Most people take the easy way out when selling their home and hand the responsibility over to a real estate agent, when in fact the average homeowner is capable of selling their own home.

Apart from the satisfaction of making the sale yourself there is the bonus of saving thousands of dollars in agents fees.

So why do people choose a real estate agent to sell their home? Here are a few reasons, I'm sure you can think of more;

- laziness
- lack of time
- Lack of confidence
- Unsure of what is involved
- lack of relevant skills
- lack of real estate knowledge

It may not suit everyone to sell their own home but at a guess I would say that 75% of Australians are capable of doing just as good a job as a real estate agent.

Let me tell you, it's not as hard to sell a house as you think it is. How do I know? My wife and I have sold our last 2 homes ourselves and saved tens of thousands of dollars.

A little bit of common sense is involved. Most people have a pretty good idea what the value of their home is. If not, it only takes a little bit of research or you can employ a licensed valuer for several hundred dollars.

Put most of your effort into presenting your property in its best light. Clean, paint, trim vegetation - do whatever is required to get your place looking spic and span.

The key to getting a sale on your own is not to be greedy. Shaving a few thousand dollars off the sale price makes it easier to sell your home and you still come out ahead in comparison to paying an agent.

Once you are ready to find a buyer then place an Ad in your local paper (not the metropolitan one) and also tell everyone you know and ask them to spread the word.

We sold one house by word of mouth and the other through a local advertisement. With the advertisement we priced the house about $5000 under market value and asked for offers over that amount.

Before you find a buyer you need a contract form. In South Australia where I live you can get it from a Land Broker or Solicitor. In other States or countries it's usually a Solicitor.

What do you do when you've found a Buyer?

Your Land Broker or Solicitor will have given you instructions on how to fill out the contract of sale. Basically it involves recording the details of the property being sold and details of the parties to the contract - that is, you (the seller) and the buyer. Once the contract has been filled out and signed by both parties it is returned to the Land Broker or Solicitor to process. From there on it's out of your hands.

Still not sure you can do it on your own?

If you live in Australia there is another alternative - ANREPS have a range of different services, from Do-it-Yourself with a bit of help, to letting them do it all at a better price than an agent. You can still save thousands of dollars.

There may be a similar service in your country. Type "Real Estate Private Sales" into a search engine like Google and see what comes up. Good Luck.

Copyright 2005 by Robert Scott, LoanSense.com.au

Check out Robert's Home Loan Australia website that is dedicated to helping borrowers get the best possible deal on Home Loans in Australia.