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With appraisals going haywire today and the fact that the buyer already thinks they should get your home for a bargain price because you are not paying a commission it will be tough to get even near your already low price. Also I have been really amazed lately how many buyers are trying to re-negotiate the price after the inspection so know what a major and what minor defect is.
If you have had showings what did the realtor tell you the feedback was?
How is your curb appeal?
Are other more expensive homes selling in your subdivision?
Does your realtor know how to stage or can they put you in contact with a professional stager?
Ask your realtor what do you think I need to do to make my house sell. Remove all family pictures and personal, religious and any political items. Box up ANYTHING that you are not using clutter makes a house look smaller! Your going to have to have stuff packed for your move anyway and people look at cluttered houses as ones that are not well taken care of.
Go to the store and get a couple vanilla scented plug ins. When it is time for the house to be shown turn on all the lights in the house.
Refresh paint if you have not yet.
Just a few tips that might help.
And probably the most important hire a REALTOR that is internet savvy! Ask them what their website is. If they give you their company website they might not be internet savvy. Ask them where they blog, what forums they go on, if they are on facebook. While a lot of those things are not a requirement for selling a home it will certainly tell you if they are internet friendly. Statistics show 87% of all people are finding their home on the internet. So if you ask your agent how they are going to promote your home and they tell you they run ads in the local paper you will know.
I did it and know others that did, and it is definitely worth it, anyone to suggest otherwise is irresponsible. However, it depends on your attitude and how much time you are willing to invest to market/sell your home, your best weapon is a good RE attorney. Of course, price, location, condition and region are are also important factors but it is very doable even in this buyers market. Good luck.
Follow Silverfalls advice above to list on MLS, offer 2.5% to 3.00% commission to buyers agent.
Irresponsible? huh? How is that irresponsible? There are plenty of reasons not to lists FSBO - I have done it myself and it can be a real headache. Even listing your home on the MLS doesn't mean your property will get a fair shake. Buyers agents may still steer Buyers away from your property, without a Selling agent to handle half the work load they will end up dealing with both the Seller and the Buyer. Also you end up dropping $300 - $400 for 6 months on the MLS and the house still might not Sell?! Agents don't JUST list your property on the MLS they also market in newspapers and dozens of websites... in this market those efforts can go on for months or YEARS! A Listing agent does all this, coordinates showings and open houses usually FOR FREE until the house sells. Does that perspective sound irresponsible?
Irresponsible? huh? How is that irresponsible? There are plenty of reasons not to lists FSBO - I have done it myself and it can be a real headache. Even listing your home on the MLS doesn't mean your property will get a fair shake. Buyers agents may still steer Buyers away from your property, without a Selling agent to handle half the work load they will end up dealing with both the Seller and the Buyer. Also you end up dropping $300 - $400 for 6 months on the MLS and the house still might not Sell?! Agents don't JUST list your property on the MLS they also market in newspapers and dozens of websites... in this market those efforts can go on for months or YEARS! A Listing agent does all this, coordinates showings and open houses usually FOR FREE until the house sells. Does that perspective sound irresponsible?
I should have been clear on my response, I made reference to cheryjohns post below, where it flatout states that they don't work, that is not true, hence my response.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cheryjohns
I have had clients that tried them before going to a realtor. Save your money. They don't work and you will put non-refundable money out there for the ads. The quiet that you are experiencing is due to the market - they aren't going to flock to your house because you went with FSBO.com.
Sorry that your home is on the market for such a long time. If you missed the buyer frenzy getting the stimulus money, then your home has been priced incorrectly from the beginning. You need to forget about all of the past months that you had the wrong price tag. Whether or not you are the lowest listing in the neighborhood doesn't matter. Are you priced where your market says you should be...based upon sold properties. You should be at or slightly below the last actual SALE price because, in case you have missed this, prices are continuing to fall in most areas.
Once you get your home priced accurately, you WILL get traffic and you WILL get an offer to purchase. Also, how aggressive is your RE professional. Are you everywhere possible on the web, do you have video, virtual tour, are thousands of emails going out to area agents focusing on your home sent by your agent? Are renters in the area receiving direct mail showing off your home. This is a FULL TIME job....these are ALL the things necessary in this challenging market to get homes sold.
It's worth it if you sell your house. Whenever I talk to someone thinking about selling their home without an agent I always say - it depends on the individual. Some can do it, others can't. I have a worksheet I give them to help them decide. Below is a section of the worksheet that is basically questions you can ask yourself - who knows - you may be a good candidate.
You have the time and skill to field inquiries and schedule appointments
You know how you will secure your personal safety and the safety of your family and belongings during showings
You are aware of the federal, state, and local disclosures you are required to make to the buyer
You know how to determine if buyers are qualified to purchase your home
You know how to market your home to the largest pool of potential buyers to get the highest price for your home
You have a strategy for avoiding litigation when providing buyers with information about your home
You are prepared to negotiate with bargain hunters and with the buyer’s demands for repairs
You have a plan on what to do if the buyer wants to back out of the transaction, tries to renegotiate, or fails to qualify for a mortgage.
Since greater than 90% of buyers (in my area) use a real estate agent in their home buying process, you have a strategy for marketing to the real estate brokerage community and are prepared to pay a commission to the buyers agent
Since 80% of buyers search for homes on the Internet, you know how and have time to advertise on the Internet, track traffic to your site, and follow up with leads you receive
I definitely agree that you should do the following or not even bother:
Put it in the MLS, you are almost not even on the market if you are not in MLS
Have a good real estate attorney to help you if you don't have an agent.
Be willing to pay a buyer's agent fee.
I'm selling my house FSBO. It's been on the market about two months. I paid a local agency $300 to put it on the MLS, as well as have been marketing it myself with craigslist/owners.com/ plus a few others.
We've had 30 showings and 3 offers to date. Of the 30 showings, 28 came from the MLS.
I don't feel that I've invested much more time in the process by doing it myself.
"You have the time and skill to field inquiries and schedule appointments"
If the house you are selling is still occupied, your listing agent still has to confirm appointments with you. It saves time for the buyers agent to contact you directly. Granted, you have to be available for phone calls at all hours of the day.
"You know how you will secure your personal safety and the safety of your family and belongings during showings"
Common sense
"You are aware of the federal, state, and local disclosures you are required to make to the buyer"
You have to fill out a seller's disclosure. Big deal - takes about 1 hour to complete - time you would spend anyway if you hire a listing agent.
"You know how to determine if buyers are qualified to purchase your home"
Listing agents don't screen buyers for each showing, BUYER'S AGENTS do.
"You know how to market your home to the largest pool of potential buyers to get the highest price for your home"
Realtor BS. Price it right, take good pictures, write a good description and stick it in the MLS. That's the only marketing that you need.
"You have a strategy for avoiding litigation when providing buyers with information about your home"
More realtor scaremongering
"You are prepared to negotiate with bargain hunters and with the buyer’s demands for repairs"
Listing agents want the transaction to close, not necessarily get the seller the best price. I actually enjoy negotiating. I'm negotiating directly with the buyers agents, not a filtered view thru a listing agent. If you have the ability to say YES or NO, you have the ability to negotiate with listing agents.
"You have a plan on what to do if the buyer wants to back out of the transaction, tries to renegotiate, or fails to qualify for a mortgage."
How is this any different whether you FSBO or hire a listing agent? Bottom line, it's something you deal with when it occurs.
"Since greater than 90% of buyers (in my area) use a real estate agent in their home buying process, you have a strategy for marketing to the real estate brokerage community and are prepared to pay a commission to the buyers agent"
Yes, you need to offer 2-3% commission to a buyers agent. "Marketing to the real estate brokerage community" Please. Perhaps this is necessary for some high end or special properties, but for your average house, it's not. Again, sticking it in the MLS is all you need.
If selling your home were as simple as the previous poster indicated, more people would successfully be able sell FSBO. It is good advice to have someone help you with the process, whether it is a real estate attorney or an agent to help you go through the contract/negotiation process, unless you are an experienced negotiator. Only about 7&-8% of homes sold were FSBO to buyers that the seller did not know beforehand. There has to be some reason for that.
I do not try to discourage any from selling FSBO, I even wish you, and all FSBO's well. But, in my experience I have seen two things with FSBO's. 1) The asking price is too high! 2) The selling price is too low.
Rickabdella has provided an excellent list of issues to cover and advice to follow. If sticking it on the MLS was all you needed to sell it, there would be many more successful home sellers. One thing that he leaves off is that often the seller is his/her own worst enemy during the showing and negotiation process. It is very difficult to remain objective. That's why we encourage sellers to be away from home during any showings.
There are a lot of other very good tips in this thread. If you follow them you will have a much better chance of selling your home at market value. Best of luck either way you go. But, if you go back with an agent discuss conditions, market, pricing, competition, marketing strategies, etc. thoroughly up front.
Didn't read all the logic from above but the 1 thing that caught my eye:
Quote:
Listing agents don't screen buyers for each showing, BUYER'S AGENTS do.
I had to smile with that one. If they only knew how many buyer agents never put their clients in front of a lender before they show them houses. I've had so many people who I've met that will tell you about their stellar credit and couldn't get a newspaper on credit. Or the Mortgage Companies that pass out Pre-Qual letters that should be used as toilet paper. Also my all time favorite is "I'm a Doctor so you know I've got great credit" There are many high paid professionals who are broke or bankrupt.
So ahead and take that contract on your house which might in 60 days fall apart because the buyer can't get the money. Then you can hold the buyers agent responsible, but he won't care cause he represents the buyer.
One more quick note: Be sure and read your financing information in your contract about contingencies and release of earnest money. That is one of the biggies of people who come here and are totally confused and don't understand.
I'm selling my house FSBO. It's been on the market about two months. I paid a local agency $300 to put it on the MLS, as well as have been marketing it myself with craigslist/owners.com/ plus a few others.
We've had 30 showings and 3 offers to date. Of the 30 showings, 28 came from the MLS.
Congratulations on all your showings! – I truly hope you are able to sell it by yourself.
I’m not going to address all your points because you are entitled to your opinion – but on some issues you have given misleading answers that could be dangerous to some that would follow it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BedfordResident1
"You are aware of the federal, state, and local disclosures you are required to make to the buyer"
You have to fill out a seller's disclosure. Big deal - takes about 1 hour to complete - time you would spend anyway if you hire a listing agent.
Disclosing required information is not just about filling out a certain form. There are other required disclosures depending on each individual property. For example – Lead Based Paint disclosure for certain homes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BedfordResident1
"You know how to determine if buyers are qualified to purchase your home"
Listing agents don't screen buyers for each showing, BUYER'S AGENTS do.
The Buyer’s Agent is looking out for the best interest of the Buyer. A good listing agent will also verify that the buyer is qualified.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BedfordResident1
"You have a strategy for avoiding litigation when providing buyers with information about your home"
More realtor scaremongering
You may not like it, but this is a valid issue – our nation is very sue happy. This is related to the line about knowing which disclosures you are required to make but also other areas like Fair Housing. Fair housing laws apply to unrepresented sellers too – it is important to know what the protected classes are and what can and cannot be said or eluded to. Just like they say on cop shows ‘anything you say can and will be used against you’.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BedfordResident1
Realtor BS. Price it right, take good pictures, write a good description and stick it in the MLS. That's the only marketing that you need.
You don’t know how much I wish this were true. My job would be a 1000% easier.
Like I said, I wish you all the best in trying to sell your home. I never said or implied anyone should or shouldn’t do it themselves. In fact I am 100% convinced it is better that you are doing it yourself.
Wow 30 showings and 3 offers. Any contracts? Still showing or are you under contract?
I can't tell you how many filtering episodes I needed to do when the seller said **** off and I said "the seller is not so interested in repairing the ..., but you know your buyer could have it done, and direct the repair themselves.
Wow 30 showings and 3 offers. Any contracts? Still showing or are you under contract
Funny this comment stuck out for me too!
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Thank you! Great advice!
