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If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
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If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
where do I begin. I want to sell my home and would love to do it on my own so I can offer a better price. Is there a specific site to do this? Can I get on MLS? not sure where to begin but we are not in a rush to sell so we would like to try this first.
Message edited 6/21/2011 2:35:07 PM.
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Posted 6/21/11 2:34 PM  |
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Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate
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w8andsee
LIF Adult
Member since 10/09 1193 total posts
Name:
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
I bought my house from an owner. I found their posting on Craigs List.
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| Posted 6/21/11 2:56 PM |
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KimberlyScott
Graceyn=My World <3
Member since 10/08 4173 total posts
Name:
Kimberly
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
I sold mine by owner. I put an ad in the town paper. Look into redfin?? I think their is a fee tho also www.forsalebyowner.com
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| Posted 6/21/11 3:15 PM |
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ali120206
2 Boys
Member since 7/06 17792 total posts
Name:
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
We bought our house directly from the owner. We found it through word of mouth - my ILs had mentioned we were looking for a house (we had vaguely just started) and a family friend found our house for us.
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| Posted 6/21/11 3:26 PM |
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
There are sites such as www.forsalebyowner.com, www.fsbo.com, and craig's list.
But those sites don't get nearly as much traffic as the big real estate sites -- mls, realtor.com, trulia, zillow, etc. I also think sellers who try to sell without a realtor have an uphill battle because many buyers are leery of for sale by owners, and the overwhelming majority of buyers use a realtor (the national stat is something like 86%).
If you are at all contemplating using a realtor, please feel free to give me a call, email me, or FM me. I'd be happy to give you pricing advice based on current market conditions and recent comps. You may find that you can price your home competitively and still use a realtor.
Also, keep in mind that stats show that sellers who use realtors generally get somewhere between 12% to 16% more than those who sell on their own, so that means you would get a significant amount more listing with a realtor, even after paying the fee. I think this is because many people who sell on their own wind up selling to family members and friends and it's not a true "arm's length" transaction.
All of that being said, I totally respect that you want to try on your own. A few things to keep in mind:
1) Consider your availability to show the home. If you work during the day, will you be limiting your showings to nights and weekends. Will you be going on vacation? If no one can get in to see your home, no one will make an offer to buy it. Also consider whether you want to give up summer weekends to sit at home waiting for appointments that never show. Buyers are notorious for being no-shows for appointments.
2) Consider personal safety and security issues. Are you comfortable inviting total strangers into your home or having them come knock on your door unannounced? Many times, criminals will pose as potential buyers to case your house and gain access to it. Before letting someone in, make sure money, valuables, and prescription meds are out of sight. After showings or open houses, make sure your doors and windows are locked Don't do open houses alone if you can avoid it.
3) Be organized. Log your visitors to open houses and showings so that you can follow up with them on their interest. Many buyers don't have a clue what to do, even if they are interested in the house. They just don't know what the next step is. Create attractive flyers and feature sheets, websites with lots of pics, etc.
4) Be prepared to work with an accessible attorney and pay for their time. If you are going it alone without a realtor, you will need to rely on your attorney more for things such as making sure the correct disclosures and paperwork is handled. Keep in mind attorneys charge hourly for their time, and realtors work for free until your deal closes. (And I am an attorney, too, so I can point that out!)
5) Be prepared to be innundated with calls from realtors. Once you advertise as a for sale by owner, most of your interest will be from realtors trying to get your listing.
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| Posted 6/21/11 9:17 PM |
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
Posted by Century 21 Dallow - Christine Braun
There are sites such as www.forsalebyowner.com, www.fsbo.com, and craig's list.
But those sites don't get nearly as much traffic as the big real estate sites -- mls, realtor.com, trulia, zillow, etc. I also think sellers who try to sell without a realtor have an uphill battle because many buyers are leery of for sale by owners, and the overwhelming majority of buyers use a realtor (the national stat is something like 86%).
If you are at all contemplating using a realtor, please feel free to give me a call, email me, or FM me. I'd be happy to give you pricing advice based on current market conditions and recent comps. You may find that you can price your home competitively and still use a realtor.
Also, keep in mind that stats show that sellers who use realtors generally get somewhere between 12% to 16% more than those who sell on their own, so that means you would get a significant amount more listing with a realtor, even after paying the fee. I think this is because many people who sell on their own wind up selling to family members and friends and it's not a true "arm's length" transaction.
All of that being said, I totally respect that you want to try on your own. A few things to keep in mind:
1) Consider your availability to show the home. If you work during the day, will you be limiting your showings to nights and weekends. Will you be going on vacation? If no one can get in to see your home, no one will make an offer to buy it. Also consider whether you want to give up summer weekends to sit at home waiting for appointments that never show. Buyers are notorious for being no-shows for appointments.
2) Consider personal safety and security issues. Are you comfortable inviting total strangers into your home or having them come knock on your door unannounced? Many times, criminals will pose as potential buyers to case your house and gain access to it. Before letting someone in, make sure money, valuables, and prescription meds are out of sight. After showings or open houses, make sure your doors and windows are locked Don't do open houses alone if you can avoid it.
3) Be organized. Log your visitors to open houses and showings so that you can follow up with them on their interest. Many buyers don't have a clue what to do, even if they are interested in the house. They just don't know what the next step is. Create attractive flyers and feature sheets, websites with lots of pics, etc.
4) Be prepared to work with an accessible attorney and pay for their time. If you are going it alone without a realtor, you will need to rely on your attorney more for things such as making sure the correct disclosures and paperwork is handled. Keep in mind attorneys charge hourly for their time, and realtors work for free until your deal closes. (And I am an attorney, too, so I can point that out!)
5) Be prepared to be innundated with calls from realtors. Once you advertise as a for sale by owner, most of your interest will be from realtors trying to get your listing.
Thank you for this advice because it is all very valuable and you pointed out many things to consider. I will be FMing you!
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| Posted 6/21/11 9:32 PM |
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FirstMate
My lil cowboy
Member since 10/10 7790 total posts
Name:
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
Posted by Century 21 Dallow - Christine Braun
5) Be prepared to be innundated with calls from realtors. Once you advertise as a for sale by owner, most of your interest will be from realtors trying to get your listing.
Innundated is an understatement! This is an excellent point to remember and I'm not sure what you would do to prepare yourself or discourage it. We had put our house up FSBO a couple of years ago and I can not tell you how relentless the realtors were. (Please take no offense to this Christine - I'm sure not all are like this) but my experience was them calling at all hours, some sitting in front of my house, some trapsing through my yard. I had 2 or 3 pound on my door demanding to see my house so they could "help" me. I actually had one realtor tell me I was "being stupid" for even considering FSBO. I explained to him that if I was "being stupid" I would list the house with him. I had 2 disguise themselves as potential buyers, make the appointment and then once they were in my house give me a sales pitch. I actually had 2 show up from the same agency that got into an argument in my driveway (screaming at each other) over whose "find" my house was and who was to get the listing! It was so insane. I was so disgusted by the whole situation.
On the flip side, my BFF sold her house FSBO. She was able to list her house with MLS for a fee (I want to say it was like $500). It was a lot of work for her - running open houses and being available but in the end, she ended up selling it without issue. What Christine said about working with an attorney is important because there are a lot of forms and such that need to be in order. That's what my BFF did and it went very smoothly for her.
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| Posted 6/22/11 9:37 AM |
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Carolyn
.....
Member since 5/07 5351 total posts
Name:
Twin mommy
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
ITA with all of this. We considered selling ours privately but in the end we decided to go with a broker and are happy we did.
Before we listed, we actually accepted an offer from someone and got to the contract stage but it ended up falling through for other reasons. We found that buyer through word of mouth (our neighbor's friend). Tell your neighbors, the lady at the supermarket, the pizza delivery guy...and everyone you know that you are going to be putting the house on the market. My ILs are closing in two weeks on their house - they put the word out to their neighbors and a buyer approached them that had been wanting to get into the neighborhood.
Since you're not in a hurry, you can see what happens for a bit and then sign up with an agent. good luck.
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| Posted 6/22/11 9:50 AM |
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lizzie0612
LIF Infant
Member since 2/09 154 total posts
Name:
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
We sold our co-op by ourselves, however this was 8 years ago and the market was much different. We put an ad in Newsday to have an open house. At that open house we got a full price offer. We were very lucky, it was simple. Within a week of deciding to sell, we had our price. The house we purchased was done the traditional way through a realtor and it was a nightmare to close on (due to the seller, not the realtor). I think a lot depends on luck. As in all aspects of life, some people are just easier to deal with than others.
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| Posted 6/22/11 4:52 PM |
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FranM
And so it goes....
Member since 9/05 2217 total posts
Name:
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Re: If you sold you home on your own or bought from for sale by owner?
I sold my coop on my own. I placed adds for an open house on a local website and in newsdsay.
Its worth a try just be very careful when showing your home.
Good Luck
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| Posted 6/23/11 9:21 AM |
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