FOR SALE BY OWNER DOES IT SAVE YOU MONEY
OR COST YOU THE SALE?

Everybody wants to save money by eliminating the real estate agent¹s commission.  Even me, and I¹m a realtor!

When I moved recently I put a FSBO sign in the yard, thinking if anyone could sell my house I could.  After all, I¹ve sold over $170 million in residential real estate over the last 30 years.  All agents have to pay their brokers a percent of their commission and I wanted to save that money for moving expenses.  Sound familiar?

So the FSBO sign went up and I waited for the calls.  And I waited and waited.  And waited.  Nothing rang‹not the phone, not the doorbell, not the Palm Pilot.   After three weeks of silence I gave up and listed my house with Re/Max (under Team Ellis of course!).  The very next day I got a call from a prospective buyer.  She said, ³I¹m so glad the owner¹s decided to list the house. I kept riding by it when it was a FSBO but thought it was probably priced too high and that was the reason they had it for sale by owner.

The woman didn¹t know she was talking to me about me.  I swallowed my pride and let her know I was both the owner and the agent.  Fortunately, she didn't care.  She went on to say she¹d always loved my house and asked if she could see it.  She made an offer on the spot.

The lesson was clear:  ³For Sale by Owner² is a good tactic if you like the sound of silence.

Frustrated Internet Realtor-Seeker Gets Offer in 7 Days

One night I received an email from “Steve.” He was moving from Atlanta to New York with his family and was looking for a real estate agent to sell his house. He went to Realtor.com to shop for realtors. He sent the same email to 8 different agents. “Not only were you the only one to respond,” he told me. “You did it within 20 minutes of me having sent it!” He listed the house with us and within 7 days we had an offer on it. A buyer had found it on one of our sites and that was the end of that. We closed Steve’s house in less than 3 weeks from start to finish.

2-Car Garage in Midtown????  No Way!

“Sally” was looking for a home in Midtown with a two-car garage—a very rare breed in this part of town. We were driving Sally back to the office after a full day of touring homes when suddenly our Palm Pilots went off, alerting us to a home near Piedmont Park with a garage. We literally made a U-turn, called the agent, and were at the house in 15 minutes. Sally was the first to see it, the first to make an offer and the first to close the sale.

Simple Staging Suggestions Close Deal

“Bill” knew his home wasn’t as flattering as it could be, but he didn’t have the money to make major renovations. We told him he didn’t need to. He needed tweaks not overhauls. We recommended just a few superficial changes: pull up the dead shrubs, paint the front door, plant flowers around the mailbox and paint the over-wallpapered house. Bill did it all, but wouldn’t budge on the wallpaper—he loved it too much. After 29 years in the business, I knew his beloved wallpaper would be a deal-breaker for most families. Sure enough, we went six weeks with steady traffic but no offers. We tactfully re-suggested a re-paint. He agreed. And wouldn’t you know it, the first buyer who saw the house after the re-paint bought the house!

Jonathan Wanted Fixer-Upper in High End Neighborhood

“Jonathan” wanted a home that needed major renovations. He wanted to put down as little money as he could and grow his investment through sweat equity—doing all the work himself. Problem: The homes in the area he wanted to live in were so well tended they didn’t need so much as a paint job. One day, our Palm Pilots went off, flashing “PRICE CHANGE ALERT” on a house in Jonathan’s neighborhood. The text said, “Just reduced below appraisal.” We called Jonathan IMMEDIATELY. “Can you be here 15 minutes ago?” we asked. He high-tailed it to the property. It was reduced to take into account how much repair work it needed. Jonathan made an on-the-spot offer and got the house.