Please give good tips to sell house by overselves (appraise, negotiating, agents)
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When I did FSBO there were different reasons. Every previous sale with a realtor I was already moved out. This time I wasn't going to take the dog and sit in the car while the house was shown.
I sold everything. Some people bought items I had for sale but not the house.
I priced including a discount for no realtor. I did not do it to save 6%.
When people were looking at it I gave them my cash price, quite a bit lower. I sold it to a cash buyer.
I may have taken longer to sell it but I did enjoy the experience.
Use Craigslist, Zillow, or whatever free online advertising. I paid for on-line ads a while, and I didn't get any more hits on the paid ad than the free ones. All situations are different. I had terrible luck with realtors (they didn't even try). If you're not going to have a realtor, at least go through a title company when you do sell.
My advice: get a Realtor. If you even have to ask for tips on an anonymous forum from a bunch of strangers, hire a Realtor.
I can't rep again but this is good advice plus it made me laugh. I hope JK doesn't mind if I borrow this line from time to time. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
OP:
-At a minimum go ahead and meet with a RE attorney and have the proper legal forms available to you.
-Complete the dislosures.
-Partner with a lender to qualify your buyers before allowing them into your home.
-Notify a friend/family member of when you have showings and have them check on you after showings to make sure you're ok. Have a safe word-I suggest red for danger/call the police, yellow for caution/still here call back in 15, green for all good.
-Have a sign and fliers. Get on as many websites as you can.
-Offer a co-broke.
-Get a home inspection done ahead of time. Update, repair, and renovate as needed so you're an A+ on condition.
First thing you need to do is to price you home competitively. Search the Internet and get an idea of selling prices for comparable* homes in your neighborhood and then set up a price for your own home.
You need to know the selling points. Think about the specific details that make your house special to potential buyers.
Take a look at other listings on websites and make a similar advertising of your home.
And don’t forget that it’s critical that you comply with the laws in your area related to selling homes.
I am an agent and I also sold several of my own homes FSBO (with a flat fee broker) before becoming an agent. I started selling FSBO because I was less than impressed with the agents I'd had in the past and knew I could do better. I eventually became an agent myself in large part so that I could give my clients the level of service I wish I had received myself. So I will not try to talk you out of selling FSBO. However, make sure you understand...
You almost certainly still have to pay the buyer's agent a commission, generally around 3%, unless you can find a buyer who doesn't have an agent, which is highly, highly unlikely. The buyers' agency agreement with the agent promises the agent that they will receive a commission when they find the buyers a house, and if the seller is not willing to pay it, then the buyers have to pony up. So, since there is a 95% chance you will have to pay the buyer's agent their commission, you really are only saving the 3% or so you would pay to the listing agent. Out of that 3% you will have to pay a certain amount in marketing--to a "flat fee" broker, for a sign, a lock box, for copies, for any updates to your MLS listing. Other optional costs may include: someone to design your flyer if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, for an answering service such as CSS that is commonly used by agents for booking showings, a professional photographer, a market appraisal, a staging consultant, a real estate attorney . . . So really you save between 2-2.5% by selling FSBO, not the 6% you may have envisioned.
Although it is not ethical, realize that many agents will refuse to sell your home or will try to influence buyers not to choose your home, first because they are unhappy that you are cutting into agents' livelihood and second because working a deal without an agent on the other side tends to be somewhat unpleasant (due to many FSBOs' antipathy towards agents) a pain in the @ss and considerably more work. You also will have to be familiar with the terms of a contract to ensure that you are not being short-changed in other areas. For example, in some areas of the country it is customary for sellers to pay for title insurance, and in others for the buyers to. Is the buyer asking you to pay for title insurance? Do you know how much that will cost you? Do you know the difference between a buyer with an FHA loan and a conventional loan, and what that could potentially cost you? Do you know to make sure a pre-approval letter (not just a pre-qualification letter) is included with every offer, and do you know which lenders are considered reputable and which are not? If your buyer ends up not qualifying, weeks later you are back to square one looking for another buyer.
You may still consider it worth the money you will save, and that is entirely your right as the homeowner to choose how to sell your home. Many FSBOs (including me, in a past life) sell every day so obviously it can be done, so please don't take my above comments as an effort to scare you or talk you out of it. I would say you need to be quite familiar with the selling and marketing process, as well as with local marketing conditions, or to be willing to educate yourself about such matters.
If you do choose at some point to go with an agent, that's a whole new topic--how to find a good one, as I personally consider maybe 20% of agents worth their commission. You can check some of my other replies on other threads for my advice on that, should you choose to go that route.
In my opinion, the success of FSBO depends largely on the demand for what you're selling. We have property in the most desirable town in our metropolitan area, mainly due to the school district. Additionally, several years ago the city council passed an ordinance setting a minimum square footage for new construction at 2,000 sq ft. It's a unique market in that smaller homes, priced under $200k are in such demand that FSBO works. We sold a FSBO 1400 sq ft rental house this summer within a week of putting out a sign and an ad on Zillow. It sold to the first couple who looked at it for full asking price (appraisal price). We did work with the buyers agent and agreed to pay the 3% commission. We knew it was a hot market, since there was so little competition. Highly recommend FSBO in that situation.
So now we're getting ready to sell our personal residence and may try FSBO for a month just to see what happens, but will definitely list with a Realtor as we approach spring. The market for our price/size house is more competitive, so don't want to waste a lot of time trying FSBO.
Either way, agree with other posters that it needs to be decluttered and spit shined before you put that sign in the yard!
Last edited by Drift Away; 11-26-2016 at 05:43 PM..
It makes zero sense to use a realtor without at least trying to sell on your own.
A realtor most important thing is pricing and tips how to sell. Guess what they give that away for free all the time.
Clean it up, price it right and put a big sign up, pay for advertising, if it does not work in a month then hire a realtor.
My next door neighbor got screwed hard by hiring a realtor. Funny in a way. He hires a realtor agrees to pay her 3.5% is she sells and 5% on MLS. She pops a sign in the front lawn. 15 minutes later door bell rings it is neighbor three doors down and says his son wants to buy as they are having a baby and they want to move near the parents for babysiting as wife works.
He notifies realtor and they buy house for $625k,000 and he writes a check for $21,875 to realtor for five seconds work.
If he had just put a sign up for a few days he would have sold it. I am all for realtors, but often there is someone who is already nearby who wants house. You want to make sure at least those folks are aware before you go to a realtor.
I would definitely recommend you to hire an experienced real estate agent. A real estate transaction is filled with complexities that a skilled agent can help you navigate.
You need to pay agent a commission. So agreed upon the amount of it before you start the selling process. If it's reasonable, consider the benefits to you to hire this individual.
Ask your agent to advise you on preparing your home for sale.
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