# For Sale by Owner Questions



## ctomosky (Jul 14, 2008)

Hi,

We are currently selling our home for a place out in the country. We found the new home and are closing on it in two months. Our current home has been on the market since last Christmas with no success. Our realty agency was only able to bring in one couple through the house during that time--nearly 9 months. Frustrating beyond belief!!

Now that our contract is up, we are going to go the FSBO route to try and sell this house. We are looking at www.forsalebyowner.com, www.owners.com and www.fsbo.com. Have any of you had any experience with these listings. Do you have any suggestions. I am mostly through the Idiots guide for FSBO, and we have all of the material left over from the local agency. I am hoping to get this up and running by monday morning.

We are selling our Current house in Western PA for $195,000. It is a 4b/2ba home. It has 10 rooms with over 3000 sq ft. In 2001, the prior owners added a huge addition which included master bedroom suite, den, game room, new furnace with air conditioning, new water heater, new roof. The house had a wood burning fireplace that we added a blower unit. There is a two car detached heated garage. There is a storage shed in the back. The house sits on nearly 1 acre level lot and is adjacent to a farm. We have loved being in this house; if we could have, we would have picked this house up and moved it to more land, but that can't be done.

Thanks for any advice. We need to sell soon!

Chris.


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## ninny (Dec 12, 2005)

Try www.craigslist.org It's free and there are a bunch of listings on there. You can re-list your house every day. I've advertised property on there before. Give it a try.


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## homesteadforty (Dec 4, 2007)

I'll offer some blunt advise/observations, given _only_ in the interest of possibly helping. All, some or none of this may actually apply but is just something to think about... so, please _do not_ take any of this personally.

I assume that with a contract to list with a realtor in your area, your property was on the local MLS. One showing in nine months indicates a problem and almost any problem in real estate is related to the price. A properly priced property (on the MLS) should at least generate viewings.

To put it another way, whether it's a bad market (as in economy), a bad location, bad condition, etc., real estate is being bought and sold... at the right price. Did your agent/broker make suggestions to lower the price or maybe do certain things that would increase the appeal (not the price)?

Your emotional attachment or financial status (how much you need to get for the house) has nothing to do with it's market value. 

The first things I noted in your o.p. was how much you "loved being in this house" and you are _"currently selling your home"_... understandable... but, _people don't buy other peoples homes_... they buy a house that they plan to make into their home.

Going FSBO is not going to generate interest that isn't there because of the price... take a long, hard, objective look at the market in your area and compare it to your asking price.


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## amylou62 (Jul 14, 2008)

Yea I agree with homesteadforty. You need to look at the comparable homes in your area and then set your price lower. If you only had one showing in 9 months, maybe you should look for a new agent. FSBO's are not the way to go. Do you want to be available for showings all day? Do you know anything about contracts? Find a professional that can help you through this process.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Have an appraisal done. 
Then you will have a approximate value the bank will look at when they do their own appraisal.

The lender will only lend if its worth it to them....the appraisal is everything.

That will also help with your sale being able to show the paperwork from an actual appraisal.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Did your agent run comps on your place? It seems to me that you may have had the wrong realtor...

FSBO can be a royal pain. I've done it before, and I was successful in selling, but I had to adjust the price down and do a LOT of advertising on my own.

You may want to ask around to see if there are any realtors in your area who "do" farm/rural sales. We sold our WI land through United Country Realty, and had a very good experience with them. 

I like Rose2005's suggestion about Land and Farm, and all the other suggestions like Craig's list, et al.

Good luck to you!


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## Guest (Aug 11, 2008)

Our house up here in Northern Maine has been for sale for quite awhile. First we are in an area where stuff just doesn't sell fast, second the market has made that even harder. We have been listed on FSBO and that generated quite a bit of interest at first. We listed twice with agents--MLS is fairly new in our area and one agent just doesn't like to show what isn't listed by him. The last agent showed our house about 3 times. We also listed on the classified add on EBAY and quite honestly have not sold but we have showed the house many times to people in our area and quite a few who have traveled from Texas, Fla etc. We have had a few who have been seriously interested but have had to sell their places first which is just a vicious cycle. We did start out asking too much. We are priced right for our area now and no one has ever said we were priced to high--just waiting to sell what they have first. I'm going to check out landandfarm.com tomorrow and see about listing there also.

We have 80 acres and have found that most agents don't even want to be bothered going out to show anything but the house, so my husband winds up taking people out on the property--why pay 6% commission if they won't even do the work.
Best of luck to you! It can be a frustrating process even in a good market.


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## ctomosky (Jul 14, 2008)

I have been reading with great interest. Homesteadforty, we are taking your advice to heart. We have been through two realtors and our original price of 210K was deemed a very good deal by both realtors. The principal reason for fsbo is that we can drastically reduce the price to get this house moving. Hopefully, this house will be on the online sites within the next 24 hours. 

Thanks for all of the input.

Chris.


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

I like Fizber as well. Good luck.


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

> The principal reason for fsbo is that we can drastically reduce the price to get this house moving.


Yup! I've taken this route before and it worked for me. Sold my house within 2 weeks ... 

Craiglist, local newspaper classified (which will get your ad online, in most cases) even flyers tacked up at the grocery store (be sure to include pics) and signs tacked up at the end of the road. Included the property address in all ads -- many folks will want to drive by and have a peek at it before they call.

Before you start your FSBO advertising blitz, make sure the house and yard are in tip-top condition, and keep them that way! Be prepared to show your house at the drop of a hat. I was putting up a sign at the end of my road on the day I put mine up for sale when a gentleman pulled up, started asking me questions, and wanted to look at the house right away! I said, "Sure ..." He didn't end up being the buyer, but it just goes to show you ... ya can't be too prepared!


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## Rondah (Apr 1, 2008)

The biggest mistake most FSBO make is that they price their property too high. In this market it IS possible for a property to be priced correctly, and yet get no showings. My mother has been a realtor for 32 years, and, having been exposed to the market since I was little, I can tell you that this bear market is changing all the real estate rules. 
Sadly, you may want to drop the price aggressively, and sell for much less than you would like to get; even much less than it is 'worth' (determined by comparable properties in your area). Paying two mortgages is awful. 
Best of luck...


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## fordy (Sep 13, 2003)

................If , you sell and carry the mortgage , make sure that the buyer takes out a Decreasing term , life insurance policy that pays the proceeds directly into your estate bypassing the complications of waiting for the probate process too run it's course for a deceased buyer to payoff the mortgage principal balance due . , fordy


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

> We have 80 acres and have found that most agents don't even want to be bothered going out to show anything but the house, so my husband winds up taking people out on the property--why pay 6% commission if they won't even do the work.


We have an agent out this way that has a nice 4x4 vehicle just for that very purpose. He handles a lot of land sales around here. I believe he's ReMax. The place we bought our property from also "trucked" us around this place to show us the possibilities. Surely you can find an agent like that in your area if you have a lot of land? (Realize OP has 1 acre.)

I know nothing about real estate, unless its web-based. If I were in a position to sell our place, I'd definitely want to be able to take care of some, if not most, of the online marketing. I don't know if you can do that in a real estate contract or not. If not, I'd have to have it added in the contract. If I could?? Time-consuming? Maybe. But if it helped me sell the place quicker?? I think much of the problem with real estate not selling is the realtor's Ron Popeil attitude with home-selling. Paste the lame add up on their website where it soon gets buried within the 100,000 other homes on their site and run it through a "free" magazine with about 30,000 other homes you have to sift through to find it. When we were prospective land buyers, we wanted _details_. Most places we looked at online, if it didn't have details, we were likely to pass over it quickly. _Especially_ if it was far away. The ones we did actually go and check out were the ones that sounded like our dreams. I think FSBO may actually give you more leniency in that area?? OP, your home could sound like someone's dreams, but you have to paint that picture or get someone that can accomplish that goal for you. I read a story awhile back about someone out west (Washington state??) that sold their property through online marketing for _much more_ than what they were asking, just because they painted a picture that someone fell in love with. Wish you the best of luck in selling your place!


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## harvestgirl (Apr 29, 2005)

where in western pa are you?

would you consider rent to own as an option?


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