Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Anyone have any luck recently trying to sell your house yourself? We have our house listed with an agent...but she is telling us that it is priced too high for this market. The only way to drop the price $30K to make it more attractive to buyers, is to cut out her commission We can't afford to drop 30K in price and also still pay out close to 30K in commission.

So, either we try it, or take our house off the market. We live in NJ, and we already found a house on LI that we made an offer on...our offer was contingent on the sale of our current house.

What should we do? Give a try FSBO, or take it off the market and wait...UGH!

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

I'd say try FSBO but you'll need to spend some money advertising to compete with other homes. Use craigslist & find out how much you'd have to pay to list it on your local MLS site & maybe sunday paper ads.
Have you done everything you can to stage the house?
Get a pod or two & remove 99% of your personal items & extra furniture.
Replace or clean carpet, paint walls a neutral color. Keep decor REALLY simple, get rid of photos.
Clean & organize closets to make them look bigger.
Make flyers for your open houses that highlight great things about the town or schools or access to public transportation.Get a home inspection done & market the house as already inspected. If the bathroom or kitchen cabinets are old, paint them & possibly get new counters. If buyers would want another bath or some other renovation, get estimates from local contractors & have copies avaiable to buyers so they'd have an idea of what they could do.


I think FSBO can work in this market if a house is really priced right.
GOOD LUCK!

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Hi, I am in NJ also and am thinking about putting our house up for sale. I did research in our neighborhood and took notice of what realtors actually sold homes and how quickly they seemed to go and will prob go with one of them. I never tried to sell on my own but I did notice that at least 3 houses in my immediate area did start to sell FSOB and either took them off the market or in the end went with a realtor and they did sell. So, I think it's def doable but you need to make sure to advertise etc.

I did recently sell my dads house in NJ about 2 yrs ago and it took awhile to sell but it did. We originaly went with a large realtor like weichert or burgdorf and nothing, the area was desirable but saturated with homes for sale so in the end we went with a very small boutique realtor who knew the area well and had specific clients etc and he sold it almost immediately. The commission was a little smaller too.

I also agree with the above posters tips completely !!! Good luck !

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

My family sold our house for sale by owner, but this was back in 2004
We tried on our own, than had a broker, then went back to our own again. and it sold.

My friends sold across the street in 2005 by owner, but they had brokers in between

Use craigslist, and take really good pics of your house. Advertise in newsday, pennysaver.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Thanks everyone. The house is "show ready" and doesn't need a thing...it's completely re-done. We have won the "house beautiful award" 2 years in a row (summer 2006-summer 2007).

DH is looking into how much it will cost to advertise in the local papers and online. We will also have signs made and plan to run a few open houses.

So far, people have been coming to look at the house, but nobody has put an offer in on it...and we just want to sell it and move. For business reasons, the faster we move....the better.

Here's a link to the current listing:
house for sale

Message edited 6/17/2008 10:03:32 AM.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

I live in Bergen and my husband grew up in Paramus. A lot of his friends are looking for homes and one of his good friends is from Elmwood Park. I will put the word out for you !! The house is beautiful and you will def be able to sell !!! It may take a little longer now than it would a few years ago but you should not have a problem !!!!

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

I bought my house on a FSBO. The sellers put an ad in Newsday with a picture. I saw the ad Sunday morning and saw the house Sunday afternoon. I put in an offer the next day and it was accepted. The house sold the very first day it was on the market.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Beauitful house but I would take out the basement picture of the kitchen. At first I thought it was your main kitchen and also try and take another picture of the bathroom because it looks distored when you open it.

It took me a year to sell my house on LI in 2006 (sold in 2007). We first went with a local company for 6 months who did nothing for us. Then we tried to sell it on our own for 2 months through craigslist. Newsday is expensive. Then we went with Prudential and in 4 weeks it sold. I will say this, if you the brokers more of an incentive they will show the house more. Also, what type of feed back are you getting? If you keep getting it is beautiful it seems like it might be priced a little high. What are the houses in the area selling for? Also, if you a lowball offer entertain the idea and see if they will meet so where in the middle. At first I turned away an offer that was $40K less than asking but we went back and they came about $10-$15K under asking price which was bad.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

I think you would be able to get better commission rate. 6% seems to be on the high side.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

I know on my street a few houses have been successful with selling by owner pretty quickly.. but then some havent either. I think its all about how much your asking and how hard your working on getting people into the house and look.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

i just listed and they started at 5%, 3 % for listing agent, 2 % for additional agent. I still think that is high.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Message edited 1/30/2009 3:19:38 PM.

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

Thanks everyone...I think we are going to give it a try. Our next door neighbor is a mortgage broker, so he said he would be able to qualify someone for us, if we needed him to. Wish me luck!

Re: Anyone been successful selling your house "for sale by owner"?

You could try, but don't be surprised if you get a ton of calls from Realtors saying they have "willing buyers".

They will want to take a piece of the pie. You could probably negotiate with them, but I wouldn't give them more than 2.5% commission and I definitely wouldn't sign any listing agreements with any realtors.