Home sales spelled out: S-i-m-p-l-e

If you are getting ready to sell your home, you won’t find a better primer on selling a residence than “Home Seller’s Checklist” by Robert Irwin.

This simple book is in question-and-answer format. If a topic doesn’t interest the reader, it’s easy to skip to sections of more urgent interest, such as hiring a real estate agent.

Irwin, who has written more than 50 real estate books, is a longtime realty broker, investor and author who has a knack for making the complicated seem simple.

Equally important to the easy-read formula is the choice of home-seller questions and authoritative answers. The author is well qualified not only to ask the right questions but to provide practical answers based on his experience.

For example, in the section about how home sellers can find a listing agent, Irwin suggests several methods. Then he follows up by listing the questions savvy sellers should ask each agent they interview.

Along the way, the author warns of tricks a few agents use and home sellers need to know about, such as agents who overestimate or underestimate probable sales prices.

Irwin explains virtually everything sellers need to know. If you are considering selling alone without a professional realty agent, he explains problems do-it-yourself sellers should anticipate and how to handle them.

There is an entire section on selling “by owner,” as Irwin calls selling without a listing agent. Although the author is a Realtor, he shares techniques on how to sell the home faster, how to show the house to prospective buyers and even how to handle purchase offers obtained by realty agents who represent buyers.

Another section explains how to sell a home when you’re under pressure, such as when the local home sales market is declining in value.

Irwin anticipates distress situations, such as when the home seller owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth (called a “short sale”), how to handle an attorney, the lender and temporary profit alternatives such as renting the home or giving the lender a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

It is hard to find fault with this simple, direct, easy-to-read book. The reader might disagree with the author’s opinions -- such as never to sign a listing longer than 90 days -- but it is valuable advice based on his extensive experience.