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For Sale by Owner doesn’t mean you have to do it alone

Are you selling your home FSBO, "For Sale by Owner", and know you can do it, but would like some advice? Did you realize that you may be able to work with a Realtor without having to pay for advice on advertising and paperwork? You really don't have to go it alone.

I work with a lot of FSBOs for a lot of reasons. But, I am willing to work with a FSBO owner only if they are willing to work with me! If you are a FSBO, answer me this question...How many buyers can buy your home? Unless you own a fractional vacation home, the answer is one!

That is why I'm willing to work with you and help you sell your home. You see, I have a lot of ways to advertise your home that may attract a lot of buyers, but what do you do with those buyers that don't want your home or can't qualify to buy your home. In most cases you never talk to them again. I, on the other hand, need buyers for the homes I have listed, and one of these homes may just fit their needs!

One of the biggest suggestions I can give to you, the FSBO, is offer to pay a buyer's agent a 3% commission if they bring a buyer for your home. No agent will want to show your home if they aren't going to get paid. But, if you think about it, the reason homes get sold faster with an agent is because they usually have a list of 20-30 buyers they get from every home they sell. If you can advertise to these agents and promise to pay them what they would get if they were to show the home next door to yours that is on the MLS, you may just get a quicker sale and for a little more money.

Usually, when I help someone like yourself, the only thing I ask is if you should ever decide to list with an agent, that you give me a chance to interview for the position.

Happy home selling!

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Posted by Todd Clark (Broker/Sales Coach), GRI (Beaverton, Oregon Real Estate Expert) on 03/17/2008 02:05 PM

Comments (5)

FSBO (for Sale by Owner) in the Home Selling Channel

beaverton oregon for sale by owner, beaverton oregon fsbo, todd clark

Originally posted at: Living Beaverton - Your guide to everything Beaverton: For Sale by Owner doesn’t mean you have to do it alone

This post has been included in Oregon Information Washington County, OR Information Beaverton, OR Information

5 Comments on For Sale by Owner doesn’t mean you have to do it alone

MAR

2008

This is exactly what I want to shout from the housetops around Lancaster County. There is such an animosity between agents and FSBOs that is completely unnecessary. I think a lot has to do with the solicitations (and the methods used to solicit) that really bug owners and word gets around. On the other hand, sellers going the FSBO route almost always are completely unprepared to market and negotiate, which is bad because the home market is not amenable to FSBOs right now. I'm a DIYer of the worst sort, but there's NO WAY I would try to learn how to sell my house today. To cut the professional market out is nuts.

APR

Jeff - I think there are a lot of agents that try to use scare tactics to get people to list rather than just showing them the numbers and how we can actually make them more. Offer help rather than telling them they can't do it. Heck look how many things us agents do that would be better for our business if we outsourced.

As an owner of a regional for-sale-by-owner advertising service, I knew that one of the most important things I needed to do when we opened in 2002 was to educate consumers about how the process worked.

Jeff - you're right. A lot of agents turn sellers off by their scare tactics, most of which are pretty silly, especially when it comes to telling sellers what a mountain paperwork is required. An educated seller would then look at the agent and relay the fact that the amount of legal forms is amazingly small when agent representation is skipped.

We began offering seminars to sellers as a way to help them understand how commissions could be worked and give them easy ways to weed out legitimate calls from buyer's agents. If the caller said they had many buyers looking in their price point, it was a listing agent. If the caller said they had a buyer who would be interested in seeing their home, it was a buyer's agent.

In the eight years that I have been working with private home sellers and builders, I can honestly say that the majority of them, after being properly educated about how the many ways a commission can be handled (buyer pays, seller pays, split by both parties, or the price of the property is increased to accomodate the commission) they are more than willing to open their doors to buyer's agents.

Liz - Thank you for your support and most FSBOs have such a dis-trust for agents that it can actually lose them money and that is sad. It maybe because of rumors or they may have had one bad experience with an agent themselves.

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