 Posted 3/20/2007 10:09:32 AM
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Our house has been on the market now since mid October, and we had some lookers, but no offers. Just last night, however, our next door neighbors put out THEIR fsbo sign, which made me wonder:
Is it good or bad that our fsbo home is right next door to another fsbo home?
On one hand, we might be able to "piggy-back" off each other's advertisements. And since our homes are significantly different, together we might be able to attract a broader range of buyers.
On the other hand, are potential buyers going to try to play us off each other? If our neighbor's house, which is much smaller, is priced less than ours, are buyers going to pass us by?
What are all the pros and cons of this situation?
Also, what do you think about having a open house double-feature, in which we both have open houses during the same weekend?
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Posted 3/20/2007 10:42:06 AM
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Alex,
It makes sense to do an open house double-feature, especially since your homes are so different.
You mention your homes are different sizes so potential buyers shouldn't be able to play you off one another in terms of price - that is unless your home is significantly more expensive compared with the square footage difference.
You may be at a disadvantage with a less expensive home right next to yours. On the other hand, that may also give the buyer an opportunity to compare and decide it's worth it to pay more for a bigger home. That's what I did when buying my home and had two next door to one another for sale.
Your home has been on the market a long time so it's worth it to try something new.
You mentioned you had a few people look at the home. If you still have their names and number, you may want to call them and get their advice. Why did they choose not to buy your home. You may learn something that hasn't been apparent all these months.
Good luck!
FSBO Guru
Owners.com
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Posted 3/26/2007 11:40:03 AM
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Well, my neighbors had their open house yesterday, before I could talk to them about a double feature. However, I did learn that they are asking $130,000 MORE for their house. (Their house is priced at $499k, mine is priced at $369k.) They did not get a lot of traffic in the 2 hours of their open house, though.
So should I consider taking my house off the market, then raising the price of my house? I'm a little paranoid now that maybe potential buyers will see that our bigger house is priced so much less than our neighbor's and assume that there is something wrong with it.
This is a hard game to play when you don't know all the rules.
:-P
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Posted 3/27/2007 12:13:19 PM
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I'm kind of curious myself as to why your neighbor is offering a smaller house for more than 25 percent higher than you're asking. My suspicion is that one of you is out in left field.
You should consider doing a careful CMA (if you haven't already done so) looking at recent comparable home sales. That should give you a good estimate of what your home is really worth. Assuming you've priced it right, and your neighbor doesn't have something special about his house that would add to value (like a better location, pool, fabulous kitchen/bath, and so on) he's simply on a fantasy trip. And I suspect anyone seeing his house, will only come to appreciate yours more.
If your CMA comes out higher than you're currently asking, you might want to rethink your marketing and/or staging. If you've already reduced your price a couple of times, raising it doesn't seem to make much sense. Unless you're able to change how you reach buyers and present the home. Market it better, show it better, and chances are you'll get a better price
Good luck!
Bob Irwin
Author, "For Sale By Owner Kit"
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Posted 12/9/2007 3:42:20 PM
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This is an old message and I am curious to know that status today. The market has been worse sense March. I have my own up FSBO as well. Just listed yesterday. It was listed with an agent for two months. Not one broker or potential buyer came through. Though the market is really bad - the average home is on the market for 60 days. I see in one neighborhood four homes for sale on one street and all were the same exact model, all by different brokers/realtors and one sold within six months. Regardless of the market conditions, there are buyers and I personally think Agents are getting lazy and it really is frustrating. Let us know how you are doing today!!??
Avoid foreclosure via short sale. www.yesterdaysforeclosure.com
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