Moving and putting the house up for sale

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Leaping Deer

Leaping Deer

Joined
Dec 15, 2005
Threads
218
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4,564
Location
Whitinsville, MA
This is the first time ever selling any real estate and was hoping to get some opinions. My wife and I bought in 2004 and are taking a beating so we are selling the house ourselves to avoid paying a real estate commission. We are doing a bunch of cleaning, painting ect trying to get it to look nice.

We went out and had a professional looking sign made up to put in the front yard. I feel we should put the price on. After speaking with her parents she doesn't want to. My thought as with cars, if there is no price I'm not even going to bother calling. My wife and inlwas general consensus is then you are stuck to the price.

So I say what happens if someone calls and ask what the price is and she says I'm supposed to say "We are accepting offers". Now its my name and number on the sign and I'm thinking no BS. Here is our price. As it is I think people are going to be skeptical buying with no broker.

We have $5k between what we are asking and what we are willing to take. If we get our asking price we are willing to work on with the buyer with things they might want us to fix. At our bottom line we aren't doing anyhing.

Any thoughts or opinions on selling a house?
 
My opinion is to not put a orice on it and if people call about it tell them you are more than willing to discuss that in person. Anyone truly interested us going to come by.

I do this when looking at trucks. I figure the only way for a seller to know I'm serious is to put the effort into actually looking at it

This way you automatically weed out the bottom feeders. And spend your time actually talking to buyers.
 
See even if I'm interested 9 times out of 10 I won't call on something without a price because I feel I will get a sales pitch or its probably over priced that the seller isn't willing to state it. If I look at something and see the price I can determine if its even worth my time contacting the seller becuse if its not in my budget then why bother.

Maybe we should go without a price for a while and see what happens. If all else fails throw the price on .
 
I used to be a real estate broker. Do not put a price on the sign. People are emotional when it comes to buying a house. They have an idea in their head of what they want to spend and it's usually less than they can actually afford. That number flies out the window as soon as they get an emotional attachment to the property. If they cross it if their list by doing a drive by, you lose out on a potential buyer.
 
Maybe put a flier with a price out in a box next to the sign? Not as publicly advertised and may get more people to actually stop. I am also less likely to call if a price isn't available.
 
landtank said:
My opinion is to not put a orice on it and if people call about it tell them you are more than willing to discuss that in person. Anyone truly interested us going to come by.

I do this when looking at trucks. I figure the only way for a seller to know I'm serious is to put the effort into actually looking at it

This way you automatically weed out the bottom feeders. And spend your time actually talking to buyers.
Click to expand...

I second that.
 
Price on the yard sign just really isn't done in real estate is it? I can't ever recall seeing that. I have seen the little box with flyers with details and price next to the For Sale sign though.

Not sure how effective it is but around me, all the stores have those For Sale By Owner, color flyers/magazines for free at the door with local properties for sale. They claim to have have a high success rate. Might be worth looking into listing it in something like that as well. Get it listed online, too. I'm sure Alex/SouthBostonFJ can weigh in on that.

Good luck with the sale. I've had many friends put their house on the market in the last 5 or 6 years and the thing I'd say is that if you only have a $5k diff between asking and will-take, you better be prepared to receive some shockingly different (lower) bids from people. Seems buyers expect to get massive, often very unrealistic, deals right now. So no matter what you are asking, they will low ball you.

At least that is how it is up here.
 
landtank said:
IMO Jason you are exactly the type of buyer you want to avoid. You want to be talking with people who like the property rather than those who like the asking price.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing I should take that as a compliment... :D

But seriously. I'm ready to try a few things before listing it with a real estate agent. The only problem is that our bottom line would be $10k more if we had to do that. I think that we have the house priced pretty competitively based on similar houses which have sold in the area.

The problem is that I think the wife and inlaws believe that I'm shooting too low. I think I'm being realistic.
 
You should have three different brokers come over and give you a CMA. You don't have to list with any of them but that will give you an idea of how much the house is worth. Some agents will also list the house in MLS for you but not market it or show it. The MLS listing would say to contact you directly. You'd still need to pay the other broker who brings you a buyer. That's usually 2-2.5%. You can also try www.fsbo.com. Craigslist works also.
 
I though about the Craigslist route. My wife's uncle is and agent in ma and probably licenced in RI too so getting him to list might be a good idea.
 
You can post your house on the MLS with listing agents for $300 for 6 months. Search online for those. I've used them. Don't put a price on the sign, put features like "finished basement" etc.

Get a professional real estate photographer to take your listing pics.

Agents blacklist FSBO listings as they feel like they end up doing all the work. make sure you mention there will be a realtor commission for buyers agents. Don't expect huge help from those people as they will show yours dead last.
 
Houses generally sell 5-8% less than the asking price (I heard that from a realtor so take that for what it's worth)
 
Well we put the house up for sale on Zillow and Craigslist on Monday night. No price on the sign but we we put a price up on Zillow and Craigslist a little higher than what we had originally had.

Last night I traded text messages with a prospective buyer who saw it on Craigslist. She is coming to check out the house on Saturday evening.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/31-flor...l-Park-Blvd-Pawtucket-RI-02861/65886524_zpid/
 
Leaping Deer said:
Well we put the house up for sale on Zillow and Craigslist on Monday night. No price on the sign but we we put a price up on Zillow and Craigslist a little higher than what we had originally had.

Last night I traded text messages with a prospective buyer who saw it on Craigslist. She is coming to check out the house on Saturday evening.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/31-flor...l-Park-Blvd-Pawtucket-RI-02861/65886524_zpid/
Click to expand...

Just looked at the pics. That can't really be your house, not a Cruiser part or kids toy in any of them!
Good luck!
 
Kids toys just got moved from room to room as we were taking pictures. There is a cruiser axle to the right of the garage. The Camry is blocking it in on pic and the tree is blocking it in another. Besides the garage I have cruiser parts stored in various parts of the house.

We have our first showing tonight at 6pm and another one scheduled for 6pm on Saturday.
 
Full offer right off the bat. They are cool waiting until our other appointments see it.
 
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