that allows you track your income and bills, so you know how much spending money you have available. You can track how much you spend every week, so you can know when you are going over or under budget.

• Level Money for Apple 
• Level Money for Android 

2) Rent Payment App

This simple app lets you automatically pay rent to your landlord. All you have to do is sync it to your bank account, and it will pay your rent on the same day every month.

• RentPayment Mobile for Apple and Android 

3) Automated Bill Payer

These two apps allow you to set up your bank account to pay all of your bills. Utilities, cell, rent, student loans, credit cards, etc., can all be easily paid using these apps.

• Pay Any Bill from Apple 
• Pay Bills from Android

Do you have any apps you use to manage paying your bills? Let us know with a comment below! 

10 Quotes about Moving

Moving is a time when we experience a wide variety of emotions ranging from excitement to fear to indifference. We chose a wide variety of quotes to cover the many emotions of quotes that most people experience when setting out to move. If you find yourself feeling down about moving, re-visit these quotes to inspire you about your move. Ultimately moving is a wonderful (if stressful) part of life that opens up a whole new realm of possibilities, so let yourself get caught up in the excitement of a new beginning. Without further ado, here are our quotes about moving! 

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

-Walt Disney

“When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.” 

-Rodney Dangerfield

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." 

-Martin Luther King Junior 

"Here's to the future, because i'm done with the past." 

-Unknown 

 "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." 

-Albert Einstein 

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.

-Conrad Hilton

Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom.

-Marilyn Ferguson

Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.

-Arthur Koestler

The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.

 -Dave Weinbaum

The beginning is the most important part of the work. 

-Plato

5 Tips for Moving During the Spring

Spring isn't the most popular time of year to move, but sometimes due to jobs, families, lifestyle changes, etc., we are forced to move when we don't want to. The following are some tips that will help you make the best out of your springtime move. 

1. Watch the Weather 

In some parts of the world spring weather varies widely, especially in the early days of spring. One day it will be rainy and miserable then the next it will be sunny and warm. Make sure to watch the weather forecast closely for moving day. Be ready to get extra supplies that may be needed to handle a damp, snowy or hot day during the spring. 

2. Bargain with Movers 

Moving companies have lots of open dates during the spring and every other seasons besides summer, so you can possibly talk down the price of some movers who are desperate for business. This is especially true during the first two months of spring when the weather still can be bad. By pricing and bargaining with different moving companies you can save some big dollars.     

3. Free Labor from the Kids 

Teacher workdays, spring break and other spring school holidays give you time to utilize free labor from your children. Or if you just want them out of the way during moving day, you can utilize the free babysitting from public schools for at least part of the day.

 4. Spring is a great time for selling homes 

During nice days during the spring it makes everyone feel a little more optimistic. Springtime is all about new beginning, so you might as well utilize people's optimism to sell your home. Open up the windows and shades to emphasize the beautiful weather and lighting that spring provides to help your home appeal even more attractive to buyers.  

5. Take allergy medications 

Pollen season can be a huge problem for some people. Moving requires a lot of going indoor and outdoors, so you will inevitably be exposed to pollen. Make sure to medicate accordingly, so that the  worst of your symptoms are kept at bay during the move. Also, if you are moving into a new area, you may want to figure out if you are allergic to anything in particular in that area. That way you can get the allergy medication before you are going through the stresses of a move. Here is a chart to pollen seasons in different parts of the US.