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Any good experiences doing FSBO?
DH and I are currently trying to sell our house FSBO. We have listed it through a flat fee MLS so it is on all the realtor sites and we have made flyers that we distributed at the local University as well as in a box outside our house on our "for sale" sign.
The house has been on the market for 10 days and we have had a lot of interest already. We got the house appraised immediately before putting it on the market so we have it priced right and it is competitive with other similar properties that are for sale in the area.
We have had one offer so far. A lowball offer that we are negotiating but we honestly don't really see it working out. They offered about 15% less than the appraisal value (we are listed at 4% above appraisal). We gave them everything else they were asking for such as appliances, closing date of their choice etc.
Anyways, anyone we talk to seem to be telling us that we should be using an agent and the doing FSBO never works out, etc. Our reason for not using an agent is that we will already be paying about $30k to get out of the house because of the market and we feel like we have been able to price the house right and also advertise it. We are also working with a real estate attorney for all the paperwork (law in our state).
Please give me some hope that people actually DO sell their houses FSBO - we are more than willing to work with buyers' realtors and pay their commission but at this point we almost feel like hiring a sellers' realtor would be giving them money for the work we have already done.
TIA for any opinions and advice (even if it is advice I don't want to hear).
Re: Any good experiences doing FSBO?
It sounds like you're doing it right. Make sure you're looking at everything else on the market as objectively as possible to be priced competitively. Sometimes appraisals can be off. The most common FSBO sins I've seen in our area:
- Being sketchy about when things were updated. Make sure you know when all of your big ticket updates were done and if something is going to need to be fixed within the next year, you absolutely have to factor that in to your price.
- Kitchen and bathroom updates. If other houses have them and yours doesn't, you need to be priced under them.
- I would try to get someone with "fresh eyes" to look over your house and make sure there aren't any eyesores that you're oblivious to. H and I saw quite a few houses that had seen better days - old matted carpet, damaged walls, and general sloppiness. Typically an agent would tip you off to cleaning that stuff up. As a buyer, if I see that stuff I'm wondering what was neglected in the house that I can't see.
- Usually a listing agent would follow up with the agents for the buyers to get feedback. If you get cards for buyer agents, I would call them after they show the house to find out what their clients thought.
Truly, I think it can work if you're a reasonable seller. It sounds like you're on the right track.
Thanks so much for your feedback! We are really lucky that our house is only 7 years old so everything is in good condition. We did have someone fix some settlement cracks and replace some areas of the floor boards that our dog tried to eat. Besides from that we did some serious decluttering and try to keep the house spotless for all showings. We just went through the buying process (for our new house) and saw some houses that were a mess. We didn't even consider them because they were cluttered and disorganized - you couldn't even see the house.
We will definitely take your advice and ask potential buyers' agents for feedback. It seems that the buyers' we are currently in negotiations with really like the house but their issues are financial.
Hate to say it but you might really be hurting yourself by doing a FSBO:
1. It is a HUGE disadvantage to realtor to show your house. Let's face it. The buyer's agent would end up doing most of the work for you AND the buyer b/c you don't know what you are doing like a pro does. For ex: what happens if the financing starts to fall through, making sure all paperwork is legal and correct (discl.). Plus you will most likely be asking questions to the agent that he won't be spending the time on if you have an agent. So that agent will end up doing twice as much work for same commission.
2. Lots of buyers work with agents. See my points above. If the agent doesn't want to work with a FSBO, he/she isn't going to push your home to tour.
3. Many buyers work with agents b/c they want someone to guide them through the process of spending this large sum of money (or inquiring a large debt or helping them find where they will put their head at night). See above again.
I completely understand your point of not wanting to pay the commission. It is alot of money. But on the flipside, your house might sell faster if you have the agent (hence you pay less mortgage payments) and you are already offering to pay half to another agent. So I would consider if it worth paying the half for it to possibly sell faster.
I know you definitely have a point that not all realtors would be willing to work with us; especially since I know that a lot of FSBOs don't do their homework. We have talked about hiring an agent if things look bad after a few more weeks but of course, we would rather save the money since basically all our savings are going to cover the loss we are taking on our sale.
We are working with a real estate attorney who is taking care of all paperwork and questions we have so there is no extra work for the buyer's realtor. Having a real estate attorney in a real estate transaction is law in our state and an expense we would have whether or not we use a realtor.
I really do appreciate your input.
We're selling our house FSBO right now too. We've had tons of showings. Everyone coming in the door has a buyer's agent. We're willing to pay the buyer's agent a 3% commission, which has definitely helped. We also used an MLS flat fee listing service.
It sounds like you're doing everything we are. So far we've had several very interested buyers and we're very happy with the response we've been getting.
If you don't NEED to get out of the house right NOW, I'd wait it out a little longer. You can always hire an agent, but honestly, agents are seeing your house through the MLS right now, so it doesn't seem much different.
Just remember to be accommodating for showings and point out your home's selling features.
Good luck to you!
Thanks so much! We just went under contract today! Hopefully everything works out smooth from now on. It seems like the buyers really want the house and they came up to a price we were comfortable with!
I think I was extremely lucky when I sold my house myself. DH and I were building a new home and we didnt want to sell the house I owned before the new place was ready.
I got 2 phone calls from people who knew we were building. I showed to both and one made an offer that we accepted. We both called our attorneys and they took it from there.