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Old 04-09-2019, 01:46 PM
 
10 posts, read 10,695 times
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You could probably sell now and buy a smaller house closer to NYC. This way you'll have more options for socializing and nightlife. There are probably some good options for downsizing to a town like New Rochelle, White Plains or even Portchester. If you like the outdoors then you are in an amazing location (e.g. proximity to Bear Mtn, Harriman, etc.) and it would probably be hard to match that. However, I imagine that most of your neighbors are families with younger kids so it might be difficult from that standpoint. Coming from someone who grew up in the Clarkstown SD, it was a great place live but fewer families are willing to make the long haul to work in NYC. More families are opting to stay in NYC or they are moving to suburban areas with good schools and decent commuting options. If the taxes in North Rockland continue to outpace wider Rockland, it might be a good idea to put the place on the market sooner rather than later.
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Old 04-09-2019, 02:22 PM
 
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From then to now prices dipped then caught back up. They are a little bit more than they were then. I like it better on the Westchester side of the river. Much better having a trusty train system at your beck and call.
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Old 04-09-2019, 07:23 PM
 
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I was thinking moving to around Cresskill area. I do not know much about Westchester or the decent areas. I looked at some of the houses in Scarsdale, Irvington and Rye, and I almost coughed up a lung at the tax rates. They make Stony Point a dream. Cresskill's taxes are about half of what mine are, so that's a plus for a smaller house that what I have now.

Does anyone know a good realtor in North Rockland that knows Stony Point? I've had three of them come by and their projections are all over the place. Looking for recs if anyone knows of any.
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Old 04-10-2019, 08:52 AM
 
2,684 posts, read 2,370,708 times
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Just try to sell FSBO for $795k and see what happens, no risk. Sometimes realtors will try to get you to list a property for lower than it's worth in order to secure a quick commission. Worst case, drop the price to $750k after a few months on the market.


Selling FSBO is VERY easy now with the internet, just splurge on awesome photos- either hire a photographer or buy a good camera for $300-$400 with an external flash for $30, then sell on ebay when finished. Another trick is to spend $30 on a really pretty floorplan diagram. I used this site: floorplansforrealestate.com , though any are good. If you don't have much furniture, you can also pay a little bit for virtual staging- these are websites that take your photos and add furniture and decorations. Obviously not quite the same as actual staging, but actual staging can be $10k+ and virtual staging can be $200.


It costs almost nothing to list the house on all the big sites- realtor.com, zillow, etc, and you can still offer to pay the buyer's agent 2% so that you get normal buyers. If I were in your situation, I would probably try first without offering an agent split and see if you get any bites, since you're in no hurry. I offered a split when I sold a home FSBO but I ended up also getting no-agent offers and they put more cash in my pocket at the end of the day, so I went with one of those.


Showings are the annoying part, but you have two options- by far the easiest, but only if you're offering an agent split, is to put a lockbox on the house and let the buyers' agents show it. I didn't do this; instead, I showed the house personally after work and on weekends. I got 3 offers in 2 weeks, and sold for exactly the same price that similar homes were selling for with realtors.
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Old 04-10-2019, 10:27 AM
 
95 posts, read 194,404 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCresident2014 View Post
Just try to sell FSBO for $795k and see what happens, no risk. Sometimes realtors will try to get you to list a property for lower than it's worth in order to secure a quick commission. Worst case, drop the price to $750k after a few months on the market.


Selling FSBO is VERY easy now with the internet, just splurge on awesome photos- either hire a photographer or buy a good camera for $300-$400 with an external flash for $30, then sell on ebay when finished. Another trick is to spend $30 on a really pretty floorplan diagram. I used this site: floorplansforrealestate.com , though any are good. If you don't have much furniture, you can also pay a little bit for virtual staging- these are websites that take your photos and add furniture and decorations. Obviously not quite the same as actual staging, but actual staging can be $10k+ and virtual staging can be $200.


It costs almost nothing to list the house on all the big sites- realtor.com, zillow, etc, and you can still offer to pay the buyer's agent 2% so that you get normal buyers. If I were in your situation, I would probably try first without offering an agent split and see if you get any bites, since you're in no hurry. I offered a split when I sold a home FSBO but I ended up also getting no-agent offers and they put more cash in my pocket at the end of the day, so I went with one of those.


Showings are the annoying part, but you have two options- by far the easiest, but only if you're offering an agent split, is to put a lockbox on the house and let the buyers' agents show it. I didn't do this; instead, I showed the house personally after work and on weekends. I got 3 offers in 2 weeks, and sold for exactly the same price that similar homes were selling for with realtors.
Out of curiosity, what town did you live in? We aren't planning to move but I have always been curious about FSBO. Many homes in Westchester sell themselves. The 6% fee always seemed out of whack.
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Old 04-10-2019, 10:34 AM
 
2,684 posts, read 2,370,708 times
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Originally Posted by mlamb93 View Post
Out of curiosity, what town did you live in? We aren't planning to move but I have always been curious about FSBO. Many homes in Westchester sell themselves. The 6% fee always seemed out of whack.

I was actually in central NJ when I sold that one- Pennington (near Princeton). I was in a subdivision where there were only 4 or 5 different models of home, so it seemed insane to use an agent since the prices were pretty much always the same for each model, give or take ~$10-20k. I sold in 2017, so not too long ago.
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Old 04-10-2019, 10:54 AM
 
27 posts, read 30,760 times
Reputation: 30
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCresident2014 View Post
Just try to sell FSBO for $795k and see what happens, no risk. Sometimes realtors will try to get you to list a property for lower than it's worth in order to secure a quick commission. Worst case, drop the price to $750k after a few months on the market.


Selling FSBO is VERY easy now with the internet, just splurge on awesome photos- either hire a photographer or buy a good camera for $300-$400 with an external flash for $30, then sell on ebay when finished. Another trick is to spend $30 on a really pretty floorplan diagram. I used this site: floorplansforrealestate.com , though any are good. If you don't have much furniture, you can also pay a little bit for virtual staging- these are websites that take your photos and add furniture and decorations. Obviously not quite the same as actual staging, but actual staging can be $10k+ and virtual staging can be $200.


It costs almost nothing to list the house on all the big sites- realtor.com, zillow, etc, and you can still offer to pay the buyer's agent 2% so that you get normal buyers. If I were in your situation, I would probably try first without offering an agent split and see if you get any bites, since you're in no hurry. I offered a split when I sold a home FSBO but I ended up also getting no-agent offers and they put more cash in my pocket at the end of the day, so I went with one of those.


Showings are the annoying part, but you have two options- by far the easiest, but only if you're offering an agent split, is to put a lockbox on the house and let the buyers' agents show it. I didn't do this; instead, I showed the house personally after work and on weekends. I got 3 offers in 2 weeks, and sold for exactly the same price that similar homes were selling for with realtors.

Never thought about that. Would you know of a good photographer? I have a great camera, but I take really crappy pics.


The 6% commission drives me crazy too. It's like taking 50k+ and throwing it out the window. I do not mind paying a fair commission, but the commissions at 6% are ludicrous due to the higher than average costs of housing in the Hudson Valley. With the Internet now, the realtors job is much easier.
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Old 04-10-2019, 12:14 PM
 
2,684 posts, read 2,370,708 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Craigsquestions View Post
Never thought about that. Would you know of a good photographer? I have a great camera, but I take really crappy pics.


The 6% commission drives me crazy too. It's like taking 50k+ and throwing it out the window. I do not mind paying a fair commission, but the commissions at 6% are ludicrous due to the higher than average costs of housing in the Hudson Valley. With the Internet now, the realtors job is much easier.

Unfortunately I don't- I ended up using my own camera. I agree, I was taking terrible pics too, but then I bought an upfiring, adjustable flash on amazon and the difference was night and day. My photos looked so professional, and I was only using the "auto" setting. I took three or four photos at varying flash intensities and chose the best once I downloaded them to the computer. Full flash was too powerful, but usually somewhere around the middle power gave the best result.


Here's an example of a couple photos that I took and also one of the floorplans. In retrospect these photos probably have a bit too much flash, but who cares- the house sold My total investment in the sale was $30 for the flash, $30 for the floorplan, and about $200 for listing fees to get on all the websites. House sold for $500k. The only other closing costs were the real estate attorney ($750 flat rate) and the transfer tax, which in NJ was around $4k or $5k.
Attached Thumbnails
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Old 04-10-2019, 04:55 PM
 
Location: Riverside, CT
783 posts, read 814,278 times
Reputation: 348
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craigsquestions View Post
Never thought about that. Would you know of a good photographer? I have a great camera, but I take really crappy pics.


The 6% commission drives me crazy too. It's like taking 50k+ and throwing it out the window. I do not mind paying a fair commission, but the commissions at 6% are ludicrous due to the higher than average costs of housing in the Hudson Valley. With the Internet now, the realtors job is much easier.
Use Purplebricks ($3600 flat fee + 3%) or redfin (1% fee + buyers agent fee of 3%)
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Old 04-11-2019, 10:18 AM
 
2,684 posts, read 2,370,708 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beerisgood02 View Post
Use Purplebricks ($3600 flat fee + 3%) or redfin (1% fee + buyers agent fee of 3%)
3% is a really high percentage for the buyer's agent in this market (both purplebricks and redfin seem to use this amount). It makes sense where houses sell in the $100k-$300k range, but once you get over $400k, the percentages go to more like 2.5% or even 2%. I was able to get plenty of interest at a 2% buyers' agent fee.

I don't know about Purplebricks but with RedFin you may be able to get the Redfin agent to reduce the buyer's agent split.

But I agree, anything is better than 2.5% to a seller's agent. I prefer FSBO but $3,600 and 1% are both much better than 2.5% (and nobody in this area should be paying 3% to either agent).
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