Posts Tagged selling for sale by owner
Do Your Buyers Know How To Buy A FSBO Home?
Posted by Deane in Sale Of Author's House on April 14, 2010
Some potential buyers will be working with a real estate agent, but many will not be. If they are unsure how to proceed 
they will probably contact a realtor. I’d LOVE to save that 3% commission when I “found” the buyer myself, so I help the buyer understand what to do next.
Today I sent out emails to everyone who attended my open house telling them how to proceed with buying my FSBO if they are unsure. Here is the body of that email:
| You may be wondering, “Do I need a real estate agent to buy a “for sale by owner” home?”
Not only are agents unnecessary to buy a home, involving one during a FSBO transaction could actually hinder the buying process, as the agent would want the seller and/or the buyer to commit to paying an expensive commission fee even though they did not bring the buyer and seller together. I have personally purchased and sold many homes “for sale by owner” and here is the process to buy a “for sale by owner” home: Get Pre-Approved For A Loan: You will want to get pre-approved so that you are ready to make an offer on a house. Getting a pre-approval letter is a quick process that will tell sellers that you are a serious buyer who can afford their home. If you are looking for a recommendation, I have worked with a local broker, John Finnessey, for several years. He has been in the business for 20 years, really knows his stuff, has integrity and and is an all around good-guy. He will guide you through the loan application process which is the hardest part of buying a home. His phone number is (443) 889-2828.
Make An Offer: Unlike homes being sold by a real estate agent, there’s no middleman to interfere with you from getting directly in touch with the seller. Contact the seller with any questions, or for a second showing.
If you have decided that a house is the one for you, and you are preapproved for a loan, you’re ready to present the seller with an offer. Offers on homes can be made verbally (in person or on the phone) or in writing (fax or email works just fine). Tell the seller how much you want to offer for the house. The seller will either accept or reject your offer or make a counter offer. Other terms to be agreed on are amount of deposited required, amount of down payment, closing costs, contingencies, date of possession, and other property to be included (such as appliances). Negotiations are common, even expected. If you are dealing with an experienced FSBO seller, they should have a standard sales contract, and required disclaimers and disclosures. Some buyers purchase their own contract or get one from a real estate attorney. You are always free to have an attorney look over any contract before you sign it. The Escrow Process: The lender will require you provide financial information and will usually will require a home inspection, termite inspection, and appraisal. The mortgage broker can help arrange this at the proper time during the loan approval process. The lender often will recommend a title company that you can use for closing but the buyer is legally entitled to choose whatever title company they want. Close the Deal: When the loan has been finalized, you and the sellers will meet at the office of the title company. Documents will be signed and payment is made to the seller. The seller will sign over the deed of the home and give you the keys. You’re now the new homeowner! |
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Internet Gaining, Realtors Losing Ground – It’s Very Clear
Posted by Deane in Strategies on September 8, 2009
Below is a very interesting chart published by the National Association of Realtors.
In 2001, 6 times more buyers found their house through a real estate agent than from the internet. As of 2008, real estate agents and the internet are running almost even. It’s very clear that the trend in buying houses is favoring “do-it-yourself”. This echoes the increase in the selling “for sale by owner” trend.
FSBO Statistics – I Hope This Isn’t You
I read today that, according to the National Association of Realtors, only 25% of homeowners selling “for sale by owner” hold even one open house. And even more shocking is that only 21% of them advertise their house in any way on the internet!
I’d like to ask these people, “What exactly ARE you doing to try to sell your own house?” Not much, apparently. I guess their FSBO marketing plan consists of putting up a for sale sign.
The sad thing is that there is SO much more they could easily do. The other unfortunate thing is people like this give FSBO selling a bad name. These people get lumped into the mix, bringing down the average on any “for sale by owner” statistics you find, such as DOM days on market) or average sale price. They make the rest of us look bad and give further ammunition for real estate agents to point out how selling FSBO doesn’t work.
So, please, please, please, don’t be another sad FSBO statistic!
This Isn’t Actually About FSBO, but You’ve Got to Laugh …
Posted by Deane in Miscellaneous, Uncategorized on August 10, 2009
I read an inadvertently amusing internet article about the ancient Oriental art of feng shui. (I mention feng shui in “The Truth About FSBO” system as a way to promote good luck when selling your house.) I had to share this with you so you could have a good laugh, too. Here a couple of sentences from this article I found particularly amusing:
“Have you ever been mesmerized by the soothing sound or the superb sight of a water fountain? Fine, many others are. Europeans just leave nuts over this point.” Oh, no! Don’t leave your nuts, all you crazy Europeans!
“People that want money try this well-liked technique. They cut a red ribbon in 9 pieces and they attach 3 coins together. They are then emotionally involved to a doorknob.” Don’t even ask!
Anyway, now that I’ve stopped laughing, the point is that it’s a shame but there is a lot of junk on the internet and you can waste a lot of timing cracking a lot of oysters to find a pearl. My commitment to you is to help you navigate through the junk on the internet about selling “for sale by owner” and give you just the pearls.
Prequalified or Preapproved? Why FSBO Sellers Must Know the Difference
Posted by Deane in Miscellaneous on August 2, 2009
Of course you want a potential buyer to be able to get a loan. If they want your house and can’t get one, they have just wasted a lot of your time and perhaps got you all pumped up for nothing. That’s no fun. You probably have heard the terms “preapproval” and “prequalification” but aren’t clear on what they means, the difference, and the significance of that is for you when selling for sale by owner.
Here are the basic definitions:
Prequalification – A condition where a lender has generally assessed a buyer as a good candidate for a loan, based on unverified information from the buyer. It is not a guarantee that the buyer will get a loan.
Preapproval – A condition where a lender has not only assessed the buyer’s loan application information via the prequalification process, but has also taken that loan through several other steps to insure a loan commitment to the buyer.
As you can see, prequalified means very little as it’s only based on what the buyer has told the lender about his finances without verification. Some buyers slant information to make themselves look good on purpose, and some are not aware of exactly what information will be taken into account by the lender.
I always tell my readers that if you are selling your own house, you don’t want to deal with prequalified buyers. If someone really loves your house, tell then to come back and make an offer after they’ve been preapproved.
Handy tip! If you have trouble remembering which is better, think of the phrase “Q&A” as in “questions and answers”. Q comes first and A follows. And that is just what happens with getting a loan. First you get preQualifed and then preApproved! Hey, it works for me!
Real Estate Agent Scare Tactics Against FSBO Selling
Posted by Deane in Strategies on August 2, 2009
I just read another article by a real estate agent trying to scare the daylights out of homeowners like you, that are selling for sale by owner, that has me fuming! This article was “57 Reason Why You Can’t Sell Your Own House”. The reasons listed ranged from silly to totally manufactured. Notice the how it uses “real estate speak” to make the questions harder to understand than necessary, too.
I don’t want to bore you with debunking all 57 (!) so I’ll just pick three so you can get the idea:
Reason #1 - What is the condition of the current title? You may be thinking, “Gosh, I have no idea!” You may not even fully understand what a title is. Not to worry! That is something neither homeowner or real estate agent would find out anyway. Your title company or attorney that will be doing the closing will always do a “title search” and let you know if there are any issues on your title. Most likely, there won’t be.
Reason #8 – Did you review your existing financing to determine whether is can be assumed? Again, you may be thinking, “I have no idea! How can I find out? Why do I need to know?” Assumable loans stopped being issued in 1989. If you obtained the mortgage on your house after 1989, the answer is “no”, it won’t be assumable. If you obtained your mortgage before 1989, it’s possible. Contact your lender and ask – it probably won’t be, but there is a chance. An assumable loans means that your buyer can “take over” your loan and not have to get their own loan, which can be a great selling point.
Reason #39 – How will you prequalify a potential buyer? Good news. You don’t have to! Only a lender prequalifies buyers, not you and not a real estate agent. Prequalified doesn’t mean anything, anyway. You only want to work with preapproved buyers. So I guess this was a trick question!
I resent real estate agent resorting to scare tactics like this to try to make homeowners selling FSBO feel stupid and powerless. They must be pretty desperate if they to resort to having to scare homeowners into listing with them.
At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to scare you, if you are selling for sale by owner and didn’t know the answers to those questions, you should consider investing in The Truth About FSBO – Complete Selling System. My mission is empower FSBO sellers like you so that you can proceed in selling your own house with confidence. Isn’t it always better to make decisions from a place of empowerment and knowledge, than to make knee-jerk reactions from fear? And that, I believe, is the difference bewteen what that agent was trying to do to you and what I’m trying to do for you.
P.S. Let me know if when you come across this sort of thing. If you do, I would LOVE for you to send it to me so we can stop this emotional assault on people selling “for sale by owner”.
Is the National Association of Realtors Afraid of FSBO Selling?
Posted by Deane in Miscellaneous on July 28, 2009
I’m always looking for new and better services to use personally and to recommend to my readers who want to sell FSBO. I was in contact with a representative from one of the country’s largest home warranty companies. I told him I was interested in trying, and then possibly recommending, his company to my readers. He told me NOT to mention his company in any of my material! Turning down free advertising? That’s interesting!
He went on to say that because his company partners with the National Association of Realtors, they don’t want to be associated with anyone who recommends selling for sale by owner. Isn’t that wild? Isn’t that like Fruit of the Loom asking Bob’s Discount Store not to recommend their socks because Walmart might get upset?
I’m astonished that this could even be an issue. I understand the warranty company doesn’t want to upset the NAR but is the NAR really afraid of the competition from for sale by owners? Something to think about.
