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Anyone sold their house FSBO?
Zakk:
Good example of a situation an agent wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole. When you say the people who 'bought' it haven't been making payments, I suppose that means they are utilizing a vendor takeback mortgage? Probably because a bank wouldn't finance the buyers, which means the sellers shouldn't have either... tough situation for everyone, YOU most of all since you have to stare at the trash all day (literally and figuratively) :)
GameOver:
Got some great feedback, thanks to all. What we've found over the past several weeks is it seems it will cost us more to move & downsize than to stay put. That's crazy, but the state of the market apparently dictates this. Real estate has just gone thru the roof the last several years (some might argue it's about the only thing that's kept this economy going, but that's for another post). We're not sure what we're gonna do at this point, still looking around.
Regarding the seller that got stuck in the process of evicting the new 'tennants', sounds like more of a financing problem than a FSBO problem. Two seperate things IMO. They apparently didn't have any trouble selling FSBO, but their choice of helping the buyer finance the deal is their issue. I'm a nice guy but not that nice! That introduces too much risk.
DrewKaree:
Hey dere I seen some pikshures of that c***sucker agent's house, and he makes me wish I could sell housese too! ;) ;D
NAH! I'm tellin' ya, Zakk's got a skill, because - think about it - all the headaches you are going to experience selling your house yourself, he goes through ALL - THE - TIME!
I had a buddy who tried to do it and save himself the $2500 and do it. His house was in a fairly decent area, desireable city location as well (local fire and police HAVE to live in that city), and at a price that was several thousand UNDER market value for his area (he got a STEAL on the property and we helped him fix up so much stuff for cheap, it was worth AT LEAST market value - more on that to follow) so he could sell and move to the 'burbs.
After 3 months with exactly THREE walk-throughs, he decided to bite the bullet and list with an agent. First week, 4 walk-throughs, 1 offer. Second week, SIX walk-throughs, 2 offers. EACH of these offers was for MINIMUM of 2k OVER current market value (what the realtor put as list price) and he took the highest offer (obviously) that was 7k over list price, due to the competition between the three prospective buyers. He ended up paying LESS than he thought he would in fees, and was out of the house by the end of the month. They had already bought the house in the 'burbs and were looking at paying TWO mortgages, instead, they sold for more than 10k what they were trying to sell it themselves for.
Sometimes, you DO get what you pay for.
Now, if we were talking about c***sucker INSURANCE agents..... ;)
--- Quote from: Zakk on February 10, 2005, 02:30:36 pm ---
Heh well I can't say I'm normal ;D
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Beat me to it, ya did!
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I found out the guy is on welfare, so I'm going back to heckle him tomorrow. :sigh:
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I didn't know you were a conservative! ;D
fredster:
It's not too bad to sell it FSBO if you have the time. I did once, but it took a lot of time. I don't know if I got the best price either, but I had a motivated buyer.
I do suggest that whatever you do you discuss it with a lawyer. There is a papertrail you want to make, and if you owe a mortgage you need to get that taken care of with the title company.
It takes some time to show the house and the biggest thing is making sure that the people you show it to can actually buy it. At least with a realtor, they do screen some before they bring people by.
But it's not very complicated. They got the money, you got the house. It's the paperwork and waiting that's the big hassle.
Realtors can give you a wider market and 5% isn't that bad if they can get you 10% more than you could have. Besides, it doesn't cost you if they Don't sell it in the listing period.
Zakk:
The one big plus to selling with a Realtor: We have the buyers. It doesn't cost the buyers anything to use our services (okay, our fee is in the price of the house, but simplifying here). So, since we are 'free' to the buyers, they tend to use us to find houses, shuttle them around, be a bit of a sounding board, etc etc etc. So let's say I'm driving around with these nice financially qualified buyers, and there are two homes in the area. Your FSBO, and the MLS listed property. The listed one that tells me that the seller is under contract to pay me X% in commission, there is a lockbox on the house so I can go in, AND (this is the BIG one), the sellers won't be there when we go through. I tell you, there is nothing that will kill a sale quicker than having a seller standing over your shoulder telling you how lovely the mint green shag carpet is, and how they just knew if they kept it long enough it wold come back in style.
Which house do you think I'm going to take my buyers through? ;)