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Early Retirement Extreme Forums » Housing Questions

1. 

   EMJ
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Nov '10
   Posts: 171

   or how I sold my house in 4 weeks in a slow market

   Friends helped clean and stage home, took good pictures and made a professional website - paid/traded them to do this

   I did:
   *The homework - tracked house sales in neighborhood, looked a similar listings, got all the paperwork in order, paid attention to employment and other trends in the area, didn't ask an unreasonable price (was looking for an expedient, quick sale), poised to show/sell at best time of year

   *Posted on Craigslist (chose to list there rather than FSBO sites as they are expensive and not obvious which one is most effective) with link to website

   *Was available to show on short notice, on a very flexible schedule

   *Responded to emailed questions promptly, returned phone calls same day

   *Did minor vetting of callers - "are you looking in this price class, can you afford it, are you familiar with the area?"

   *Kept the house and yard looking good

   *Made arrangements with a lawyer to read offers and contract

   *Had Plan B (contact realtors and list with one of two) that would have been put in place if a solid offer wasn't made that week

   Could I have sold for more? Maybe, maybe not. I got close to asking price, closing less than a month after contract signed, no subjects on the offer. Many properties here are on the market for months, even years. I have to ask myself if the owners are even interested in selling and are in touch with current market.

   Was I lucky or was the sale the result of hard work? We'll never know.

   Would this work in other areas, other markets? Don't know.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   Andre900
   

   Apprentice
   Joined: Mar '11
   Posts: 79

   Congratulations on your FSBO. Still, it took quite a bit of time and labor on your behalf, but it was probably worth saving the traditional 6% sales commission. Though, I think you glossed over the lawyer part. I don't know any lawyers that provide free services. For all the talk about there being an over-supply of lawyers, except for one occasion, the few times I've needed a lawyer, I could barely find one that would even take my case; and rates were $200 - $300 per hour!

   In FL, the home purchase offer is a standard agreement and can be purchased at any office supply store. If the buyer wanted to have a lawyer look over their offer, then the buyer can pay for that.

   One concern is that many buyers work with a buyer's agent, and that person would demand a commission if they brought a successful buyer to your FSBO. I've heard of FSBO's paying a small commission to the buyer's agent in this case. Though, the agent is going to seek a 3% commission, and may be forced to by their broker.

   I bought my first house as a FSBO in 1992. It went perfectly. I hired a brand new rookie lawyer for $250 flat fee to look over the offer and attend the closing. My closing costs totaled $100.

   On the other hand, when I tried to sell that place as FSBO five years later, I got zero interest for four months. I ended up listing it with an agent and closed four weeks later at 98% of list price. Of course, I ended up paying the 6% sales commission. This was 1997, so the Interweb was not as ubiquitous as it is now.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   mikeBOS
   

   Master
   Joined: Nov '10
   Posts: 554

   Many properties here are on the market for months, even years.

   I suspect this is mostly due to price. Most sellers today are deranged. They think they're biting the bullet when they list their house for 5 - 10% less than what they paid for it a few years ago, when really they ought to get closer to 40 or 50%.

   Congrats on the quick sale.

   Just to throw in my two cents. On my house I bought last fall my closing costs were less than $1,000, which included a lawyer reviewing the P&S agreement, doing a title search and clearing up an issue with a possible heir of a prior owner from like 20 years ago having a claim on the property, and title insurance. It was a cash deal so there weren't any mortgage fees.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   dot_com_vet
   

   Master
   Joined: Jan '11
   Posts: 376

   EMJ, great post here. I hope to replicate something similar with my house down the road.

   Just curious, what is the size of the city you live in?

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   EMJ
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Nov '10
   Posts: 171

   @ Andre900 - didn't say the lawyer was free. Minimal effort on his part = small bill. He made time to review paperwork on one days notice.

   @ dot_com_vet I live 30 minutes from small town (<10,000), 8 hours and several mountain passes from sizable cities.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   paxprobellum
   

   Apprentice
   Joined: May '11
   Posts: 77

   @ dot_com_vet I live 30 minutes from small town (<10,000), 8 hours and several mountain passes from sizable cities.

   /boggle

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 

   Mo
   

   Master
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 442

   I agree with MikeBOS, probably the best thing you did to sell your house was price it appropriately. A clean presentation with an organized attitude toward the sale probably helped too. A friend of mine who seems to know a lot about real estate transactions told me that FSBOs are typically overpriced, so the fact that you didn't make that mistake was probably a factor.

   I've checked real estate listings and sales a few times a week for the past 4 years in a few different cities (long story why) and it's pretty easy to spot a new listing that is priced well after a while.

   I bought a FSBO property once, it wasn't a great experience overall, but I don't think a realtor would have helped the situation. I actually had a buyer's agent. The seller offered to pay him 1%. He said his broker wouldn't let him work for less than 2.5%. So, he got 0%, and the seller paid a real estate attorney and some other minor fees to make the transaction legit.

   The problems with the deal were that the inspection was useless, and the inspector incompetent, but our bank picked the inspector, not the seller. Also the seller wasn't upfront about some relatively obvious major problems (like the fact that her idiot husband tried to rewire the place himself, or that the property was on a slope and the drainage hadn't been accounted for), though our agent wouldn't have figured this out. The transaction was in 2006, height of the boom, and that guy would have nodded his head and taken 3%.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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