I need some advice to sell my house by owner. Thanks?
Posted in Questions & Answers on April 4th, 2010 by admin – 5 Comments Tags: advice, House, need, owner, sell, some, Thanks
How do I keep unqualified buyers out. Do I have to get an appraisal. What forms do I need.
April 4th, 2010 12:57 pm
How do you know that they are unqualified? A realtor would prescreen buyer before they were shown your home. You can’t really do that with out turning people off.
Yes, you will need to spend about 400 to have the house appraised to determine the value of the house. Realtors would do this as part of their commission.
You will need to talk with a lawyer and spend money to have the forms done for you. This will cost about 750. Realtors have their own forms that they pay for.
You will also need to come up with ads and marketing materials and have them done and printed. Realtors do this “free” as part of their commission.
I would also expect that buyers will offer you 6% less then asking price since you don’t have a realtor selling it.
Good luck.
April 4th, 2010 1:35 pm
First of all anyone can look at your house if its for sale. Now as far as people making offers, Only accept offers that have a Pre-approval for a Mortgage loan for at least the Amount they are offering you in conjunction with their offer. Its how Realtors do it too.
Once you get an offer you can counter offer and usually have to at least give a response within a specified time period.
Once you accept their offer and terms it goes to contract and you both need to sign a contract drafted by an Attorney and once the Contract is executed it will go to the Mortgage company and they will send their own appraisers to verify the property appraised for at least the amount of the Loan.
Also the appraiser will verify the property is Habitable and certifiable for occupancy.
Once everything is OK’d it will have to go through a title company and all moneys will have to be paid at closing including all Insurance, your local or County Transfer tax, The Survey of the property. All Attorney fees and title fees etc etc.
This will be when you hand over the keys and you get your check from their mortgage company.
April 4th, 2010 2:08 pm
Ask buyers when they call if they have been pre-qualified. if they haven’t then have them make a 20 minute phone call and get pre-qualified. If you are not in a “cookie cutter” neighborhood, and home prices vary quite a bit, then get an appraisal. Have an attorney take care of the contracts when you find a buyer.
April 4th, 2010 3:04 pm
1). You can relay to any buyers that wish to view your home that they need to have their pre-approval letters in hand if they wish to view your home.
2). No, do not have or pay for an appraisal. A real estate agent can run a CMA for you free of charge. Discount your home price by 6% as the prices of the homes in the CMA are have real estate agent commissions included.
3). Call around & ask a few agents/offices when you are obtaining the free CMA if they have any “FSBO Kits”. We sometimes will prepare one with all the forms you will need to sell your home.
You will need a property disclosure form, lead based paint disclosure if your home was built prior to 1978, a purchase contract, addendums for any contingency (financing, structural inspection, title, etc.)
Chances are once you start looking at all the forms, contingencies, etc., you may decide to enlist the services of the agent that brought you the FSBO Kit.
April 4th, 2010 3:53 pm
Selling by owner is not easy. If you want to do it, there are a lot of resources online on how to do it. Most important things are
1) Get a few property appraisals so you know what your home is worth
2) List your home with a flat-fee MLS agent – and be willing to pay the buy-side agent at least 2.5% commissions
3) Make yourself as available as possible for showings etc. or you will lose a lot of prospects (if for example you can only show M-F.)
But some of the other posters here are right. Often, the 6% you save you end up giving half to the buyer anyway since they know you are selling by yourself. And, it’s hard to get a good price by yourself as well.
Consider a discount real estate agent. They charge 3-4% commissions rather than the usual 6%. Try seekingagents.com, they have setup a market for real estate services so you can compare Realtors on commissions, experience, etc. before choosing one.