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On 2006-03-08 13:36:50 -0500, "Griff" <pgriffin@ixi.net> said:
> That was a great reply David! You definitely have more time than I do.
> :o)
Well, I did not plan on writing all that but I felt compelled to
respond and not just say "FSBO Rock, Agents Suck" because that is far
from the truth.
> I am not sure where you sold your home FSBO but here in Idaho
> things work a little differently than most of the country as far as
> commissions. Selling a house FSBO here in the S.E. Idaho area is a
> nightmare to say the least!
The house was in Ohio between Dayton and Cincinnati.
> I'd just add one last thing for the home seller to go along with
> your post... Be sure to go around to all your local real estate
> brokerages and walk right in with a small stack of flyer's for all the
> agents to get their hands on. On the flyer let them know what you are
> willing to pay to an agent who brings a buyer for you. This is
> something I really appreciate getting from FSBO's! I keep them in a
> database, which I created, and search that database on a regular basis.
That is a good idea. I'd add that you will want to state your
terms when you hand off the flyers or even add a page with your terms
on each flyer. Be up front that you don't want to pay a 3% commission
for a finders fee if that is the case. Again, in my case I was willing
to do 2 thousand dollars rather than 5 thousand dollars which would
have been 3%.
> Also, anytime you meet with "serious" buyers you could always do it
> down at the local title company. They are usually more than willing to
> send someone in to sit in with you and answer any of your questions
> while you go through the necessary paperwork. Another option, as far
> as the paperwork is concerned is to ask an agent to help you write up
> any offers for a small fee. I always write paperwork up for people for
> a nice little flat fee of $300 dollars or so. Not something I like to
> get out but perhaps it will help you? Anyway...
I believe two different agents both quoted me a thousand dollars to do
the paperwork on my house. I just nodded and smiled while telling
myself that they are crazy. Your $300 dollar quote sounds much more
reasonable. Of course, now that I've been though it once I think I
would prefer to do it myself from here on out. These days I am much
more interested in buying property than selling though ;-P
I guess while I'm at it I'll note a few other things.
During the process of selling my house I had several offers but up
until the end they were not ones I considered serous mostly because the
sellers wanted a much lower price along with me paying agent fees and
closing costs. We ended up getting 2 good offers on the same day some
where between x-mas and new years. Both offers came from people that
had been though the house before. Since we had two offers we were able
to get the final offers to be a little better since they had to bid
against each other. The reason I say this is because most people will
tell you that this time of year is bad to sell a house. I am no expert
but I say it is a good one because around new years people are starting
to think about there lives and making plans and or trying to act on
plans. The whole new years resolutions stuff. Around that same time
we noticed several other house that had been on the market sell.
Another lesson from this is that people will wait months after doing
initial shopping around to decide that they are ready to buy so if you
do not hear back from some one for a couple of days do not be completely
put out. The longer you are on the market the more expose your house
gets. Don't just sell to the first offer you get. Hold out for
something closer to your expectations as long as your expectations are
realistic.
Back to the whole agent/broker/MLS stuff. As I've said there are
situations where the 6% on a sale is justified but inn a lot of other
cases I do not think it is. If you are going to use an agent make sure
they are not just putting it on the MLS and expecting it to sell. In
cases that may be all it takes but in the others I firmly believe they
need to work for their money. Make sure they are doing open houses if
nothing else. Back to negotiations, I had one agent tell me he would
sell my house for between 2 and 4 percent depending on if he was also
the selling agent also but he had to be my agent on my next purchase.
This type of deal might be worth it to some some people, especially if
they were looking at 6% before.
Another route is to pay an agent hourly for a rate of around $100. In
this situation you might be able to do your own open houses and the
like to save on the agent fee. I am not sure how many agents are
willing to do this but I've heard it has been done for both seller
and *buyer* agents. Most buyers feel that they are getting the use of
an agent for free since the seller is footing the bill. Imagine buying
a house and having your agent pay you since their hourly charge was
less than their commission. Again, I've heard this happens. The
more you as a consumer are able to use the internet and do drive bys to
do your searching and pre-qualification the less you can rely on the
agent and hence save. Most of the time these days, buyers agents are
able to get by with doing less since they direct their customers to the
internet to do their own shopping rather than doing the shopping for
the customer. The buyers agent is then just someone that unlocks the
door of the houses and walks them though. Of course, agents are making
more than they have in the past because of the rate of inflation on
houses. Good business to be in, eh? Well, it looks like that is
starting to even out now that more and more people are becoming
conscience of how the realtor/realestate industry works and are finding
that they don't like it.
Having said that, Paul seems to be a stand up guy considering that he
is active in doing real estate type stuff that is above and beyond what
a lot of agents will do like giving advise here. If you decide to use
an agent look for someone that is knows what they are doing and is
willing to negotiate. If they can negotiate with you they proved they
can negotiate on the sale of a house ;-P
OK, back to work!
--
David Steinbrunner
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Re: Any suggestions to help me gain exposure for my house for sale?
