Home for sale by owner
March 30, 2005 10:18 AM Subscribe
I want to consider selling my home myself. There are a number of Internet services that provide multiple-listing services, which should I consider?
The ones I've found are Owners.com, FSBO.com, FSBOSupport.com, SalebyOwnerRealty.com - any recommendations, cautions or experiences?
The ones I've found are Owners.com, FSBO.com, FSBOSupport.com, SalebyOwnerRealty.com - any recommendations, cautions or experiences?
None of the above. The first time I sold a home, I had no idea what I was doing, so I hired a realtor. After seeing how much work he did and how much he got paid for said work (even after I renegotiated his fee), I decided to do the next one on my own.
Last fall, when it was time to sell the next one, my wife and I checked all of the sites you listed and then decided to go one step further by not listing our home in the MLS at all. We put an ad in the newspaper ($150), created some nice glossy flyers in photoshop ($50), and had a local company make a professional-looking "for sale by owner" sign for our front lawn ($60). We figured that if we didn't have any bites in the first month, we would use fsbo.com. Three weeks later, we had a contract on our home. I estimate that we saved ourselves $2000 and a lot of hassle.
I've heard reports from friends that flat-fee sites generate as many calls from realtors trying to get hired as they do from interested buyers. The same can be said of newspaper ads (we certainly got our share of telephone sales pitches from realtors), but we didn't have to shell out nearly as much money.
posted by lewistate at 5:39 PM on March 30, 2005
Last fall, when it was time to sell the next one, my wife and I checked all of the sites you listed and then decided to go one step further by not listing our home in the MLS at all. We put an ad in the newspaper ($150), created some nice glossy flyers in photoshop ($50), and had a local company make a professional-looking "for sale by owner" sign for our front lawn ($60). We figured that if we didn't have any bites in the first month, we would use fsbo.com. Three weeks later, we had a contract on our home. I estimate that we saved ourselves $2000 and a lot of hassle.
I've heard reports from friends that flat-fee sites generate as many calls from realtors trying to get hired as they do from interested buyers. The same can be said of newspaper ads (we certainly got our share of telephone sales pitches from realtors), but we didn't have to shell out nearly as much money.
posted by lewistate at 5:39 PM on March 30, 2005
If you really want to sell your own home, hire a lawyer. I've known people who have cut out the realtor, but still wouldn't sell, or buy, w/o a lawyer looking at the offer and sale docs. Particularly if you're not really sure what you're doing, theres too many ways you can get screwed on either end w/o one. Even if you are working w a realty agency, its a good idea as they are writing the contracts to benefit/protect the agency, not necessarily you. Whether you choose to follow the lawyers advice however is your call, for me it at least allowed me to understand my possible exposure and factor that in with my decision.
posted by [this is good] at 10:27 PM on March 30, 2005
posted by [this is good] at 10:27 PM on March 30, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
However, as far as cautions go, I think if you list it yourself you should take care to do a thorough and quality job. I saw plenty of homes on FSBO.com that were listed under the "central" section of town (to justify a higher selling price) when they were actually (from any reasonable definition) "west." I also saw lots of spelling errors, cliches, and overly enthusiastic descriptions, all of which are turn-offs for me.
We also rarely pursued listings that didn't have photos (at least of the outside if not of the main rooms inside)--so I'd advise you to include pictures. Digital cameras are cheap, and it's easy to get pictures from a film camera developed onto a CD.
posted by handful of rain at 11:03 AM on March 30, 2005