Real Estate Question for Marion County (Ocala: flat fee, for sale by owner, foreclosures)

[journey1]

Anyone in Marion County (Ocala FL) who might would know of a GOOD Real Estate Agent please let me know. My husband and I have had our home on the market for 10 months and not one (1) showing. We need an agent that needs the money and will work for us. Not one, that is wanting another agent to sell the listing and he would get the 3% for doing nothing. The agent that we have his contract will be up in October. WE jsut do not know who out here can sale our home for us. WE NEED HELP!

We would like to move to TN. But it is looking like we will be here for a long while. Our house sits on 4.69/ac. The house was built in 1999. It is prestine condition. We need to sell this house and get on with our lives. We need help!

Thank you.
Journey1

[wacahootaman]

If you must go with a full service realtor, pick up the Homes and Land Mag and look at the realtors adds and call them and see what they say.

Ocalaforsale.com is a free site with lots of traffic. Adds are free there unless you posts pics. Put a "take one flyer box with flyers in it on your for sale sign. Put flyers up anywhere you can on bulliten boards etc. You gotta constantly promote it yourself even if you got a realtor listing it.

I have my house up for sale since July 4th and have shown it 8 times. 50 flyers have been taken from my sign box by interested people but no one has made an offer. Everyone knows property values are falling and noone wants to buy before the bottom unless they have to or unless your property is what they are looking and priced below the market.

If nothing gells soon, I will lower the price.

To move it in this market you gotta ask less than comparables, probably quite a bit less. Most listings are not selling because the price is too high. Lower your price low enough and it will sell.

Also you can offer the selling realtor a bonus. Just think of the bonus a price reduction off the selling price. If you are thinking reducing the price 30k reduce it 25k and offer the selling realtor an extra 5k at closing.

[jstbetonme]

Homes and land magazine does not work. Only 3 % of Buyers say they started there search using a magazine or newspaper. Maybe you are just over priced. 70% of the sales in 2007 were from 150k to 100k. Sales were off 44% from 06 and 06 was off 37% from 05. go to floridaliving.com and search stats. Sales are at a level from 1980 prices are still going to fall in 2008 by 11-13% based on the fordable scale of wages in the area. Don't blame your Realtor if they provided you the information. If they did not, then blame them. Re/max has the greatest Internet reach. Call Varney at Re/max.

[AaronSpink]

Advertise the home at a slightly marked-up price and offer 8% or more to any realtor that sells it. You will have traffic at your home the next day.

[Charlotte Shoemaker]

I disagree with AaronSpink. I'm a full service Realtor but I wouldn't want one of my buyers to think that I steered to to a house because I was going to make a huge commission. Actually, I'm less apt to show houses that have some rediculously high commission. And, if I sell a builder's spec and they pay 5% to the buyer's agent, I usually give the buyer a large gift certificate to Lowes or Home Depot as a closing gift or a buyer's rebate. Our customers want us to earn a fair commission but they don't like being ripped off or feeling that a Realtor took advantage of them. And, Realtors who go through looking for listings with higher commissions discust me. Our job is to show a customer the houses that fit their needs, not count our commissions before we show property. I would hope that most Realtors feel the same.

[beer980]

Ours has been for sale by owner since May. I have had a mixed response from various areas. We went with a flat fee listing service to get us in the MLS. It included a yard sign, a flyer box and lockbox for a Realtor to show the house. We have had people contact us from the flyers in the box, Craigslist and Ocala4sale.com. We have not had any Realtor contact us for a showing so I don't think a 3% commission is very attractive to them either. That is a $7000 commission and we have done most of the work with advertising. I really don't think agents try and show FSBO. We would be glad to throw in a $100 gift card to any buyer that used a Realtor. Right now we are giving a $500 gift card pack to any that buy through us. Maybe you can try that. It is just the market right now and if you can wait it out long enough it will turn around. We will be relocating whenever ours does sell but it is not a emergency move. For now we are just waiting for a buyer or Realtor to call for a showing.

[sords]

The only thing selling are foreclosures. We took our house off the market after 6 months. I was going to talk with the Violas at remax they are in the SW section of Ocala, they advertise on ocala.com and offer a moving van, but since I canceled my listing in early August it doest look like they have even sold a listing and I think they are one of the harder working agents with a good amount of advertising in the area.

[MyHomeIsInOcala]

Start interviewing agents.

Just a suggestion of things to look for in your interview, remember... YOU are the employer:

• You will want to see all their recent sales and sales over the past 6 months.
• Current Listings and upcoming Open Houses (you can visit and see how they prepared and presented other property)
• CMA of local area "Like" property (How is the CMA presented? Is it preformated or just MLS printouts of local property? Neatness and Presentation Count)
• Current and Past Advertising and Marketing Material
• Commission structure
• Communication Skills (are they comfortable or do you feel like they are snow-balling you)
• Photos of listings... Are their photography skills up to par? This is a HUGE part of Marketing!
• Search the internet for their "Name"
• Review their commercial (office) website
• Review their personal website
• and last but not least.... Ask them about their networking in the community. I know this sounds a bit silly, but it does help.

I would also look at agents who works with a National Company and WILL market to more than just the local media.

Again, just some suggestions!!

[planthappy]

STAY AWAY FROM REMAX! Once my listing with them was up (after a year) I sold my house the next day thanks to Prudential.

[DanBev]

I had my house for sale in North FL by national realtor for 6 months,in the end they brought 3 unqualified buyers thru.I asked them to use Advertiser,they refused.I now have it FSBO,Advertiser etc. I have had 15 look at it and now have 2 prospective buyers.Assessment and taxes are high in Marion County.I had property there awhile back.