FSBO - Selling house by owner (sale, how much, houses)

[XRiteMA98]

Originally Posted by trackstar13

I think the biggest negative to FSBO is that you are limiting your pool of potential buyers. It can definitely work if you price the house right and you are good at marketing, but it can also backfire. When purchasing houses, I have looked at FSBOs and had some pretty bad experiences. I looked at one house that the guy literally told me he was pricing it based on what he needed to get to buy another smaller house in the same area and have enough for a down payment on a retirement condo in Florida. I actually really liked the house, but after I looked at the comps and factored in the issue of it being at the corner of a busier street I presented him with an offer. It was about 20% off of his asking price, but not unreasonable, because I compiled all of the recent comparable sales in the area and my offer was only a little less than those sale prices, due to the busy street. The guy's response was I will let it sit until I get the exact list price or more. I drive by the house every once in a while and I noticed last week that it is still listed for sale LOL.

As a final point on this topic, after we tried buying without an agent and looking at FSBOs we decided to hire a buyer's agent and it worked well for us. She did a great job of finding expired listings, rentals that were soon going on the market, and short sales to give us a new inventory of houses we would have never found. She also avoided FSBOs like the plague and understandably so, because she wouldn't get a commission or would have had to negotiate that with a seller. This made me realize that if you list your house FSBO you are all but eliminating the potential that people with buyer's agents will ever take a look at your house.

Not necessarily. There is a website fsbo.com who offer MSL numbers for people who sell their own homes so that they can be found by people looking on-line. I think that nowadays people do look online for houses and MSL#s come in handy, so I think that by doing this one doesn't eliminate any potential buyer.

At least this is what I am planning to do once my house gets renovated.

My house is on a very busy street, so the sign will be seen by hundreds, but because of that street, I agree that prices are lower than identical houses on quiet streets, so I'll try to price it right. Another thing I will do is to get it inspected before I put it on the market, so that I know what to fix. I don't want surprises.

[Goodjules]

Slightly off topic, but it bears repeating. Use a buyer's agent when you are moving to a new area. I followed the Pittsburgh market online for many years before I decided to move from SF. Even so, prices here are 75% lower than SF and it was next to impossible for me to tell the difference between an overpriced home and a good deal. My agent guided me and we got the sellers to drop the price of the home I bought by a significant amount. I came here a four day trip and would not have been able to effectively navigate the market on my own in such a short period of time.

[XRiteMA98]

Originally Posted by trackstar13

. Many buyers who use agents will just look at what is presented to them and what they see listed in the traditional listing formats. Zillow, Trulia, etc. are making FSBO easier, but there is still a segment of buyers you will miss by going FSBO.

I think you should know who your buyer is. In my case my target audience is young couple or young single person. Young, that's the key. Young means, he/she will probably look for houses on his/her mobile phone and get alerts when one is listed in his zipcode of interest .

I can't think of anyone who in this day and age, will limit themselves to what the realtor gives them and not try to get themselves on realtor.com to see what's out there.

[Retiredcoach]

Originally Posted by trackstar13

I see what you are saying here, but as I was trying to point out before that many buyer's agents will do their best to avoid FSBOs and you won't even have the opportunity to tell them that you will pay their portion of the commission. Many buyers who use agents will just look at what is presented to them and what they see listed in the traditional listing formats. Zillow, Trulia, etc. are making FSBO easier, but there is still a segment of buyers you will miss by going FSBO. Also, there are the people like me who are open to all possibilities, but have had some bad experiences with FSBO sellers so I will be very cautious dealing with them.

The question remains: What do you really have to lose by attempting to sell your house yourself? It may cost you some time and expanded effort on your part to be a FSBO, but the financial rewards can be significant. I agree with H_Curtis, in that, it really is not that difficult process- you are just cutting out the middleman (realtor) mark-up. Many law offices specializing in real estate will guide you through the initial paperwork, when you find your buyer as your need might arise.

I so disagree with the poster proclaiming that houses selling in one week are probably underpriced. I sold my second home through a buyers agent (buyer paid her commission) with a full price offer. It helped me both by doing my own research of previously sold comps to help determine the asking price. The house was priced realistically, in a popular location, and was aesthetically pleasing (with new paint, some updating inside and out, very clean& uncluttered). It took us longer to create the for sale sign than to actually sell the home. We used the Sunday Post-Gazette as our lone marketing tool, as Craigslist was not viable at that time.

One last observation- many FSBO sellers do not maintain a realistic perspective of the true value of their homes. They overprice their home in the marketplace (often at inflated levels recommended to them by realtors hoping for a future listing) and become frustrated when the home does not sell.

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

Not necessarily. There is a website fsbo.com who offer MSL numbers for people who sell their own homes so that they can be found by people looking on-line. I think that nowadays people do look online for houses and MSL#s come in handy, so I think that by doing this one doesn't eliminate any potential buyer.

I understand what you are saying and I agree and disagree. First, I agree that if you know what you are doing and you get an MLS # and you let buyer's agents know that there is a commission associated with your home if they show it and sell it you can make it work. Some of the FSBO websites even let agents know that the commission is there and it can be mentioned in the MLS listing. The issue with this is many people who list FSBO do not go through all the necessary steps and price the house appropriately. For instance, I could list my house FSBO on Zillow and not mention anything about commission, or just stick a sign in my yard "For Sale," or just list it on Craigslist. This is where I disagree with you and believe that FSBO can eliminate potential buyers. Also, as a final point if an agent has their own listing and they are a buyer's agent they can show you that property and make an increased commission, so in these cases it may be hard for the FSBO to compete. If I buy again I will probably look at some FSBOs again, but I as I said earlier I will always be weary about them until they are more of the norm and I don't feel awkward negotiating with an unrealistic seller.

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by Retiredcoach

The question remains: What do you really have to lose by attempting to sell your house yourself? It may cost you some time and expanded effort on your part to be a FSBO, but the financial rewards can be significant.

One last observation- many FSBO sellers do not maintain a realistic perspective of the true value of their homes. They overprice their home in the marketplace (often at inflated levels recommended to them by realtors hoping for a future listing) and become frustrated when the home does not sell.

I disagree with the first part because you potentially have alot to lose by attempting to sell your house by yourself if you are unrealistic or don't know what you are doing. Yes the financial rewards can be significant, but so can the losses. As others have posted if you go all out and get the MLS # and list it properly FSBO and market it, but you act creepy and follow potential buyers around the house or price it too high from the beginning you are dooming your house to be one of those houses that sits on the market and becomes a house with a known problem.

I completely agree with the second part of what you posted and this is a major issue with FSBO. At first I thought the FSBO guy I was dealing with was kidding when he told me that he priced his house based on the amount of money he needed to achieve certain goals, but I eventually realized he was dead serious. I know that FSBO can be successful and who knows I may try to sell FSBO someday, but it is important to recognize the potential issues.

[Retiredcoach]

Originally Posted by trackstar13

I disagree with the first part because you potentially have alot to lose by attempting to sell your house by yourself if you are unrealistic or don't know what you are doing. Yes the financial rewards can be significant, but so can the losses. As others have posted if you go all out and get the MLS # and list it properly FSBO and market it, but you act creepy and follow potential buyers around the house or price it too high from the beginning you are dooming your house to be one of those houses that sits on the market and becomes a house with a known problem.

An unrealistic seller will have these same issues when listing his/her home with a realtor, as well. The big difference will be the exclusive selling contract that will commit him/her to that realtor for a specified time (3months? 6 months? one year?). A seller can be unrealistic whether he lists his home with the realtor, or whether he does not.

[Goinback2011]

I bought a house FSBO once.

The biggest issue was having to deal with the sellers, who were mad as hatters. They were brother and sister and had inherited the home from their father who passed away.

At one point, after telling the brother HE needed to tell his sister what we had just negotiated (he wanted ME to tell her), he called back crying.

With realtors, you don't get any of that.

[Copanut]

If you have the expertise to sell your own house, by all means, do it. Just be aware of all the duties you will have to perform: be available to show the house 24/7, follow the buyers around the house, you have no idea if their intentions are good, write up your own sales agreement, make sure you dot every I and cross every t. make sure the buyer is moving along getting his mortgage commitment, be there for the home inspection, contact the utility companies for the change over,

Hey, I'm a broker, and the last two homes I bought I had an agent do the all the work, likewise when I sold them. But that's just me.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Not true at all. The neighbors will see it and they may know people looking in their hood. Happens ALL the time. Also, you can hold an open house and put signs all over the place so the entire area will know you are selling. Craigs, Post Gazette and other media can work as well. Heck even a post card to a few people in the area might be helpful. Keep in mind, you can always use an agent later if you don't have luck on your own. Some folks shouldn't do it though. Some just can't handle such a thing and that is fine, but we are talking about a lot of money here. $6k per $100K value of a home? Not pennies. There are some homes that could really use the MLS. Some in the woods or really hard to get to, but an open house at least gets the word out and a neighbor may sell it for you.

Also, if your home is not worth much, it often doesn't make sense to list with an agent. Minimum commission is in the thousands, and a few thousand off a home worth 15-20k is a lot.