For sale by owner

[momo3hods]

Anyone out there sell their home themselves? We are in the process, tell me the good, bad and the ugly.

 

[umaangel00]

I would like to know as well.

 

[kimisabella]

We just had our house on the market both with a realtor then on our own. We withdrew the house from the realtor because I didn't feel she was working that hard for us. I then put an ad in the NY Newsday, which is the biggest newspaper here on LI, it cost about $700, for 4 weeks. All the calls we got were from realtors wanting to come over to see the house because they "have lots of clients", would be able to sell the house in 30 days, ect., ect., ect.... I stopped answering my phone because they were so annoying after a while. We had a big sign in front of the house, and that probably drew more serious people then the actual ad did. I just think for us, it was the wrong time, we weren't willing to sell the house for a low price, and frankly, we don't have to sell it, so we've taken the sign away and will try again in the spring. We have sold our previous house three years ago by owner and it was a piece of cake. The ad in the newspaper was in for about 2 weeks, and two serious offers came in, and we made a deal with one of them. We hired a lawyer, and they mostly took care of everything - saved us LOTS of money over paying a realtor. If you're able to do it, selling by owner is definatley worth it. Although, depending on the market where you are, and your individual situation, a realtor does bring more credible, potential buyers faster. Good luck!

 

[jenks0718]

I am a realtor in NJ and before I became one I tried to sell by owner and it was a pain in the neck. Showing the house yourself, pre qualifying buyers with reputable companies, weeding out the serious and non serious buyers, hoping I knew the market and priced the house the at the best price, forking out cash for the adVertising (which is EXPENSIVE). My dh and I gave up and went with a realtor. We really took to her and liked her style, she didnt blow smoke and was realistic, and she did sell our home.

I can honestly say that it is my opinion that using a realtor is better. You put your house in front of SO MANY more people then just a sign in the yard and some ads in the local newspaper.

If you do choose to do For Sale By Owner make sure you do not allow anyone to view your home without a pre qual letter first. Casual lookers waste everyones time. GOOD LUCK!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

There was a heated discussion about this a couple of weeks ago. Do a search to see if you can find it.

 

[chrissyk]

We've done it twice, and it was easy! Both times, we got WAY more than any realtor wanted to ask for the house. I second the thing about the annoying realtor calls, though. I would stay away from the newspaper for just that reason (although my sister swears by the paper for her FSBOs...go figure!). We put "principals only" in our ad (as in, NO REALTORS), and it still didn't dissuade them from calling, coming to the house, peeking in the windows (no lie), leaving letters in our mailbox, etc. Our first FSBO sold by a sign on the street anyways, so that ad just created headaches for us in terms of dealing with persistent realtors who didn't understand the word "no".

The 2nd house that we sold FSBO was sold in an odd town where I knew that any buyer was going to be realtor represented. What I did was use an MLS listing service for $399 for a 6 month listing, and I put a 3% realtor commission in the listing. The ad was up on realtor.com w/in a day of hitting the MLS. I mentally upped my bottom-line price 3% for any buyer who came in with a realtor. That house did sell to a buyer with a realtor, and she was a pain. By the end of the transaction, her client had called me directly, and we worked everything out between us and the lawyer. Both transactions were handled by lawyers, even though the 2nd transaction was in a title company state.

Also, showings are much easier when you don't have somebody else scheduling them and telling you when you need to be out of your own house. I liked scheduling the showings myself. I never had a problem with a non pre-approved buyer, and neither did my sister who has sold FSBO 3 times. Every time, our lawyer gave them x number of days to get a mortgage approval, and every time that contingency was met with no issues. If it hadn't been, it would have been no biggie...we were taking backups right along on every FSBO, and we were up-front about that with our buyers.

BTW, I LOVED negotiating on my FSBOs. We didn't have to sell, so negotiating was really fun. Nobody cares more about getting you the best price for your house than YOU do!

Whatever you do, make sure that you have a good real estate lawyer involved. This goes even if you have a seller broker, because you really need a lawyer to protect your interests no matter what. Also, be sure to scrutinize the HUD-1 at least 48 hours prior to closing. We caught some errors on our last one due to poor preparation by the title company.

 

[safetymom]

I got a heck of a deal on my house here in FL because it was a FSBO. They were tired of waiting and dealing with people. I didn't want to look at the house because it was a FSBO. They had lowered the price quite a bit so they could sell.

It worked out beautifully for us and they worked with my realtor so it was a win win for both of us.

 

[phorsenuf]

Also on a safety note, do not show the home alone or without a friend/neighbor knowing you are.

 

[kpm76]

We sold our condo on our own and it was super easy. An excellent real estate attorney is a MUST though. We had been looking at houses before we decided to sell our condo and I swear we met most of the real estate agents in our area and only one (the listing agent on the house we bought) impressed us enough to potentially use in the future. I got so sick and tired of hearing you need representation, hire us. We actually had a P & S on a house but it was a contingency and the sellers backed out. The agents on that deal were super slimy and didn't tell us the deal fell though until a week before we closed on our condo and had no place to live. We kept calling them to find out the status and they ignored our calls. Real professional. Anyway, we wound up in in better home in a better neighborhood but not because of any of the agents we encountered. Try FSBO, it worked out great for us and saved us tons of money. Good luck

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I think it totally depends on the market. In a really hot market you can do much better selling on your own, in a tough market a agent can get you more money even after their commision with a lot less work

 

[momo3hods]

Thank you everyone who responded. We are in no hurry to sell as we have not negotiated a price for the house we want to buy and we don't have to move. I am looking forward to selling it ourselves. Thanks again.

 

[chrissyk]

Also on a safety note, do not show the home alone or without a friend/neighbor knowing you are.

This is excellent advice.

 

[missypie]

We sold ours by owner. No problems EXCEPT...we got a call the day before closing asking for the termite inspection. Apparantly the broker usually orders that. So I got out the yellow pages: "Can you come and do a terminte inspection TODAY?" After about 4 calls, I got an inspector who could.

 

[WIcruizer]

It really depends on your market, and the value of your home. Is it far above or below the prices of homes in your neighborhood? We've done it both ways. We sold our first home ourselves, and it worked out great. We did hire an attorney to make sure all the papers were taken care of properly, but that cost $800 at the time, instead of the $7-8,000 it would have cost in commissions. The last house we sold we used a realtor, but negotiated the commission rate.

My own opinion is sell it yourself if you can, jsut make sure you have it priced properly.

 

[Chicago526]

I'm too chicken to sell it by owner, I'm just to affraid I'll do something wrong and get sued! So I will most likely always go with an agent, and just factor in the commision as a moving expense and plan accordingly. The key is to find a REALLY good agent, they are worth their weight in gold. We found a good one to help us sell my condo and buy our house, and when the time comes to move again, we'll use her to sell our house! But having an agent doesn't excuse you from being an educated seller/buyer, you still need to do research, if nothing else to help you find a good agent! If you know what questions to ask and can understand the answers, it goes a long way in finding the right agent.