 Posted 8/15/2006 11:02:37 AM
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Owners. com helped us sell our house, and in just 3 1/2 weeks.
The buyer came from the yard sign.
1. The banner was definitely the key to the whole process.
2. Photos are Extremely Important. It showed just how much sq. footage we actually had per room. Visuals are easier for a prospective buyer to understand.
3. Flyers were important too. I couldn't keep it (holder) filled fast enough!
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Posted 10/19/2006 12:14:52 PM
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We sold to a buyer without an agent being involved; the buyer turned out to be the son of the couple from whom I purchased the house 18 years ago. His wife saw it on your web site and called us. He was 9 years old when I bought the house from his parents and now he will be living in his childhood home . . . . how cool is that!
We had a multitude of agents from various agencies contacting us trying to get the listing. The market here has been extremely tough for well over two years now due to a rotten job market, layoffs, plant closings and an overbuilding of new homes in the immediate area (Louisville, OH).
There are also very many FSBO listings in the area to choose from, more than I've ever seen before. Many real estate agents are trying everything they can to get those listings, including the fake buyer (who is actually a realtor friend) just so they can get their foot in the door and try to talk you into a listing, lol.
I had no problem involving a realtor that a buyer would bring into the deal as long as they understood that the purchase price would be increased to cover the fee (this was the stipulation up front). There was only one realtor backed showing that I know of. The house was priced way below market value (25k below) to try and land a quick sale and there was no room for a commission at the FSBO asking price.
The owners.com site was wonderful for us. We had many compliments on that listing and I am convinced that it helped lead to the sale of the home. Even our buyers' friends and families looked at that listing many times. We had more than a few out of state inquiries as well and even a showing with a couple who were living in FL. The tools and information available via the site were of great benefit to us as well as to potential buyers.
BTW, I've recommended your site to many people, those looking to buy and those thinking of (or actively) selling. As a matter of fact, I think the people who bought our home were so impressed with your site that they too had a FSBO listing with you to sell their home. It's great to have an affordable resource such as this to list a home for sale. I hope it continues to grow and certainly will help many others with the guts to go FSBO. Also, I had more showings per week, in general, than realtor listed homes in our area. Of course it was priced in order to generate this type of activity . .. . the more showings the better the chance of a sale!
One of the better comments, I got repeatedly, was about the pictures they could see when looking at our listing on your site. In my opinion, pictures should be considered an absolute must for this type of listing. I know a lot of people who wouldn't even look at listings if there were no pictures with them. I'm sure you've heard this before and it is truly good advice to recommend pictures be included with a listing.
I don't think I ever left the site without finding the answers I needed about anything involving buying or selling a home.
Thanks again for providing such a valuable resource for the little guy!
Kurt
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Posted 11/20/2006 3:26:24 PM
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Thanks for your service. I had over 400 hits on my site on owners.com. Our buyer didn't see the house on your site but I'm sure some of our open house visitors did.
It took 3 months to sell our house. We had an open house every Sunday from 1 till 4. We added an extra hour since most seemed to be 1 to 3pm. That last hour was always the busiest.
We always had fresh flowers throughout the house which made it look very nice.
Our buyer visited the house during 3 of the open houses. What I believe finally closed the deal was suppling a mortgage officer's card that we had started to hand out to the potential buyers. I think people buying direct from the owners are not sure of how the financing will work out. Once the fear of financing was overcome, the deal was made.
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Posted 1/4/2007 2:11:30 PM
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We had an open house every Sunday from 3-5 pm until our house sold in less than 2 months even when it wasn't peak season. You could choose to do it Saturday, whichever works better for you and your family. Our children had to take naps so we needed to provide ample time for that and to get them out the door with daddy. This would force ourselves to commit to extensive cleaning once a week, and then if we'd have a potential buyer we'd be prepared throughout the week b/c we had already cleaned house.
We bought an Open House sign for our front yard from Home Depot and we put lettering on it to let people know what time of day and day of week it would be. And we'd put that sign out several days prior to Sunday to let anyone who drove by know that it was coming up. We also had Open House arrow signs at ever entrance to our neighborhood and put those out at the same time as the front yard sign. This would give people plenty of notice so they could make plans to come.
We also felt that having COLOR flyers out with our FSBO sign helped a lot too. We'd only put out like 3-4 at a time and let those run out that way people weren't taking them unnecessarily and we could monitor how many people had pulled flyers each day.
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Posted 3/26/2007 11:49:35 AM
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Pricing our home: First, we checked the tax assessments and recent sales in our neighborhood (county web site). Then we took a walk around the area and made a note of comparable houses on the market. Finally, we had a professional appraiser give us an estimate of the market value of the house.
The buyer saw the yard sign the morning following the evening we put it up.
We had a deal within 24 hours of putting the house on the market.
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