Considerations For The Serious Fsbo

Introduction:

You my have been told by brokers that you cant sell by owner, others around you may be skeptical, and you may not be sure you know what to do. Yes, indeed, selling a house by owner (FSBO) can be frightening.
You probably know you need:

A sign in the yard
An ad online
An ad in the local papers
But then what?
Five things you need to consider when you decide to sell by owner. Five legitimate concerns. Let me walk you through them:

1. How Do You Get Buyers

Without buyers coming to view the house, youll never find a willing qualified buyer. Brokers, who belong to the local MLS have access to thousands of qualified buyers.

What do you have?
What can you do?
How can you compete?

Consider cooping with a buyer agent, since they have qualified buyers. If you pay two or three percent. You still save one half of a full commission.
Or find a flat fee listing company who will put your house in the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for a Flat Fee, usually around $200.00 to $300.00.

Ask for an Exclusive Agency contract. Not an Exclusive right to sell; with an exclusive right to sell contract you lose your right to sell by owner.
Make sure that you can sell without a Broker and pay no further commission.

2. How to Conduct Your Ad Campaign

Dont know how to write an ad? Search online there are lots of ad writing tips. Find a simple step by step outline and follow it, youll be surprised how good your ad turns out.
Here again, Brokers have access to many online sites that are not available to you as a for sale by owner, such as Realtor.com. Recently, many areas offer their Broker members access to List Hub which gives them access to Google, Yahoo, AOL and at least twenty other real estate sites. You will automatically be placed on these sites with a Flat Fee listing Thats heavy duty exposure.

Where should you advertise? Think about it.

3. Contracts Are Legal Documents with Real Consequences

Where will you get contracts?
Will they meet your States requirements?
Do you know how to fill them out?

If you can answer yes to these questions, then youre fine. If youre not sure, you might want to consider hiring an attorney to write your contract or find a Broker who is willing to write and review your contract for a nominal Flat Fee.
Avoid legal hassles down the road.

A contract review service should cost you around $280.00 to $300.00. Thats still, a lot less then paying a full service commission.
With either an attorney or a Broker writing the contract, you are assured of their using the correct State approved forms.

4. How to Assure Contract Coordination

A huge mistake is to think that once you and the buyer have signed a contract that the deal is done.

NO! Many FSBOS make this mistake.

The transaction is closed only when you have a check from the title company in your hands.

There can be as many as thirty inspection and completion details in a real estate contract, each with a separate contract deadline. If any one of these deadlines isnt met, your contract can be void.
Brokers are familiar with how to follow a contract to closing. They have an edge, as they do this all the time.

You can do it; however, you might consider hiring a broker to do contract coordination. You can find someone to do it for a Flat Fee usually $380.00 to $450.00.
Take the hassle out of closing. You should be busy packing for your move.

5. Each State Has Required Forms

Your State will require various disclosure forms. If theyre not filled in correctly and on the appropriate form, you could have legal repercussions later.

If you choose to have a Broker do you contract writing and review, they will provide you with the required State approved forms.

Think about it. $280.00 to $300.00 is cheap for peace of mind.

In Summary:

These are the five consideration you should address as a For Sale by Owner.

Consider carefully if you know how to handle each and every one. They are real concernsand you should know how to handle each one; If not, consider Flat Fee services for:
Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
Contract Writing
Transaction Coordinating.

Heres a sample of the savings even after paying all the Flat Fees.
Lets say you have a $200,000 house for sale and you pay six percent for a full service listing thats:
$12,000 in commission.
Hypothetically, if you used all three Flat Fee services and paid:
$249.00 MLS,
$279.00 contract review
$379.00 Transaction coordination.

$907.00 Your cost
$11,093 Savings

If you paid a Buyer Agent three percent ($6000)
You would still save $5,093.00

Worth thinking about.

Copyright Wee Dilts 2010

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