Home : Blogs : Irina Fernandez : Irina's Blog

Selling my own home. Day #5 on the market.

Five days past since the house came on the market. I had open houses on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday in my opinion was a little bit better. I realizes that I need 7 open house signs to get people from main roads to come here. My home is located on a very quite street. I have only 3 signs.

I made sure that every inch of the home is clean, and perfect. People were incredibly nice. They loved it from the very first sight. When I told them that I am not only a Realtor, but an owner of this home too, each one of them were more open and excited. Isn't interesting? People were commenting on everything and asked tons of questions, They were not shy at all. So, I remember someone advised me to ask other agents to hold an open houses for me, because it is my own house and people will not be comfortable. Well, they were!

It was so much better than just being a listing agent. I got lots of compliments on wall finishes and murals. Even our new, nice kitchen was in the shadow of the main mural. I had four groups of serious buyers and four groups of neighbors. All my neighbors took flyers and convinced me that they will tell everyone they know about this home.

I will keep writing an updates on how things going here, on Osprey DR, in Tacoma, WA.

And there is a new flyer. If you have seen previous posts, you will notice the difference.

Posted by Irina Fernandez on 07/13/2008 10:01 PM

Comments (10)

houses for sale, browns point, tacoma ne harbor ridge, irina fernandez, real estate

This post has been included in Washington Information Pierce County, WA Information Tacoma, WA Information
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: The Art Of Marketing You
Post is included in group: Photography, Advanced
Post is included in group: Puget Sound - WA Real Estate
Post is included in group: Marketing desing. Flyers and cards.

10 Comments on Selling my own home. Day #5 on the market.

JUL

2008

Irina, good luck! It looks like a really sweet house!

Irina, good luck with the sale of your home. I have stopped doing OPEN HOUSE for the Public
long time ago. Here is the reason why: Many times on the weekend you have many what
are called "tire kickers" riding around looking for OPEN HOUSE signs. They are NOT QUALIFIED,
sometimes they just like going to see what is inside the home. Here is what is scarry. We
have heard of reports here in Atlanta that they are many SCAM pretend to be buyers. They
work in groups - Husband and Wife come pretend to be interested in buying in the area and
just loved the home on the outside. While the husband is talking with the Realtor asking
many questions - the wife is staying behind picking up valueables in the home (including
the Realtors purse). They get into the car, drive off and you have NO IDEA who they were,
if they were qualified or where to go look for them. Make sure you have someone else in
the home with you when you HOLD HOMES OPEN to the public. Qualiified Buyers have an
AGENT that they already work with. They don't ROAM the streets looking for signs in the
yard to follow. Especially in your price range of $379,900 they should have an agent
representing them. So, what I found out works best for me - is do AGENT Luncheoons. I
invite them to the luncheon, feed them lunch and ask for written feedback about the home.
One of the quesstions is WHO DO YOU KNOW that will love this home or you are currently
working with in this price range. As a resulf of these - I've sold several of my listings.
Good luck with selling your own home. Sincerely, Dagmar Sands - Real Estate International, Inc.

Thank you, Dagmar. I know we all should remember that precaution save lots of trouble. I will do an open brokers house this Tuesday.

Irina,

I was the one that suggested that it is harder to get a buyer to buy it at an Open House if you are the owner doing it. That said, I plan on doing my own as well, at least for the first week or two.

Once they know you are the owner, they are more like visiting you in your home than picturing themselves in the home. It's the same reason they say to remove personal photos. You are a living personal photo :) Still, for the first 30 days or so you can do them yourself, and then maybe try another agent once in a while.

I hope you sell it before then. It seems like a great price for a house with such a great view.

JUL

2008

ARDELL, I understand what you mean. Would you send me your home listing web-page? Where is your home located? I wish you good luck too. The one reason why I do not want to ask anyone to hold an open house for me, because I have two cats in the house. They are only indoor cats and we are madly in Love with them. So, I always watch them when people come in. I am not sure I can trust someone to spend 3-4 hours with them. Sound obsessively silly....

I wouldn't use a home listing web page...that's more ego driven the results driven. I will use Zillow as the primary page. My house will not go on market until closer to the end of the month when I get back from speaking at Inman Blogger's Connect in San Francisco.

If your house isn't sold by then (roughly July 26th) I'll pop back into this comment stream and we'll talk again. In the meantime, best of luck! You should have a friend at the office talk to you like an owner, as you are being a bit more FSBO than you likely should be. Of course I will too, there's no way to escape that when you are selling your own home that you love. It may just sell anyway, so no reason to go further into it now. But if it's not being shown and you have no offers by month end, I'll give you a call.

JUL

2008

Hi Irina, what a cute house! Don't know if it's sold yet, but your broker may want you to add agent/owner to your flyer!

AUG

2008

Hi Irina. Very nice house! With a house that nice at that price point you shouldn't have a problem selling it. I've had many past clients sell their listings faster and for more by having a pre-listing inspection done that you can show prospective buyers. This ensures trust that you aren't hiding any defects. Also, many agents will then be able to sell the home as "certified". Great marketing tool. I wish you the best of luck!

AUG

2008

Nice house, nice photos. As for open houses, according to NAR, signs bring people to THE home they purchase 17% of the time. This is 3rd on the list behind Realtors (32%), and Web (29%). Open houses get more signs. We to go!

AUG

2008

I have found it wierd and nice to sell my own property. Last time I put one of my homes on the market I met 3 new buyers, maybe should do it more often!

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?