How To Put Your For Sale By Owner Property On Zillow

Zillow has become one the most popular tools buyers use when looking for a new home. This platform allows sellers to post listings for free—and those listings can include unlimited numbers of photos and even video footage.

Real estate agents routinely ensure that the homes they’re selling are quickly listed on Zillow so they will be exposed to the greatest number of potential buyers. If you’re selling your own home, you can gain the same advantage by posting your FSBO on Zillow.

Create a Zillow Account

The Zillow website allows you to start the process of posting a for sale by owner listing without logging in to an account, but you will need to sign in to be able to submit your posting. So if you have not already created a Zillow account, this is a good time to do it. You just click on the “Sign In” option in the upper right corner of the screen (on your phone or computer) and then hit the “New account” option. You enter the email address you want to use to receive alerts, create a password, and indicate whether you are a landlord or “industry professional.” (Even if you own rental property, if you don’t plan to use Zillow to list your rentals, you probably do not want to click on this box because it leads you to set up a professional account.)

Go to the “Post a For Sale by Owner Listing” Page

If your search engine didn’t immediately bring you to the “For-sale-by-owner” page, you can get there by clicking on the “Sell” option and under Selling options, go to “Post a For Sale by Owner Listing.” Once there, you enter the address of the property you plan to sell, hit the Continue button, and confirm the location on a map. If the location shown is not correct, you can click “No, let me change it” and then click on the right location to move the pin there. The platform will allow you to save at this point even if you have not yet signed in, and then it moves you to the next stage in the listing process.

Set Your Price

When you’re selling a property without a listing agent, it is up to you to do the research to choose the right listing price for your home. You need to consider comparable properties that have sold in your area in the last three months. You can look at the current listing prices in your area for comparison, but remember that these prices only reflect the seller’s idea of what they think their home is worth, and it could be so far from the realities of the market that potential buyers won’t even consider the listing.

Photos and Video Tours

To add photos to your listing, you can use the “drag and drop” option or click on the “Add New Photo” button and upload photos from your phone or computer. If you want to add a caption to a photo, just click on it once you’ve uploaded it. You can move photos around or delete them by clicking on them.

If you’ve created a virtual tour, you can input the URL to link to the tour. You can also add Zillow’s “3D Home” app to create or edit a video tour.

Home Facts and Description

The next step is to enter the details about your home such as the number of bedrooms, square footage, year built, and lot size. If you don’t know some of the details and your home was sold in recent years, you can do a search on your address and find previous listings with the details. 

This also can give you a description of the property. You can change this or create your own description from scratch, but the previous description might point out key features that you want to be sure to highlight in your new description. It is a good idea to try to keep the description to 250 words or less because otherwise, buyers with short attention spans might miss key features. In another section, you’ll have more space to highlight the aspects that make the property unique.

If you can’t find details such as lot size from a previous real estate listing or appraisal, you can usually go to county property records online for information.

Additional Information

In the final sections, you have the option to schedule open houses, add a link to additional information on another website, and specify details about what the home contains. Zillow provides three drop-down lists for room details, building details, and utility details. Click on each section to indicate details such as the appliances that come with the home, the types of flooring, amenities, and HVAC information.

You can describe what you “love” about the home as a final sales pitch to explain special features that may not be apparent from the traditional description and details.

Zillow requires you to include a phone number with the listing, and potential buyers will also be able to contact you through the email address you used when you created your account. To submit your listing, click the “Post for Sale by Owner” button. Then Zillow will respond with an automated call to verify information for the listing, such as the zip code. It can take up to 24 hours or more for the listing to appear online and you should receive a confirmation notice via email.

Get the Right Legal Guidance During the FSBO Process

Sellers who are not working with a real estate agent can benefit substantially from working with the right attorney. While many attorneys are concerned only with showing up at the closing to collect their fee, For Sale By Owner by the Galam Firm is different. We offer guidance throughout the sales process, from before the time your property is listed through closing, all for one flat fee. Our team includes professionals with experience not only in real estate law but also the business side of real estate. Contact us today to learn how we can help you get the most from the FSBO process.