For Sale by Owner (Negotiating help!) (Grand Prairie: homes, buying, price)

[magnix]

Originally Posted by aggie972

Yeah, I agree with everyone saying that the OP isn't ready to DIY. It's kind of like me asking if I should install my own wood flooring instead of hiring a contractor. If I have experience working with wood, or if I at least have the mind for it and am willing to watch a bunch of how to videos, it could be worth the effort. But since I'm a numbers guy and not handy, I would rather hire a professional.

We have a situation - we are needing some net to pay off our truck balance in order to approve (we got our pre-qual approved after the sale plan) the loan to purchase a small house. We're trying to save $ as much as possible.

I dont think it matter whether Im lacking of knowledge or not when it comes to FSBO and its nothing wrong to learn to go through this myself from the beginning as of now. Its a good experience for me in the future.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by magnix

We have a situation - we are needing some net to pay off our truck balance in order to approve (we got our pre-qual approved after the sale plan) the loan to purchase a small house. We're trying to save $ as much as possible.

I dont think it matter whether Im lacking of knowledge or not when it comes to FSBO and its nothing wrong to learn to go through this myself from the beginning as of now. Its a good experience for me in the future.

Uh, yeah.

Be sure to come back and let us know how that went.

[aggie972]

Originally Posted by magnix

We have a situation - we are needing some net to pay off our truck balance in order to approve (we got our pre-qual approved after the sale plan) the loan to purchase a small house. We're trying to save $ as much as possible.

I dont think it matter whether Im lacking of knowledge or not when it comes to FSBO and its nothing wrong to learn to go through this myself from the beginning as of now. Its a good experience for me in the future.

How can I say this without being too much of an *******...

The post I'm quoting contains a bunch of errors. That doesn't bode well for anyone's confidence in your ability to execute a complicated legal transaction without any professional help. Also, the person on the other end of the transaction will want as seamless a purchase as possible, and won't weigh your personal edification against their own convenience.

[lphung129]

Originally Posted by magnix

We have a situation - we are needing some net to pay off our truck balance in order to approve (we got our pre-qual approved after the sale plan) the loan to purchase a small house. We're trying to save $ as much as possible.

I dont think it matter whether Im lacking of knowledge or not when it comes to FSBO and its nothing wrong to learn to go through this myself from the beginning as of now. Its a good experience for me in the future.

i'm just here for the comments

[aggieplaya]

Originally Posted by magnix

We have a situation - we are needing some net to pay off our truck balance in order to approve (we got our pre-qual approved after the sale plan) the loan to purchase a small house. We're trying to save $ as much as possible.

I dont think it matter whether Im lacking of knowledge or not when it comes to FSBO and its nothing wrong to learn to go through this myself from the beginning as of now. Its a good experience for me in the future.

Sure, it doesn't matter that you could potentially cheat yourself of thousands of dollars by making bad decisions. It is your money, after all.

[Annikan]

I would suggest that if you are going to try FSBO that you start researching online--there are many chat boards for people doing FSBO. You do *not* have to work with a buyer's agent. Just make it clear that you aren't willing to deal with agents, you want to work directly with the potential buyers. If you are trying to FSBO you should have already researched all of this and should have the appropriate contracts on hand. You will probably need to work with a real estate lawyer.

We bought our condo through a FSBO. The seller and my husband both had their own real estate lawyers for the transaction.

You really need to decide if you are a good candidate for FSBO--is your house located in an extremely hot property market, where any house is likely to sell quickly? Do you have plans for how showings will work? (words of advice: an owner showing you around their own house is awkward. You can't open people's closets and pantries and cabinets and comment freely when the owner is 2 inches to your left).

Also, as PPs have pointed out, you may get lower offers since people will know you are selling it yourself. Both the seller and we, the buyers, saved money when we bought so it was a win-win. Frankly, most people are too emotional about their own houses to know what a fair price is and negotiate well anyway.

[HockDad]

Originally Posted by magnix

We have a situation - we are needing some net to pay off our truck balance in order to approve (we got our pre-qual approved after the sale plan) the loan to purchase a small house. We're trying to save $ as much as possible.

I dont think it matter whether Im lacking of knowledge or not when it comes to FSBO and its nothing wrong to learn to go through this myself from the beginning as of now. Its a good experience for me in the future.

Why is it good experience for the future? Do you plan to deal in real estate, and have so many transactions that you can afford to learn by your mistakes?

I would hire an agent. The agent is more likely to get a higher price. As to the post that the agent has no financial inventive to get top dollar, the poster left out one key fact. Real estate agents absolutely live on referrals. Thus, they do have that incentive.

Finally, if you are so tight that you have to payoff a truck, I think you may want to wait a year, come up with a bigger down payment, and be more conservative. I would wait tables at Chiles to get money for the real estate agent before I tried to do it on my own.

[magnix]

Originally Posted by Annikan

I would suggest that if you are going to try FSBO that you start researching online--there are many chat boards for people doing FSBO. You do *not* have to work with a buyer's agent. Just make it clear that you aren't willing to deal with agents, you want to work directly with the potential buyers. If you are trying to FSBO you should have already researched all of this and should have the appropriate contracts on hand. You will probably need to work with a real estate lawyer.

We bought our condo through a FSBO. The seller and my husband both had their own real estate lawyers for the transaction.

You really need to decide if you are a good candidate for FSBO--is your house located in an extremely hot property market, where any house is likely to sell quickly? Do you have plans for how showings will work? (words of advice: an owner showing you around their own house is awkward. You can't open people's closets and pantries and cabinets and comment freely when the owner is 2 inches to your left).

Also, as PPs have pointed out, you may get lower offers since people will know you are selling it yourself. Both the seller and we, the buyers, saved money when we bought so it was a win-win. Frankly, most people are too emotional about their own houses to know what a fair price is and negotiate well anyway.

No, I DO want to be fair and will only pay 3% (or 2.5) for the buyer's agent and the main goal is to save other 3%.

[SandyJet]

Originally Posted by magnix

Is that possible? I only know I can list my house on MLS by paying the package online

Trulia, Zillow and Craigslist lets you list homes for free by owner. Also a small fee for FSBO website, also some firms like Redfin etc can get your house on MLS and you have to pay the selling broker fee but you can keep most of other half of fee.

[nissan]

What more info are you looking for? The perils of FSBO are many, esp. if it's your first time. It *can* be done, but ask yourself, is it really worth the time, hassle, and risk?

If you don't want to pay even 1.5% to Redfin, then just google for agents willing to sell for 1%. I don't think you'll find any agent willing to go lower.