Selling Your Home By The Owner
First, I want to apologize for the lack of content going up on our site here. Life has been rather busy for the Bullish Dividends Family. I am in the process of selling our house privately, and a family member that was very close has sadly passed away. Today though, I thought I'd go over some of my initial thoughts with selling our house through the ByTheOwner.com service. We have not sold yet, but we have received a lot more 'action' then I originally expected. Our house has been listed a little over 3 weeks now, and we already have two parties which I think will submit offers to us within the next week or so. Some might not think this is very good, but you only have to look at the current market situation, and the fact that we are in the midst of the holiday season which is a time most people put house hunting on hold.
Signing up with ByTheOwner was fast and easy and within the next two days, we had a photographer over taking pictures of our house. The pictures turned out fantastic, in fact if you compare ByTheOwner pictures to your standard mls.ca pictures you wouldn't believe that mls can get away with the lack of quality they show. While here, the photographer installed our lawn sign and gave us a few extra signs to use for open houses and to direct traffic. They also provide you with a booklet which covers all aspects of selling your house privately.
The best part about selling privately, is the fact that you'll save on average 5% of your closing price from not having to pay realtor fees. For example, if we were to sell our house for our asking price of $275k we'll be saving roughly $13750! thats right, roughly $14k of savings for a cost of just over $300 to sign up, and showing people around your house yourself. What else does a realtor do? prepare and deal with the offers right. well, in the end you need to work with your lawyer, so any offer that comes in, that you want to accept, all you do is make one extra trip to your lawyer to make sure it is in your best interest. (which is probably something you should do anyways.) So you might pay an extra lawyer fee, but in the end you are saving a lot more then what that costs.
The other benefit, is because you aren't paying the realtor fees, you can afford to put your house up for sale, for less then what you would with a realtor and STILL save money. I think that for anyone who is thinking of selling their house, give ByTheOwner, (or any other private sale company) a chance. The amount of extra work on your end is minimal, and you can SAVE so much more money.
If you want to check out my listing, you can go to it here, House For Sale In Waterloo. Please note that the link may not be active after the house sells. If you try it and it does not work, please use the contact function to let me know to remove it from this page.
I wanted end with a little blurb that I found on the ByTheOwner.com website which can be found here.
For Sale By Owner ( FSBO ) is the process of selling your home without a real estate agent. Approximately 25% of all real estate transactions in Canada are completed without real estate agents. Selling your home privately has become a growing trend in Canada due to owners wanting to take more control of their house sale while saving thousands by not paying high real estate commissions.
When you sell your home privately you are in control of your home sale. You can decide when to show your home and to whom you show your home. Sale of the home for FSBO properties are generally completed bewteen 15 and 80 days. Private sellers advertise their home, schedule their own open houses, and talk directly with the buyers. Most owners who sell privately contact a lawyer and have the lawyer write and review the contract before finalizing the sale. Owners who sell privately do not have to pay 5-7% of their homes value to a real estate agent. Owners decide on the home sale price and they decide when to have open houses. You can save 4-7% from a commission free home sale.
For Example, if two neighbours have similar properties and one sells with an agent for $300,000 and the other sells with ByTheOwner.com for $300,000, then the home sold on ByTheOwner.com would result in the owner saving more than $15,000 from their home sale!!! A recent study by Northwestern University proved that people who sell their home without an agent save more than people who sell their home with a real estate agent.
I thought it would be appropriate to mention that I am not affiliated with ByTheOwner.com at all, (other then selling my house using their service) this article was NOT payed for and is completely my thoughts on the content.
Do you have any experience selling privately? are you thinking of selling and would like to know more? Use the comment section below and lets talk about selling privately!
Bullish Dividends
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Propeller
Reddit
I am currently listed with
I am currently listed with bytheowner.com and would like to add a few comments. My name and identifying email address is withheld due to fear of bytheowner.com management cancelling my contract without refund at their discretion, without warning. Legal battles may ensue in a few cases of people this has happened to recently for talking "down" about their services. I do not want to be one more victims of them.
I would further like to add that I am not related to, or affiliated with, any realestate agent or service.
All this "save the commision" is a bunch of nonsense! What really happens (from testimonials) is the seller lowers their price, and then some, to compensate for the commission not apparently paid out. The buyers will demand it, anyway. This results in the sellers spending huge amounts of their own effort, time and money to promote their own properties. The end result, IMHO, is to receive a net loss of their property proceeds by the time it is all said and done.
Notice, if you click on the original posters link to his house sale page it will announce his listing has expired. He has know spent somewhere between $400 - $1500 ON THE bto.com service, advertising and sundry items. This is not to mention the huge time commitment expended to sit in an empty house for weekend after weekend, with no "tire kickers" to entertain him 2-4 pm Saturdays and Sundays. And he still haven't sold his home.
Perhaps in a "sellers market" (agents will never use the "poor" or "bad" word) private sales, backed by a cost for sure agency, would function quite well. Reaslistically, a sign on the lawn, a few well placed adverts, and some online advertising from one of the several hundred of free listing services would suffice and save the main cause of inflation for residential properties...realestate commissions. 5-6% indeed.
As much as I think the realestate commission schedule is set up all wrong, and unfair, you are purchasing some insurance. If your house doesn't sell, due to being sick of them wanting to reduce your wallet thickness for their profit, you don't pay them anything.
How goes the FSBO project?
How goes the FSBO project?
Consumers' experiences are of interest because, although a REALTOR®, I'm a contrarian on many aspects of industry practice and remuneration. See how at www.halifaxrealestatechoices.com .
Ron
Thank You
D4L,
Thank you for your kind words.
Condolences
BD: My condolences to you and your family for you loss.
Best Wishes,
D4L