MaryMary
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Lazy
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Jun 25, 2014 21:56:13 GMT
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Post by MaryMary on Jul 17, 2015 16:32:04 GMT
We are preparing to sell our house and had a realtor come look it over. The initial number she gave us for the price is much lower than we expected, so DH wants to try to sell it ourselves so that we don't lose even more in realtor fees.
I have had a couple friends sell their own houses and they said it was easy. But, I want to go into this as educated as I can. Tell me why we should or shouldn't FSBO, please?
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Post by Dori~Mama~Bear on Jul 17, 2015 16:37:08 GMT
Sorry can't help but wanted to say Good luck.
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Dani-Mani
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Jun 28, 2014 17:36:35 GMT
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Post by Dani-Mani on Jul 17, 2015 16:42:56 GMT
We are preparing to sell our house and had a realtor come look it over. The initial number she gave us for the price is much lower than we expected, so DH wants to try to sell it ourselves so that we don't lose even more in realtor fees. I have had a couple friends sell their own houses and they said it was easy. But, I want to go into this as educated as I can. Tell me why we should or shouldn't FSBO, please? You're selling that gorgeous house??? No!!
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Post by tallgirl on Jul 17, 2015 16:45:48 GMT
Um, WHAT? You are selling Pemberley?
Signed,
I used to read your blog for the house porn.
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Post by lily on Jul 17, 2015 16:45:56 GMT
What !! Not Pemberly!!
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Post by Kelpea on Jul 17, 2015 16:48:02 GMT
Most realtors are really legit; that is to say they have done their research to the teeth. We are putting our house on the market now actually and are using the same one we used 8 years ago due to her research, ongoing training, client service skills and her incredible knowledge of everything from assessments, staging, knowledge of local realtors to banking matters.
I would be hesitant to sell by owner (for me), even though my realtor pal has always told me I should be a realtor! I think it's too easy to be taken advantage of by the OTHER realtor in the transaction; how would you know what's legit and what't not? If you do go the route of FSBO, make sure you check all the comps out there and also your local county's real estate assessment page to price your home in a way that it will actually garner traffic, and be prepared to lower the price if you have no foot traffic in the first two weeks.
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blue tulip
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Posts: 2,983
Jun 25, 2014 20:53:57 GMT
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Post by blue tulip on Jul 17, 2015 16:50:28 GMT
pros: you pay less commission, saving yourself money and allowing yourself to sell at a more competitive price. you can pay a fee to have it listed on the MLS system for buyers to search, or you can just use Zillow.com- that's where we found our FSBO we are currently living in. cons: you don't have a realtor to walk you thru what you need to do for paperwork. if you don't advertise a commission will be paid to a buyer's realtor, those realtors will not bring your house to their buyers' attention. The buyers may also feel intimidated about "going it alone" without their realtor, and feel less protected. we bought 2 of our 3 houses FSB)- the first one was also our first house, and we did feel scared and like we were going to do something wrong or not be represented well. With this last one, the sellers and we both split our realtor's commission so that he could act on both of our behalves for paperwork and such, to make sure everything was done in a correct and timely manner. we tried to sell our first house FSBO. the market was down and doing so was the only was we had a prayer of selling. we didn't pay to have it listed on MLS, and Zillow wasn't a thing yet. we had it on craigslist, yard signs, and listed it in the paper a couple times. we never had a showing. again, probably mostly due to the market at that time.
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valleyview
Pearl Clutcher
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Jun 27, 2014 18:41:26 GMT
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Post by valleyview on Jul 17, 2015 16:51:16 GMT
A couple of years ago, we tried to sell a house. No one would make an offer to us because they did not want to offend. Honestly, I think that people are slightly more inclined to be open to negotiate through a third party, especially when they can list what their fears are with an older home. That stinks because you get stuck paying more to sell low anyway.
Good luck figuring it out. It's hard no matter which way you choose.
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Kerri W
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Posts: 3,768
Location: Kentucky
Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Jul 17, 2015 17:00:40 GMT
pros: you pay less commission, saving yourself money and allowing yourself to sell at a more competitive price. you can pay a fee to have it listed on the MLS system for buyers to search, or you can just use Zillow.com- that's where we found our FSBO we are currently living in. cons: you don't have a realtor to walk you thru what you need to do for paperwork. if you don't advertise a commission will be paid to a buyer's realtor, those realtors will not bring your house to their buyers' attention. The buyers may also feel intimidated about "going it alone" without their realtor, and feel less protected. we bought 2 of our 3 houses FSB)- the first one was also our first house, and we did feel scared and like we were going to do something wrong or not be represented well. With this last one, the sellers and we both split our realtor's commission so that he could act on both of our behalves for paperwork and such, to make sure everything was done in a correct and timely manner. I work for a real estate agency (not a realtor myself) so my opinion is obviously bias. I'll weigh in on two things: 1. Our agents tend to steer people away from FSBO because guess who gets to do all the legwork when the seller is not represented by a professional? It's just not worth the time and effort most of the time if there are other, better options. 2. Try to use sources other than Zillow. Zillow is SO notoriously inaccurate. It's great to do a search if the house is actually for sale but they are horrible about updating current status and they pull from different sources so pricing info is not always legit. My other piece of advice and this may be dependent upon your state, but don't try to shortcut the title search. Hire an attorney with a GOOD reputation in your area.
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Post by papersilly on Jul 17, 2015 17:02:32 GMT
We are preparing to sell our house and had a realtor come look it over. The initial number she gave us for the price is much lower than we expected, so DH wants to try to sell it ourselves so that we don't lose even more in realtor fees. i think people tend to be emotionally attached to their homes so they add emotional value on top of actual value when setting the selling price. what the realtor quoted was probably based on the comps in the area and is more realistic for getting the house sold. to me, unless your housing market is absolutely on fire and is a seller's market, you need all the help you can get to get it sold. if you list your house FSBO and it sits for a while, it gets stale. buyer will perceive there is something wrong with the house if it hasn't sold yet. they may back away and focus instead on new listings and realtor represented listings. i would vote no on FSBO.
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Post by kckckc on Jul 17, 2015 17:03:57 GMT
We sold our first house ourselves. It was in a really down market. We had it listed for six months (very competitively priced, but there were tons of houses for sale in our neighborhood), with no offers. We lowered our price by the 6% we would have paid the realtor and sold it within a few weeks. So we made no extra money by going FSBO, but we were able to sell. The title company was very helpful in getting us through the process.
We have also bought two houses that were FSBO - one of those times we hired a real estate agent for a flat fee to help us negotiate and get through the paperwork.
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Deleted
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Apr 28, 2024 21:00:17 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2015 17:07:42 GMT
Personally I would be worried about the security aspect and allowing strangers in that haven't been even slightly vetted by a real estate agent to make sure they are legit and not just casing the place.
Secondly I would be concerned about the liability of knowing what must be disclosed by the seller. If nothing else, I would recommend a visit with a local RE attorney to see what the process is.
Unless I knew the seller or specifically had been wanting THAT house, I personally wouldn't look at FSBO homes. I'd be afraid like someone else said that the seller would be way too emotionally invested and be unable to negotiate reasonably.
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quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,692
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
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Post by quiltz on Jul 17, 2015 17:08:57 GMT
My suggestions that if you are going to go the FSBO, have a professional appraisal done and also have a professional home inspection done and on your feature sheet, have accurate room measurements and also have ready a sheet of all the window measurements. Make sure that you have the proper documents to prove the dates of furnace/ac, roof, hot water heater and any updates (roof, windows) available upon request.
Having these available to people along with your feature sheet will show that you are professional and are earnest in selling.
I also had the book of photos showing the building of the house, the items hidden (panel for air-jet tub), the outside of where the different lines came into the house (hydro, telephone) and the drilling of the well. There was a separate book for the in-ground pool.
Wishing you luck!
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MerryMom
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Posts: 2,534
Jul 24, 2014 19:51:57 GMT
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Post by MerryMom on Jul 17, 2015 17:10:40 GMT
I would add that if you do advertise for sale by owner, have a friend or someone else show the house. When we were looking at houses, it was very awkward to have the owners present or showing us the house.
I don't think you will sell the house for more than what the realtor told you that you should list it for, but you don't have to pay that portion of the realtor fees.
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MaryMary
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Jun 25, 2014 21:56:13 GMT
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Post by MaryMary on Jul 17, 2015 17:11:00 GMT
There are a lot of reasons why we are selling. It's a beautiful house and I have loved living here, but it's time to go.
When I first walked through Pemberley, I called our school district to see if it was in the boundaries because I couldn't tell from the district map. I talked to 2 people that said it was.
Then after we moved in and I called the office to change our address they said, "That's not in our district." And I just about crapped my pants. Half of our street is in one district and the other half is in another. The boundary goes right through our property apparently. ANYWAY, we have been sending our kids to our original district, but we just learned that they are not accepting any new out-of-district students and so our 4 year old will not be admitted next year.
Plus, it's just more house than we need. It's more yard than we need. It doesn't have a backyard and we want a pool. Etc. etc. etc. The only reason to stay is because of The Pretty.
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MerryMom
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Jul 24, 2014 19:51:57 GMT
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Post by MerryMom on Jul 17, 2015 17:12:52 GMT
When I first walked through Pemberley, I called our school district to see if it was in the boundaries because I couldn't tell from the district map. I talked to 2 people that said it was. Then after we moved in and I called the office to change our address they said, "That's not in our district." And I just about crapped my pants. Half of our street is in one district and the other half is in another. The boundary goes right through our property apparently. ANYWAY, we have been sending our kids to our original district, but we just learned that they are not accepting any new out-of-district students and so our 4 year old will not be admitted next year. In those cases, most go by where the actual house is located on the property
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Post by gritzi on Jul 17, 2015 17:17:36 GMT
I think it's dependent on your market. Is it a buyers or sellers market in your area? Are houses selling quickly or lying dormant for months & months? Last year our renters decided to purchase a home elsewhere. We were shocked at the sudden onset of 2 mortgages. However, I knew houses were selling as quickly as the signs were placed in the yards. I follow the local real estate market, knew our house was prime to sell & priced accordingly as a FSBO home. Our mistake was NOT realizing that many buyers were not comfortable w/o their realtor! We had realtors calling numerous times a day asking if we would allow them to show our home. We had a list of realtors asking to be placed on a list to show the home should the contract fall through. There were only 4 houses in our price range, 3 being on the same street (ours being priced the lowest & the newest on the market). If had we known that buyers wanted to use a realtor we would have increased our price 3.5%. As soon as our house was under contract the other two sold a few days later. We advertised on our FB pages, numerous friends shared on their pages, listed on Zillow, FSBO sites, etc. Our house sold in 6 days We got $500 less than full asking price. The FB listing is what sold our house. A friend shared & it was a friend of theirs who saw and called. A realtor friend looked over our paperwork for us, advised a few ways to negotiate taxes, etc, and the rest went smoothly. We've done business many times with their realtor so there were no issues or awkward moments.
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Post by epeanymous on Jul 17, 2015 17:20:45 GMT
We just sold our house literally yesterday. We interviewed a lot of real estate agents before hiring one. Honestly, I personally would not want to have sold the house myself. One, at least in my market, almost no one does FSBO, so you already look a bit off. Two, the agents we interviewed all came in with fairly sophisticated analyses of the market, comps, the things that make our house better and worse than houses that looked exactly the same to us on paper, etc. The offering price the agents picked for our house wasn't what I would have picked knowing what had sold similarly, but, amusingly, we ended up getting literally to the dollar what they predicted (they picked an offering price they thought would yield the sales price, and, wow, were they accurate). Three, they were much better about figuring out what needed to be staged, what needed to be fixed up, and what could be left alone than we would have been. DH's father is in (commercial) real estate, and between what he thought we should do to put our house on the market and the things that we thought we needed to do, we would have spent a great deal more money than our agents ultimately had us spend. They are experts. We're not. Mind you, we interviewed some agents I wouldn't hire to run a lemonade stand, but the ones we were actually choosing between were professionals who knew their business.
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Post by sunnyd on Jul 17, 2015 17:20:58 GMT
I'm in the business so also obviously biased. I will say that (from what I know from stalking your blog) your home is somewhat unique to the market in your area. Someone may or may not pay more for that. It may also be more difficult to price because of it's uniqueness. In other words, the comps used may not be very good comps because more solid comps may not be available. Get a 2nd opinion on the comparative market analysis. Then list with the realtor you feel most comfortable with, who may or may not be the one that comes in with the highest market value. FSBO is a PITA! Most of the calls you get will be from realtors wanting to list it, lol. Even going FSBO you'll more than likely still have to pay a buyer's agent because they will be the one that brings you a QUALIFIED buyer. Do you really want people traipsing through your home that haven't been pre qualified? Can't actually get a mortgage? Are just window shopping? Good luck!! p.s. I miss your awesome blog!
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Post by red88 on Jul 17, 2015 17:37:10 GMT
pros: you pay less commission, saving yourself money and allowing yourself to sell at a more competitive price. you can pay a fee to have it listed on the MLS system for buyers to search, or you can just use Zillow.com- that's where we found our FSBO we are currently living in. cons: you don't have a realtor to walk you thru what you need to do for paperwork. if you don't advertise a commission will be paid to a buyer's realtor, those realtors will not bring your house to their buyers' attention. The buyers may also feel intimidated about "going it alone" without their realtor, and feel less protected. we bought 2 of our 3 houses FSB)- the first one was also our first house, and we did feel scared and like we were going to do something wrong or not be represented well. With this last one, the sellers and we both split our realtor's commission so that he could act on both of our behalves for paperwork and such, to make sure everything was done in a correct and timely manner. I work for a real estate agency (not a realtor myself) so my opinion is obviously bias. I'll weigh in on two things: 1. Our agents tend to steer people away from FSBO because guess who gets to do all the legwork when the seller is not represented by a professional? It's just not worth the time and effort most of the time if there are other, better options. 2. Try to use sources other than Zillow. Zillow is SO notoriously inaccurate. It's great to do a search if the house is actually for sale but they are horrible about updating current status and they pull from different sources so pricing info is not always legit. My other piece of advice and this may be dependent upon your state, but don't try to shortcut the title search. Hire an attorney with a GOOD reputation in your area. exactly.
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Post by Kelpea on Jul 17, 2015 17:42:51 GMT
this thread, btw, is useless without pictures.
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MaryMary
Pearl Clutcher
Lazy
Posts: 2,975
Jun 25, 2014 21:56:13 GMT
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Post by MaryMary on Jul 17, 2015 17:46:17 GMT
I'm in the business so also obviously biased. I will say that (from what I know from stalking your blog) your home is somewhat unique to the market in your area. Someone may or may not pay more for that. It may also be more difficult to price because of it's uniqueness. In other words, the comps used may not be very good comps because more solid comps may not be available. Get a 2nd opinion on the comparative market analysis. Then list with the realtor you feel most comfortable with, who may or may not be the one that comes in with the highest market value. FSBO is a PITA! Most of the calls you get will be from realtors wanting to list it, lol. Even going FSBO you'll more than likely still have to pay a buyer's agent because they will be the one that brings you a QUALIFIED buyer. Do you really want people traipsing through your home that haven't been pre qualified? Can't actually get a mortgage? Are just window shopping? Good luck!! p.s. I miss your awesome blog! Our house is really unique and it is hard to find comps. Most of the houses with the same square footage and bedrooms listed right now are asking $100K or more than we would even dream of asking for. I have concerns about FSBO because I'm sure that I will be the one showing the house while DH is at work most of the day and what do I do with all these kids during a showing? Plus, our last house took 9 months to sell and I don't want to deal with that again. I want to price it low and sell it fast. I still have PTSD from our last home selling misadventure and now I have an even bigger house to keep clean plus an additional kid and it's scaring the shiz out of me.
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MaryMary
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Lazy
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Post by MaryMary on Jul 17, 2015 17:53:36 GMT
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Deleted
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Apr 28, 2024 21:00:17 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2015 17:57:54 GMT
SUCH a gorgeous house! As for the kids during showing... can you send them all outside, or to a park together for a bit?
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Post by Kelpea on Jul 17, 2015 18:04:39 GMT
love it! TFS.
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Rhondito
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MississipPea
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Jun 25, 2014 19:33:19 GMT
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Post by Rhondito on Jul 17, 2015 18:16:39 GMT
I just sold my house yesterday, after two days on the market, and I used a realtor. I'm glad that I have a realtor to take care of all the paperwork because my hands are full now trying to find a place to move and getting everything packed.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 28, 2024 21:00:17 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2015 18:44:09 GMT
When I first walked through Pemberley, I called our school district to see if it was in the boundaries because I couldn't tell from the district map. I talked to 2 people that said it was. Then after we moved in and I called the office to change our address they said, "That's not in our district." And I just about crapped my pants. Half of our street is in one district and the other half is in another. The boundary goes right through our property apparently. ANYWAY, we have been sending our kids to our original district, but we just learned that they are not accepting any new out-of-district students and so our 4 year old will not be admitted next year. In those cases, most go by where the actual house is located on the property We have one friend whose home was not only split by county and city, but also by school district....literally the home is ON the line....they got to choose because they pay partial taxes to each county/city and school district....they have neighbors that go to both school districts.
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Post by mikklynn on Jul 17, 2015 18:44:07 GMT
We gave it a try on our first house. We seemed to attract a lot of crazy people. One realtor came by and showed the house, based on a handshake agreement. She showed the house several times and we finally hired her. She sold our house for $10,000 more than we were asking under the FSBO.
I'd never try selling without an agent again.
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Post by blueswede on Jul 17, 2015 18:45:07 GMT
These are my observations based on purchasing a FSBO: - The seller read a book on the paperwork involved. Her knowledge was short by a long shot.
- She priced it too low.
- I hired a buyer's agent, who had to do a ton of work because of the seller's inexperience.
- Do you want to be available for every showing?
- Do you know all of the laws regarding sales in your city? There can be some odd requirements like inspecting the sewer lateral or bring a fireplace up to code.
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Post by Miss Lerins Momma on Jul 17, 2015 19:08:28 GMT
Nothing to add, but I cannot believe you are selling your house!! It's so beautiful!
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