In any sales situation, understanding your potential buyers and answering their desires will determine your success in making a sale. This is true even when selling your home.

If you've decided to sell your home yourself, you need to do all you can to entice buyers, because the financial results are sometimes disappointing. According to a recent National Association of Realtor's study, the median selling price of For Sale By Owner homes was $198,200 compared with $230,000 for agent-assisted home sales.

Many FSBO sellers wind up frustrated and eventually work with an agent. But if you understand what prospective buyers want and how they buy, your chances of success on your own increase greatly. Here are some trends to consider (from NAR 2005 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers):

Ninety percent of homebuyers used a real estate professional during their home search. If you refuse to deal with buyers represented by agents, you've just cut yourself off from a huge portion of your potential buying pool. Even if you don't want to pay an agent to sell your home, you should be offering some type of commission to an agent who brings you a buyer. You can determine how much. But offering no commission is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Eighty-two percent of first-time homebuyers and 78 percent of repeat homebuyers used the Internet to search for homes. This has several implications. First, you should not depend on the newspaper alone for advertising. Second, when buyers search online, their first impression of your home is going to be the photo included with your online listing. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression; so make sure that photo is an appealing one.

Ninety-two percent of homebuyers financed their home purchase. This is an uncomfortable area for many home sellers because it requires talking about your buyer's finances. At the same time, you do not want to waste precious time negotiating a sale with a buyer, only to find out later that they do not qualify for financing. Insist on your buyers providing a mortgage prequalification along with any written offer for your home.

Buyers between 18 and 44 years old more frequently purchased homes in suburbs or subdivisions than did older buyers. When you're selling a home in the suburbs, you're often selling a home that's very similar to others on the market in your area'competition is high and you need to distinguish your home to buyers. Taking the time to stage your home, by playing up hot button features, de-cluttering, and making strategic repairs, is well worth the effot to motivate prospects to make an offer (rather than moving on to the next home).

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