 Posted 4/25/2008 3:26:49 PM
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Hi There,
I am frustrated as we have had our home for sale by owner for three months now. We have slowly ramped up our advertising - at first, using one web site, then adding others. We have now been listed on MLS (we used the Owners.com program) for a month. We have held three open houses with no visitors. We have run ads in the papers three times with only one call back who was really looking for a rent-to-own. We have made it clear in our advertising that even Buyer's Agents are welcome. We have beautiful flyers that we have put everywhere and we tell everyone that we are looking to sell.
We have a wonderful home in a great neighborhood. There are seven or eight other homes in the neighborhood and we are all priced within $10k of each other. Most of the others have realtors. We have wonderful curb appeal and more upgrades/extras than the other homes. We are having our home appraised in two days, advice I read on this site. I am just at a loss as to what to do next. While the homes that have realtors don't seem to be selling either, it is frustrating to me that we haven't received a single email or call yet.
Any advice would be appreciated!! Thanks!
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Posted 4/28/2008 5:45:21 AM
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While I can't give you any advice, I can certainly comisserate with you. We had our home on the market for 13 months, held 2 open houses in which no one came, and finally took our house off the market for 6 months. Now, we've re-listed our house and haven't received a single call. Our home is priced below every other home in the neighborhood.
Just be patient and the buyers will come. Have a yard sale. People don't usually go to open houses, but boy do they swarm to yard sales! Check into owner financing or rent-to-own if you are desperate. Mortgage companies are really cracking down on loan qualifications due to all the foreclosures, and if you aren't selling a cheap starter home, you will have fewer prospects.
Wish I could give you better advice, but at least you're not alone in your plight.
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Posted 5/20/2008 8:43:09 PM
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I wish I could give you some good advice. I've had mine up for 13 months, with about 45 showings. Have never had an open house. I tried an agent for a few months, but really got less with an agent as far as lookers.
I do like it when there are real estate signs in the neighborhood. You can use those to your advantage as they will draw in people who are house-hunting. I do notice that I get more response when I have my price on the sign and flyers, as I am almost always lower than the competition. Selling by owner, you can adjust the price as often as you want to meet or beat competition.
It does sound as if you've got the competition with other houses near you for sale. I don't know what part of the country you're in, but location could be an influence. Are you seeing people visit the neighboring houses for sale? If so, be sure your sign is well-located and can be seen from the street easily. As I mentioned above, if you are selling lower than your neighbors, consider putting the price on the sign.
Also, use online resources to find out what houses are going for in your neighborhood. Zillow.com can be helpful, and to find out what the agent's are pricing their houses at, use realtor.com and do a zip[ code and price range search for listings on your local MLS.
It takes time to sell now, so you've go to have patience. It took me exactly one year to the day to get a legitimate offer, and that fell through because the buyer got cold feet. Have had other tentative offers but with contingencies I didn't want to get involved with. An offer this weekend didn't complete, as I was sure when it was made there were going to be problems financing.
Good luck.
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Posted 6/16/2008 1:19:53 PM
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Have you tried selling it with "Temporary Seller-Financing" and can be sold for the full appraised value. Email me if you want to know more. 1972Diva@gmail.com.
Thanks
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Posted 10/7/2008 9:10:35 AM
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I feel you there. Our one house has been on the market for 2 years now with a realtor. Luckily we have a renter. But now we are having to sell our new house that we just built and are relocating out of this horrible state. I have been trying to figure out why we haven't sold too. It is a great little house, curb appeal, remodeled and the price is below the other houses in the area, and bigger. But it is only a 2 bedroom and not a 3, but like I said our house in total is a lot larger than the other houses. My husband and I are so frustrated, since we now have two houses to sell in this crazy market.
All I can say is good luck to you. I hope you have better luck than we have had.
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Posted 12/10/2008 1:59:24 PM
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The National association of Realtors, which I am not a member, did a very large study of some 140,000 transactions a few years ago. They reported a couple interesting facts. 15% of all transactions happen without MLS help, non listed homes essentially. These are parents selling to children, friends and family deals, Realtors/Brokers selling their own homes off market, investor purchases directly from homeowner, FSBO's, etc. Of this 15% it would be easy to see that waaaay less than the 15% of homes that actually sold were sold as a FSBO. Also, 85% of all homes listed as a FSBO did not sell until it was listed on the MLS with a Realtor.
I use the 80/20 rule. 80% of buyers have no interest at all in even looking seriously at a FSBO. The 20% that are willing to seriously look at a FSBO want a huge discount or seller financing of some type to make it make sense.
Being a successful FSBO seems tough after I read this data.
The seller needs a few things to line up:
1. a buyer who is ok buying without an agent and without the errors and omissions insurance of a real estate broker to protect their decision and investment.
2. a Realtor who is ok bringing a client to a non-listed home even with compensation offered
3. to have such a great a price that makes sense for a buyer to take the risk of non0MLS homes, especially with all the competition in some areas
4. the financing for the buyer so that getting a conventional loan is not worth it.
In my feeling which is based on my first hand experience...unless a FSBO has a rock bottom price, offers normal amounts of compensation to buyer's agents or offers seller financing...they are in for a rude awakening. It is tough out there to sell a home at all let alone when not listing a home. The amount of perceived savings is often overwhelmingly countered by the time that is used to sell as a FSBO.
Please feel free to contact me with any specific questions that pertain to your unique situation.
Dan
Dan Rogers
Private Money Lender/Home Buyer
408-821-2250
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Posted 12/17/2008 3:23:13 PM
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Brian - I have been buying and selling homes for years. There are a couple of things not in any sellers favor right now. First, you are selling in a buyers market. There are A LOT of homes on the market and few buyers, which means your home really has to stand out from your competitors (i.e price, ammenities, etc). Second, buyers are spooked with homes dropping in price so much, no one wants to purchase a home and then lose money on it next month. Not much you can do about this. Third, we are in the holiday season, no body or very few will think about buying until the new year.
Also, I disagree with what Buyerdan said, most of it doesn't make sense. (no offense buyerdan, perhaps I am just mis-understanding your comments).
First - errors and ommissions insurance is to protect the brokerage from mistakes made by an agent, it has nothing to do with the buyer. However, most buyers will prefer to use an agent since it costs them nothing. So it's good you are willing to pay a buyer's agent a commission. If you are offering anything less than 3% in this market, you are shooting yourself in the foot.
Second - if a realtor knows you are willing to work with him or her, they will have no problem bringing your a buyer, at least that's my experience.
Third - Any risk in purchasing a home will lie in the contract, the home inspection, the appraisal, etc. The MLS has nothing to do with risk. However, price is a huge factor to consider. In a seller's market, homeowners always jack their price above market value because they know the appreciation will evetually catch them and buyers will pay the price. In a buyer's market, the exact opposite is true. If you want to sell your house quickly, you will need to be very competitive and one way to do this is by lowering the price below your competitors. This is just simple economics and applies to any comodity.
Fourth - a loans a loan,whether you use a Realtor or not.
Most Realtors will put a sign in your yard and hope it sells. The value of a Realtor lies in the MLS (and their knowledge of writing the contracts). When you list your home on the MLS, you now have potentially thousands of Realtors trying to sell your home, which is a great asset, but most Realtors won't do much more than that to market your home.
When you sell by owner, it is more work, but at least you are in control. Having sold many homes, here is what I would do, but still no guarantees and you might have already done these.
1) you have already listed with owners.com and used their MLS pacakge.
2) list your home on Fizber.com if you haven't already. They will get your home listed on a lot of other sites (additional exposure)
3) list your home with FSBOheaven.com. Thier internet marketing isn't any better than most, but these guys have a lot of marketing tools for FSBOs.
4) Be patient, the fed just lowered their rate and the market usually heats up after the holidays.
Good Luck.
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