Any thoughts on selling home by owner (for sale, real estate)

[feng21]

Hi ....

My cousin has a real estate agent across the street who tried to sell his house for last 8 months. He have been reducing price but there are no offers - about 20 showings till now. This agent has sold couple of homes in the community in the last couple of years.

1. Should he change the agent now?
2. Should he try selling it on his own at much reduced price - He will be using the commission that has to be paid to the agent as discount to the prospective buyer.
3. Should he lease it? If so, any well known property management company that can make sure the tenant has kept the property intact?

Any other options? He certainly does not want a short sale.

Thanks in advance!

[baybook]

Just my opinion, but I never looked at FSBO when I was house hunting.

[baybook]

Oh... if he only has had 20 showing in 8 months, I'm guessing his area has no traffice or his price is still way too high. The amount of discount he is getting by doing fsbo is what 3%. Not much $$

[feng21]

Thanks baybook. The commission charged by Realtor is about 12 to 14 k ...

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by feng21

Thanks baybook. The commission charged by Realtor is about 12 to 14 k ...

In this buyers market?? A seller needs all the help he can get - FSBO's are a waste of most buyers time. Any house not in MLS will have a much harder time attracting attention, sorry

[feng21]

Thanks LovesMountians....

[bajanqueen]

I had a realtor nextdoor to me and it did not pan out (three years) she never really gave me any input as to what the sellers were saying and with her house next to mine I think that lowering my price would be a bullet on her home value that she did not want to bite. Think about it they are selling to someone who would be living across from them. I changed realtors made some changes suggested, and bit the bullet and lowered the price (at a loss but piece of mind)and the house was sold in 30 days. It might have been luck but who knows.

I would not want the headache of FSBO and as one poster stated you get more exposure being with a realtor

[feng21]

The agent wants him to lower the price almost 15k below tax value of the house

[Wolf Howl]

I sold my house back in July in about 4 weeks FSBO. We had it listed on FSBO.com, did one newspaper ad, sign in the yard with flyers and listed it on Craigslist. It actually sold via Craigslist. We were on a well traveled road though and in a location where houses rarely went for sale, definitely an advantage. Good luck.

[coastalgirl]

You can do FSBO and still list on MLS. There are many ways to do it, just google it. You can also do what we did and offer agents 3% if they bring a buyer. If you are in a desirable area, consider also handing out fliers in your neighborhood offering $1000 to anyone who brings a buyer, or some other incentive. When we sold our last house ourselves we marketed to realtors and had them practically breaking down our doors to bring clients in. We sold in 7 days with a contract we printed out online. It wasn't hard or even time consuming. I probably spent a grand total of two hours creating a flier with photos and making a listing that I emailed to local agents. I placed an ad in the paper, stuck a sign in the yard and at the first major intersection by our neighborhood. We advertised an open house on the first Saturday and the house was sold by the evening.