The main reason to sell your home "By Owner" is to save on the price of your home in commission costs (6 to 7%).
You are in control to whom and when you "Show" your home. This means doing it at your own convenience, a far cry from rearranging your schedule to suit the real estate agent. Additionally, your property does not have to be in "Show" condition every morning before you go to work.
Who knows more about the property than yourself. You know your home, the subdivision, the neighborhood, the schools, bus routes and times, etc. This means you can "Show" and "Sell" your home more effectively and more honestly than anyone else. A real estate agent won’t necessarily know all this information about your property and the area.
You are not obliged to a 3, 6, or 12-month contract. Most real estate agencies require this.
There are many proponents of FSBO sales, including the vast multitudes of online real estate companies dedicated to helping owners list, market, and sell their properties.

1. Preparing Your Home to Sell - Dress Your House for Success is a paperback book that helps you look at your home from a buyer’s perspective. The authors talk about uncluttering, cleaning, repairing, neutralizing and dynamizing your home for maximum appeal.

Good curb appeal is a priority. You won’t get buyers inside your house if the outside turns them off. Imagine yourself as a buyer pulling up to the curb in front of your house. Imagine the front lawn as the showplace for your house and the garage as the showroom for a brand new car. Now what do you need to clean up, fix or paint? Give attention to the entry way and the front door. Ask for a friend or neighbor’s perspective.

Clutter makes a home seem smaller and it is harder for a buyer to see your house as their home. Uncluttering can uncover a world of space and charm while it better organizes you for a smooth move. Look at each item and make a decision to junk it, store it, sell it or give it away. The kitchen, bath and closets are the most overlooked clutter areas. By putting everything neatly away, you house shows buyers a place for everything and everything in its place. It’s a home where they could feel organized.
Closets should be cleaned of all out of season clothes, store or donate any not worn this year. Consider a closet organizer as all buyers love huge organized closets....and hate overstuffed sloppy ones!

Carpeting, at a minimum should be steam cleaned and deodorized, if there are stains, paths worn, or other problems go ahead and replace with a neutral colored carpet. While a carpet allowance may be useful, most buyers do not have vision and the carpet may turn off buyers to even making an offer.

When it come to putting up your house for sale, painting is dollar for dollar the best return for your money, keep it neutral, and if touching up, paint the whole wall touched up.

Safety! Make sure all walkways are secure and handrails do not wobble. All stairs should be well lit! This could not only stop a sale but potentially injure a buyer. Remember, that when your home for sale is falling apart, so will the sale.

Fireplaces, go ahead and have them cleaned and inspected, a buyer will more than likely ask for this and it will impress them if it is already done.

Check all faucets and toilets for leaks and snug any loose fixtures.

All outlets should be checked for operation, including lamps and replace all burned out bulbs.

Nothing screams poor maintenance like a filthy filter. The home inspector will mention this. A dirty one is usually flagged by the inspector and the buyer, noting the lack of maintenance, will request a service call! Spend the $3.00 now!

Squeaky clean is the measure you are looking for. Windows, drapes, floors, woodwork and doors all need careful attention. Most buyers see a clean house as a well maintained house. Check the caulking on the sinks, tub, and shower. Reasonable repairs should get you $2 back for every dollar spent.

Exterior

Remove any junk or clutter from around the house, including leaves, dead limbs, but especially those things that have accumulated and just don't belong in a beautiful lawn! This goes for the back and side yards as prospective buyers often circle the block.

Landscaping, repair any bare spots in the lawn, trim trees and shrubs, replace mulch, plant flowers if possible, green up lawn with fertilizer, and keep mowed. Adding mulch is an easy and cost effective way to freshen a lawn! Inspectors look for drainage issues so make sure mulch around the house "fades away" from the foundation.

Review the driveway; if concrete consider a power wash, if asphalt consider resealing. That fresh coat of back asphalt looks striking against the green grass.

Decks and porches should be cleaned, power washed, sealed, or re-stained.

Look at the gutters and downspouts, nothing screams make a low offer like trees growing in the gutters!

Wash all exterior windows, and storm windows, inspect screens and window operation and repair where necessary.

Check all exterior lights make sure they work and fixtures are clean.

2. Marketing your home

Advertising

Signs: Pick up directional signs at a home improvement store, list your phone number and the address of your home on them, and then display the signs in prominent places around your neighborhood. Most buyers use the services of a Realtor to look for a new home, but if your home's in a desirable neighborhood where other houses are also for sale, potential buyers may see your signs and come back later to visit your home. Place a professional-looking sign in your front yard, featuring your phone number in print large enough to be easily read from the street.
Flyers: Think like a marketing guru and create a sizzling sales flyer, listing all the benefits and features of your home.

Newspapers: Pick up copies of all the newspapers and advertisers in your area, and look at them, imagining that you're the one looking for a home in your area. Then create an ad of your own, copying ads that most attract your eye. Make sure to list benefits to potential buyers and not just the features of your home.

Showing and safety: Ask prospective buyers for their phone numbers before you give out your address over the phone, and then call them back to verify the information. Also, make sure to have someone with you when you're showing your home to strangers.

3. What your property is worth- A property is only worth what a ready, willing and able buyer is willing to pay. You can try to determine what your property is worth by looking at the sales price of other properties around you, how homes currently on the market are priced, and what comparable homes are selling for in your area.

There are Internet programs that will give you approximate values and others that will give you an on-line appraisal. RealEstate.com provides free assistance and Case Schiller & Weiss will sell you an appraisal on-line in minutes. Boston.com and the Banker & Tradesman provides a free level of assistance and for a fee, additional information can be purchased.

Probably the best way to determine value is to hire a local appraiser who is on the approved list of several area lenders. This way you should get a professional, written analysis and most likely the buyer can have their lender use that same appraisal and spare them the cost. Remember, a home priced well will sell quickly.

4. Give and take is a necessary part of any negotiations. A reasonable buyer will not want to nit-pick and gouge. Unlike a plaintiff and defendant, home buying does not need to be a win/lose transaction. Buyers are usually scared to death of paying too much for a home. Both parties need to feel that a fair price was paid for the home.

Unfortunately, not all home buyers are reasonable. If you have experience in negotiating and you’re a fair minded person you will probably do well. If negotiating is a weakness for you, then consider hiring a real estate agent or an attorney who will do it for you. A reasonable buyer usually makes a reasonable offer.

There are reasonable contingencies and unreasonable contingencies. You need to decide for yourself what is acceptable. Avoid nit-picking and beware of too many buyer escape clauses. It would seem that a home inspection clause and a financing clause are reasonable. Be cautious beyond that.

It is usually not advisable to negotiate items like a refrigerator, washer or dryer as part of the purchase price. Once you come to an agreement on price and terms, then you can add the items you want to include in the purchase price in the Purchase and Sale Agreement. Thousands of dollars are at stake. It doesn’t make sense to lose a sale over a $500 refrigerator. Come to an agreement on the purchase price first.

5. Timing is everything.

Timing the decision to sell and gauging the current market conditions could be two of the most critical decisions you make. If you need to sell your home quickly, the less flexibility, you'll be able to have. Conversely, if you're not in a big hurry you can sit back and wait for the perfect buyer. Just remember the real estate market is a cyclical environment. If it's a slow period now and you're in a position to wait it out then it might be a good idea to wait for the next upswing.

6. Set Up a Voice Mailbox

Set Up a Voice Mailbox to Take Calls When You Can’t: Every phone call that comes in could be the one buyer you’ve been waiting for. Don’t take the chance of missing any calls. When I was actively calling sellers, I was surprised by the number of sellers who didn’t have voice mail or an answering machine. That means their advertising money was wasted. Don’t let that happen to you. Be sure you’re phone rings to an answering machine or a voice mail service. And it’s always best to return calls as quickly as possible. You never know which caller will be the one who ends up buying your house.

7.Make Arrangements To Help Your Buyer Get Financing: This is something too often overlooked by sellers. Make arrangements with an independent mortgage broker to refer potential buyers to him/her for a FREE mortgage pre-qualification. (Don't call your local bank, or "big name mortgage" because they are limited to their own companies loan programs). A smart seller will even put “financing available” on their flyer and refer those asking about financing to the mortgage broker. Benefit to you? The mortgage broker can save you time and aggravation by telling you whether a potential buyer can or cannot qualify for a loan. And if your buyer goes through your mortgage broker, the broker can keep you “in the loop” during the mortgage process!

II.For Sale By Owner Legal Issues

1.Equal Opportunity
As a home seller you have a responsibility and a requirement under the law not to discriminate in the sale, advertising and financing of property on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. This is a simple, common sense requirement easily met. Don't create the appearance of impropriety by advertising that a property would be perfect for a newly married couple, for example. A single mom may feel excluded by such a statement.

2.Radon Gas
Radon is a radioactive gas that has been found in homes all over the United States. It comes from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water and gets into the air you breathe. The U.S. EPA estimates that nearly 1 out of every 15 homes in the United States is estimated to have an elevated radon level (4 pCi/L or more). The EPA recommends a radon test be done before any real estate transaction. You can perform a test yourself or have a radon professional perform the test. If the test does turn up problems, all is not lost, mitigation techniques are available to solve the problem. For more information go to the excellent EPS Radon page at EPA Home Buyer's and Seller's Guide to Radon which also includes links to state by state resources.

3.Disclosures
A buyer has a right to a fair and complete understanding of the condition of the property they are interested in purchasing. While a buyer should always verify the property condition with a professional home inspection, they will expect the home seller to share the information they may have about the home with them. This is done through the Seller's Disclosure Statement, a written document where the seller lists all pertinent issues that they know about the property.
While this can be an informal document, in many states the laws regulate both the style and contents of these disclosure statements. You can find some free disclosure forms at FREE Real Estate Forms and Disclosures You should completely and truthfully fill in all that you know about your property. This is a place for factual information, not speculation. It takes just a few minutes to fill in. Keep a copy for yourself and present a copy to each prospective home seller as part of your contract paperwork

4.laws and licensing:

While the selling of real estate is a profession regulated by laws and licensing, it is perfectly legal to sell your own home in every state. Some home sellers are concerned about their ability to negotiate the legal issues regarding the sale of their property. While you should always use the advice of an attorney when legal questions arise or when tricky issues may be present, most of the day to day concerns related to the sale of your home are generally handled by the average home seller. In a later installment of this series we'll handle issues related to Sales Contracts and closing issues. Here are the main legal concerns buyers and sellers face up front:

5.Lead Paint

If your home or property was built before 1978, you must disclose the possible hazards of lead paint. Whether or not your have lead paint in your home, the law requires you to provide a copy of a federally approved lead-based paint hazard pamphlet, available for free download from our seller resources page. This is simple to accomplish, but a requirement that you should take seriously, as failing to do so is a federal offense with a stiff fine.
As with any other item, if you do know of lead paint problems you need to disclose them but this is not something to be alarmed about and does not necessarily have to be removed. You also need to give the buyer a 10 day period to perform their own lead inspection if they wish, this is a simple matter normally handled by a standard provision in the Contract.

6.Settling, Flooding, Mold, Other Hidden Defects
In some areas, people have lost their homes to hazards from improperly filled lots settling after the home was built or from sink holes. There have been cases from around the country of people getting sick from houses with significant mold problems. The professional home inspection provides protection here for both buyers and sellers, both to find any hidden defects and to prevent nasty misunderstandings and legal action down the road if something does later occur. As a buyer, I always insist on a home inspection to help uncover any hidden defects. As a seller, I counsel the buyer to get one, for a few hundred dollars everyone can breath easier.
The other important thing to remember here is that you must disclose every fact of any substance of which you have knowledge. That spring flood last year where the water came in under the garage door, that noisy neighbor with the drag racing car he brings out every month, the rodents in the attic are all items you must disclose to the prospective home buyer in writing. If you feel the item is insignificant, you are better off to disclose it and let the buyer decide. A little thought and effort here in properly completing your disclosure here will avoid nasty arguments and even legal battles later. Remember, no one likes unpleasant surprises!

III. Help you Selling your home.

Selling a can be a complicated process. To help you through it, we have compiled this list of resources. The tips contained on these pages, while maybe not a complete step by step plan, should at least help you avoid many common pitfalls and point you in the right direction.

IV. Tips For Pricing Your Home from the Sell Fox Valley Homes blog:

Consider comparables. What have other homes in your neighborhood sold for recently? How do they compare to yours in terms of size, upkeep, and amenities?
Consider competition. How many other houses are for sale in your area? Are you competing against new homes?
Consider your contingencies. Do you have special concerns that would affect the price you'll receive? For example, do you want to be able to move in four months?
Get an appraisal. For a few hundred dollars, a qualified appraiser can give you an estimate of your home's value. Be sure to ask for a market-value appraisal.

Owners often have an inflated opinion of their home's value and an appraisal helps them to realistically price their home to sell it quickly. An overpriced home will not attract buyers, which means no offers and no closing and that you have wasted valuable time, money, and efforts. In addition to the question How Much?, there may be other important questions to ask yourself before listing your home. Questions like:

''Would it be better to paint the entire house before we sell it?”,
''Should I replace the carpeting?'',
''Should I complete my basement remodeling project?''
Many things which we do to our houses have an effect on their value. Unfortunately, not all of them have an equal effect (Cost = Value). While a kitchen remodel may improve the appeal of a home, it may not add nearly enough to the value to justify the expense, right before one puts the home on the market!

Appraisers can step in and help you make an imformed decision. Unlike a real estate agent, an appraiser has no vested interest in what amount the house sells for. Appraisal fees are based on efforts to complete the report and not a percentage of the sales price. So a professional appraisal can often help homeowners make the best decisions on investing in their homes and setting a fair sales price.

The OurAppraisal.com site offers a large selection of links to FSBO related Web sites to help you find answers to many of your questions. Here are some additional helpful resources: