For Home Sellers.
General Resources
Learning About Title Insurance Costs: EasyTitleQuote.com
Preparing your home for sale: Ehow.com.
Mold information: See the EPA Web site.
Home warranties: See the Home Warranty page.
FREE E-Book on Strategies for Selling a Home: www.TopSellingSystems.com
Advice on difficult cleaning tasks: Try Heloise Household Helpline.
Zillow Resources
To see how remodeling projects pay off, check Zillow's Home Improvement Chart.
The My Estimator tool allows users to enter various improvements to see how it affects a home's valuation. Sellers can then make the improvements and publish the new valuation on Zillow, plus explain why the valuation changed.
More key Zillow resources for sellers are laid out here.
Finding an Agent and Alternate Options
USAA, a large insurance and financial-services company, is an educational foundation, with a form for interviewing real estate agents.
Ehow.com has several introductory articles on selling your home.
Effective for maximizing sales price, there are several sites which have information on selling your own home. Sometimes exposing your house in multiple websites will maximize exposure and provide you with a possibility of selling your house quicker. Below are some Free listing ideas, especially if you are selling by owner:
Zillow.com
Lowballoffers.com
Craigslist.org
Owners.com
www.elterre.com English/spanish site
Setting the Price
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is a U.S. Government site dedicated to helping consumers in all aspects of home ownership.
The Appraisal Institute is an international membership association for real estate professionals, which contains information for consumers.
The Appraisal Foundation is a not-for-profit educational organization authorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standards and appraiser qualifications.
The National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers is an association of professional real estate appraisers, which also contains information for consumers.
American Society of Appraisers is an international society of professional valuers that appraises real estate and other disciplines such as gems and jewelry, businesses, and more.
AppraiserUSA.com offers a directory where you can locate appraisers in any state.
Appraisers dot com is a national real estate appraiser referral service.
Zillow Resources
Enter an address and get a Zestimate to use as a starting point for estimating the value of most homes in the U.S.
My Estimator is a free tool anyone can use to create their own, personal estimate on a home.
Negotiating
These two federally-maintained Web sites offer helpful consumer information, including sample forms showing line-by-line the information in a contract:
The Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Federal Citizen Information Center
Help with the Closing
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development site has information for home sellers, including some on settlement costs. The buyer’s site has a sample form showing what a hypothetical seller and buyer pay at closing.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency site has a complete guide to radon, including testing and mitigation.
The Internal Revenue Service has an online library of publications. See “Selling Your Home,” IRS Publication 523, a 32-page booklet that can be read online, printed, or ordered by mail. It contains helpful tax and record-keeping information.
The American Land Title Association Web site has a consumer section with information on title insurance, an explanation of the closing process, and an explanation of the HUD-1 settlement form.