My wife and I are ready to enter the RV-fulltime lifestyle, but we must sell the house first. Yes, we know this may be a long process. Our target date is May/June 09.
We live on Lake Sinclair near Milledgeville GA. We would like to list our house on-line but do not have any experience selling a house this way. If anyone has gone through this process, we would be interested in and appreciate any and all advice on this.
We are not attempting to be a FSBO. Looking for a nontraditional means of selling house. We expect to pay a "selling commission" to the selling agent (3-4%). We do not want to list the house in a traditional way. Hope this is not confusing.
Thanks in advance!
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With all the homes on the market if you don't list it with a Realtor on MLS you will be fighting an uphill battle to sell. There are just way too many homes on the market for you to get showings.
Most buyers are going to get a realtor, have them look up the best buys and go from there.
The realtor is going to search for listings, sort by commissions and bring them to the highest commissions homes that fit their needs first and work down from there.
Just my 2 cents. People trying to do the by owner thing, listing with those services that simply get you on MLS but nothing more are a waste of time and money in this market IMO. If there is no incentive for realtors to bring people to your home (commission) then you will get very little traffic unless you live in a place where a sign on the front lawn is going to get it done for you.
What we did is have a realtor friend list the house for us, we paid a flat 4% to who ever sold the house. She sold it and got the full 4% but if another realtor sold it then she got nothing but the $500 listing fee.
We had tons of traffic relatively, because we were paying top dollar but saved 2% over a standard listing (6%) and were actually paying the actual selling Realtor more (4% instead of 6% split).
The homes like ours are still on the market because they are trying to save a few % on the Realtor and are not getting any showings because no one in their right mind is going to sell a house for you for no $$. Buyers aren't really messing around with by owners because there is so much supply there isn't a need the deals are plentiful.
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My personnel feeling, for sale by owner is a stay away from. When I was looking to buy a home, the for sale by owner, soon got to be stay away from. The owners seemed to be looking for a retirement package in there home. Way over priced, Way to much work needed. Just not even worth the phone call ask how much. JMHO Bill
I recommend having a realtor, however there are some that charge lower commissions, ours was advertised as 1% but it actually ended up as 3.5%, still a good deal. The best thing to do is talk to a few and pick the one you are most comfortable with. Our realtor had been in business for 30 years and was top notch, we saved a lot of money with her and would not want to handle the hassles of selling a house on our own. Good luck!
Kerry and Joanne
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Madison S.D. via Vancouver, WA.
As a former Real Estate Broker and Certified General Appraiser, I have sold by Owner many times. The fact that I have been trained in Real Estate and Appraisal helped. The one big thing you need to do is go to other homes that are for sale in your area and see what they are asking. Then go to the process of getting your home ready for sale, which requires you to get a third parties opinion of what they think you have to do before your list it for sale. I say list it, as you indeed will list it with all the brokers and the general public. This is how you do it: price the home at what you will take bottom dollar, then add 3% to the price, then make up a hot sheet with photos and all the measurements, utility cost, taxes, acreage, frontages, etc. the more information the better. Then go to all the local realtors and give them a copy of the hot sheet on your property, with a note on the bottom that it is broker protected. If they ask what commission you will pay tell them 3%, but leave that off the hot sheet. They then know they will get paid if they sell it and that you are asking the same price that they will be trying to sell it at. They will be more than happy to help you. Have an open house and if any brokers show up with customers, let them show the properly. Get the names of people looking at your property on a sign in sheet at the front door, and don't let anyone in unless they sign in. Good luck, you can do it. You probably won't need to put it on internet, as the brokers will, as it technicaly is an open listing,(non exclusive).
usnret wrote: ... We are not attempting to be a FSBO. Looking for a nontraditional means of selling house. We expect to pay a "selling commission" to the selling agent (3-4%). We do not want to list the house in a traditional way. Hope this is not confusing. ...
Sorry, but I'm totally confused. You don't want to sell it yourselves, you do want to hire an agent and pay them a commission. Which aspects of the "traditional way" do you hope to avoid?
usnret wrote: ... We are not attempting to be a FSBO. Looking for a nontraditional means of selling house. We expect to pay a "selling commission" to the selling agent (3-4%). We do not want to list the house in a traditional way. Hope this is not confusing. ...
Sorry, but I'm totally confused. You don't want to sell it yourselves, you do want to hire an agent and pay them a commission. Which aspects of the "traditional way" do you hope to avoid?
Did you mean to say that you are offering the 'buyer's' agent a commission? Or do you want to sell the house as an exclusive, thereby not listing it in MLS?
And remember that % you are offering is split with the broker so the agent has no real incentive to show your home.
What finally sold my home was a 'cash' bonus to the buyer's agent of $3,000. I sold the house a week after I added that to the listing.
The agents are hurting too and they are looking to make the most money on the houses they 'choose' to show potential buyers.
Either way the market is only half the way down where it will end up.
Been there done that and barely got out with my shorts still on selling it just 2 months ago, so "I" could hit the road before I turned 90!
Now, today, in this market.....is not the time to do creative things.
Mass market, mass advertising and a dang good agent are what's needed if you plan to hit the road any time soon.
Wish you the best of luck selling, so you can join the ranks of full-timing.
31 ft Four Winds
Chevy Tracker 4x4 Blue Ox We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
I have sold two homes privately and a third one with an agent (the first one). I would never use a realtor again - they are leeches who bring nothing of value to the sale and may in fact hinder the process. However, if you are going to sell a house yourself you need to do it right. First thing to do is hire a genuine appraisal. Don't rely on a realtor's appraisal because they will BS you in order to get the listing. Get a real appraiser and pay him for the appraisal. Then advertise the property WITH YOUR ASKING PRICE. When you are selling a house you are in retail and in retail you need to include the price. You won't get near as many phone calls with the price in your ads but the ones that do call will be genuine and all you need is one buyer. Don't count on the internet alone for advertising - do what works in your local market. If all the local realtors advertise in the town's newsrag, then you need to advertise there too. And put a big home made sign up in the front yard, with your price on it too. Open Houses are a waste of time. Get the appraisal, run the ads, wait for the phone to ring.
usnret wrote: ... We would like to list our house on-line
We are not attempting to be a FSBO. Looking for a nontraditional means of selling house. We expect to pay a "selling commission" to the selling agent (3-4%).
I think I follow you. We considered the same thing and gave up. I have plenty of on-line experience and could do my own virtual tours and put my house on-line for sale. I would have paid a selling broker too.
Here's what I found out. Selling brokers prefer to deal with other brokers - not owners. They avoid anything that looks like FSBO like the plague and to a broker you are an owner selling = FSBO (what else would you call it?).
Next, while I can build a web site I cannot easily drive traffic to the site. For that you need marketing and exposure and you need your product to be easily compared to your competition so buyers can evaluate you on-line. A private web site doesn't cut it.
Also... I wonder if you think that selling on-line is non-traditional? The market has shifted a lot and ALL HOME SALES are done on-line. My buyer in NJ viewed my virtual tour in Virginia before they decided to look at my house and they reviewed my virtual tour again before they decided to make an offer.
However, the fact that so much shopping is done on-line has not (yet) cut out the middleman (eg broker). I paid my 5 points for listing and selling... I did not like it but I saw no choice. Maybe if the market picks up that will change, but as long as there are more sellers than buyers the brokers are needed.
also btw... while the selling agent brought me a buyer it was the listing agent who gave me all the services, so just paying a selling agent means you do all the work and pay anyway.
A last thought. If you go the agent route, insist on PROFESSIONAL photography and virtual tour hosting. We listed twice and the second time got professional photography... I didn't think it would be such a big deal but it was remarkably better.
Dave Lindemulder
Tammy, Mark & Kirsten
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A lot of the "how much commission" is determined by area. We sold our house in Palm Bay, Fl. in 2 weeks. Listed with a "professional" recommended agent with a proven sales history, followed her instructions, used her people to repaint, stage, etc. (they were the best people we've ever worked with). We offered a 6% commission with a $2500 bonus to the selling agent. The 6% is split, the bonus is straight to the selling agent and so a real motivator.
In this market if you want to sell your house you need to list it with a pro, price it realistically and follow the realtors instructions on getting it ready to show. If you've go a pro working for you they'll know what's selling and how to present your house in it's best light.
As an aside- the realtor that sold our house told me that realtors have found FSBO people to be hard to work with, unreasonable, over priced and unwilling to face reality, etc. So they avoid them like the plague.
John Ewing
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