Even though I paid for my flat fee MLS listing 4 days ago, as of yesterday it still wasn’t live and I was freaking out (just a little).
When you do a flat fee MLS listing through a FSBO site such as FSBO.com, the listing still has to be put on the MLS by a real estate agent and they will farm it out to a local real estate agent that handles their flat fee listings. This will be one of the hardset things you will do to sell your house, but unfortunately, it almost is required for most houses. Here are the issues I had trying to do this simple thing.
- Initially the realtor only gave me half of the documents needed to complete the transaction. Having done this before I knew what was missing. It took me 24 hours to get two additional documents. When I got all the documentation, there were 29 pages that had to be filled out and signed. It reminded me why I don’t like working with them. Everything is a big deal.
- The contract from the agent stated I would get 1 photo (and had to pay for mo), even though FSBO.com clearly states I will get 8 photos so I had to argue for that. They ultimately put all 17 photos on for no extra cost. This is my favorite photo – looking up our front walk. It really shows off the landscaping which is one of my home’s main features.
- Then very sneakily they offer, “from time to time we may do some free advertising – would you like us to include you?”. Sounds good, right? WRONG! Check this off and you have just given them permission to market your house and now you will have to pay them commission.
- The realtor I was given to use never answered their phone. Not once. Iwas stressing because I already had an open house planned and was afraid my MLS listing wouldn’t be up in time. It went live Sat. night for my open house on Sunday. It took me three days (and some nagging) to get my listing up. Ugh.
Three days ago was the day I committed to having my house officially “for sale”. Here’s how it all came together on that day:
- My FSBO “for sale” sign was installed.
- I put flyers in my brochure box.
- The 259Cinder.com website went live. It looks great.
- My Postlets ad was syndicated.
- And I started running ads on Craigslist that had either my Postlet or my website as body of the ad
- I started distributing 150 flyers around the neighborhood, hanging them in plastic bags that fit over a doorknob.
- I put up a sign that said “Open House Sunday 1-3″ in front of my house.
- All marketing that went out this week advertised the open house that we had today.
This morning, I baked chocolate chip cookies, put up “Open House” signs at three major intersections nearby, got a bunch of helium balloons, and printed out a sign up sheet.
We had 13 families stop by which I thought was a great turnout. And interestingly, only one party found out about the house from the MLS listing! (See, I shouldn’t have stressed out about getting the listing up in time!) The others either saw the Open House signs or received a flyer on their doorknob. I’d say half were somewhat interested and 3 or 4 were keenly interested. Everyone loved the house and commented on how much better it was than other houses they had seen. (That is to be expected when you actually put some work into it!)
One neighbor said she belongs to a playgroup and there are several moms looking for houses in our neighborhood. As soon as the open house was over, I sent her an email with links to my website and my email and phone number. It pays to be proactive and make it as easy for her as possible. Of course she knows that I will give her a $500 “thank you” if anyone she recommends buys the house.
Today we also have someone coming by from a Craiglist ad to buy lawn furniture we decided to get rid of. And we have a commitment from a family member to buy one of our cars. We are only taking one car with us that we will tow and then buy another car once we get settled. Our life here is pretty rapidly being dissembled! Which is just what we want.
P.S. After you finish an open house be sure to take down the signs and balloons promptly or you will get stragglers who will demand to see the house after the set time. (Ask me how I know this!)
