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I'm dealing with a fsbo on a million dollar home in LA. He had it listed only on zillow for the last 6 months and had no showings. Of course, he was way overpriced and had 6 crap photos posted.
I've also had unrepresented buyers call me directly from a listing they saw on zillow, but those are very few compared to the number of lookers buyer's agents have brought in.
This alone tells me that zillow has very limited exposure.
I can also tell you that if you can't accommodate prospective buyers' request for viewing right away, those buyers usually won't be back. It's the sad truth.
I've also had unrepresented buyers call me directly from a listing they saw on zillow, but those are very few compared to the number of lookers buyer's agents have brought in.
This alone tells me that zillow has very limited exposure.
I fully expect there to be more "represented" buyers than solo buyers, and I'm willing to compensate them.
I would challenge you on the comment that "this alone tells me that zillow has very limited exposure" based upon your experience. According to many online statistics, Zillow is the #1 or at least in the top 10 of real estate websites visited. For example: Top 15 Most Popular Real Estate Websites | December 2014
Just because you have a few unrepresented buyers calling you from Zillow, doesn't mean that the others hadn't seen it there at some point and just happened to contact you in another fashion.
Additionally, I plan to list it on additional free sites, like Postlets, to help syndicate and spread the word. I just believe that if this does work, it will primarily be because of its placement on Zillow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oh come on!
I can also tell you that if you can't accommodate prospective buyers' request for viewing right away, those buyers usually won't be back. It's the sad truth.
I'd tend to agree on some random property, but in this community, average days on market for non-short sale properties is about 30 days. I'm not heavily concerned with the level of activity that I expect. As I mentioned, I can still put a lock box on the house, which is what most Realtors do anyway. I do think that most people will accommodate a reasonable request to have an appointment scheduled ahead of time.
I had a seller that put their house up in Zillow - at Zillow's zestimate price and then advertised open houses for 3 weeks on Craigslist. Highest offer was $210,000 - most below $200,00. When the $210,00 buyer failed to close, they listed with my firm. We had 13 offers in two days. We closed in 15 days for $242,000.
He walked away with $17,600 more with it listed.
The latest NAR survey says FSBO's make 12.6% more when they list. More than enough to cover whatever commission the Seller agrees to pay.
For the buyer agent, we did not try to negotiate her fee. She previewed the house, brought the buyer, and convinced them to pay full price. I figured she earned her 3%.
For the realtor that handled our end of the transaction, I simply contacted someone we had interviewed when we were talking about listing and explained the situation to them and asked if they would be willing to handle things for a reduced percentage. We paid a small fraction of a percent--well worth it. We probably could have gotten off a little cheaper if we had gone direct with a real estate attorney/title company but it was nice to not have to interact with the buyer directly and have someone else handle all the negotiations, inspection schedules, etc.
For the purchase we made after the sale of our house, we just used a real estate attorney and worked directly with the owner. There were no realtors involved on either side of the transaction. It worked well for us in that instance because we were able to negotiate some things that would have been highly unlikely in a regular real estate transaction.
I am assuming that if I do list on the MLS after Zillow, that none of the DoM/Activity will carry over, and it will appear to be a "new listing" to those buyers who have not seen it yet?[/quote]
Be careful.....Zillow will track the listing...it will show if you listed by owner from this date to that date and then listed with a realtor....so this could be used against you......
also be careful of the pay to use MLS....Realtors will "black list" you anyway....they don't want to show any fsbo properties....and if they're forced to.....they steer the buyers away..................I know this from first hand experience....................(I have had plenty of realtors let me know that they HATE FSBO's!) It really sucks....We just want to sell our home myself, not afraid to pay a commission...but we feel they should have to earn it, and by experience of selling other homes by fsbo and with a realtor... we had to "babysit" the entire transaction when a realtor was used...otherwise it would never come to a successful, timely closing......so what are we paying them for.....? to tell the buyer we have a beautiful home....the home sells itself!
(I am not a realtor......just a home seller that is fed up with realtors steering away buyers just because I would like to sell my home FSBO!!!)
What happens depends on your local real estate culture. Agents here show FSBO's all the time. It helps to write in "will work with buyer agents" so that we know that you are willing to have a represented buyer. Some FSBO's are clear that they will not consider offers written by agents. Just nice to know that upfront.
I have a Zillow FSBO under contract right now. It isn't an issue. I wouldn't worry about the few agents that freak out over FSBO's. They make transactions hard when an agent is on the other side anyway. If you are comfortable with your negotiation skills, by all means list it for sale on Zillow. I think the FSBO's that are appropriately priced here, seem to sell okay on Zillow.
I think smaller communities are less FSBO friendly, but I think in any decent sized city, it won't be an issue.
Zillow will show your days on the market as a FSBO and then listed with an agency in its history. The MLS only records days on the market for days on the MLS.
The latest NAR survey says FSBO's make 12.6% more when they list. More than enough to cover whatever commission the Seller agrees to pay.
I am working on a real estate related project and this is one of the things brokers tend to mention in their marketing pitch. It did not make sense based on everything I was seeing and the facts of closed sales - so I took the time to call the NAR to get their proof. There isn't any.
What this statistic really means is that the average value of homes listed with Realtors (overall pool of properties) is 12.6% higher than those that are listed FSBO. It does not mean that a seller using a Realtor will get 12.6% more.
Yet another falsehood perpetrated by the Realtor cartel.
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I figured she earned her 3%.
zillow tracks every listing.....
From a source you can trust
