Posted on 08/21/2024 3:12:08 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
No matter if the market is hot or cold, they still pop up: For Sale by Owner listings, otherwise known to Realtors as "FSBOs." These are houses put up for sale by the people who own them - without the help of a real estate agent.
Homeowners who eschew professional assistance can start the home-selling adventure on their own, but are often unaware of the DIY pitfalls. Here are the pros, cons, and everything else you need to know about these kinds of properties.
What to Know About FSBO Listings As a Realtor, I'm very aware of those DIY pitfalls. Take, for example, my neighbor, who has his home back on the market as a FSBO. Third time's a charm, right?
Jeff and Linda Brandt of The Brandt Group in La Quinta, California, have tried to help the guy with pricing and listing advice over the years to no avail. "Jeff told him a realistic price he didn't like," Linda explains. Now, the house is languishing on the market with a high price tag.
My neighbor has ignored the cardinal rule of home selling: realistic pricing.......
My neighbor did advertise on the big Z (Zillow, of course), but did not put a sign in the yard for drive-by prospects. His amateur room photos were dark and blurry, underscoring the marketing importance of compelling images. He then cemented his doom by warning agents off from bringing a buyer by - he insisted on representing both sides of the transaction. Unfortunately, most people won't be comfortable with that setup......
There are some sobering statistics to consider before planting the red-and-white "Home for Sale" sign in the front lawn yourself. Not only do agents avoid FSBOs
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
“Realtors have legal obligations to not hide anything from you that you want to know about the home”
Around 2000 we decided to move and buy a preowned home in a nicer area.....the sellers realtor of one home we looked at disclosed that the previous occupant had committed suicide in the master bedroom.
So yeah, there’s a definite benefit for both buyer and seller to use a reputable realtor.......BTW, after that intersting experience and looking at over 30 preowned homes we decided to build. đ
In WA state, whether thru agent or FSBO, you have to fill out a Form 23 on the house disclosing things.
...when he bought his home here in Michigan(older home)...his guy basically didn't do/find squat.
Realtors have legal obligations to not hide anything from you that you want to know about the home. Realtors have a legal obligation to tell you what they know OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. Everybody hates real estate agents when you go to court. When I got my license they told me if you are sued and are going to court the only thing you really need to bring with you is your checkbook.
Relator agents are just like used car salesmen...They want WAY too much to sell homes. Do not trust them!
Seller agents have real expenses. Listing in the multiple, photographer, maybe even help in staging. Buyers agents have gas, thats about it. Last few houses I bought, I found them, then brought the agent in who basically opened the door with the MLS key and presented the offer. This was all in the pre-NAR settlement days. Now, if I had a buyers agent, I would negotiate exactly what I expect from them and just pay that.
So much conflict of interest for real estate agents.
Most dangerous for the seller because the seller agent may “let slip” your minimum bid to get the sale through.
If you don’t use an agent, you can hire a real estate lawyer to review the deal for much less than normal RE commissions.
If it is a cash deal (no loan on the buyers end), it is pretty easy as a buyer in my experience.
I have sold over 100 seperate parcels on my own without a realtor.The few times I dealt with one they were all worthless.
“I had specifically told her to check out an area, she didn’t.”
I bought my first house in summer ‘78. I picked out an agent and told her “I do NOT want to be anywhere near the freeway.”
The very first house she took me to was...you guessed it...backing up to the freeway. She said “It sounds like the ocean. You’ll get used to it.”
I fired her on the spot. No second chances for an idiot. That was almost 50 years ago and I remember it clearly.
Here is an unfinished apartment in my city. It’s huge, about 1600 sqft and you get a deck of about the same size. It’s 4 bedrooms.
It’s such a good price and it’s right near the heart of downtown, but I can’t really figure out why it won’t sell. It’s been on the mls listings forever, but no biters apparently.
I don’t think it’s because you have to spend about $150,000 finishing it because, even including the cost of finishing it, it’s still a very good price imo.
The only thing that occurs to me without knowing anything about it is that people may have a problem with the noise the HVAC units might give off. Other than that, I can’t see why nobody is biting it, but the fact that they aren’t biting is a warning in itself.
https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/26695690/601-10518-113-st-nw-edmonton-queen-mary-park
The idea of a suicide in that house scared you off? I imagine you would have had some good bargaining power knowing that.
Let me tell you about the last "professional" inspection I had. I was purchasing an investment property, fourplex, two up -- two down.
The inspector wrote up a report, mostly telling me things I already knew about the property and I bought it. Fast forward 10 years and I am installing security cameras, running wires through the attic.
Well, in one side of the attic there are bunch of black plastic bags, I look inside and behold a previous tenant was too cheap to pay for their garbage service, so they just stockpiled bags and bags of garbage in the attic. The inspector completely missed this -- a full-sized 8' bed pickup truck worth of garbage.
How do I know it was there when he inspected? There were prescription bottles with dates on them from 15 years ago.
The only reason to ever get an inspection is to have a convenient club to beat price concessions out of a seller. If I know something is wrong with a property my word on it is useless. When I get an inspection report, a seller will negotiate.
No real estate agent protects the buyer or seller, regardless of who hires them.
Their only interest is to close the deal. It’s how they get paid.
The agent’s financial motivation does not align with the buyer or the seller.
But they will work hard to make you satisfied wih the deal. They feed on referrals.
It’s pretty basic stuff, if you think about it. Most people don’t.
$375K for 1600 sq ft and looks as cold and sterile as a corporate conference room. Makes me grateful for what I have. :-)
To each his own. I avoid realtors and bankers (except socially).
Owner fi, as is. Been doing it for years and never had a problem.
Unlike the typical flipper, I’m choosy about the properties I buy. Old, single-fam, worth the effort, in an overall decent neighborhood, and no crazy people next door. Once in a while I’ll take a deserving multi-fam but it’ll be a single fam when I’m done with it.
When we decided to buy our current home it was obvious it was a fixer upper.
The seller was a real estate agent so we figured he would lie to us about everything.
Worse—he probably knew any decent inspectors in the area—an obvious potential conflict of interest from our point of view.
So—we hired an inspector from fifty miles away—way out of market.
We told the inspector we believed the seller was going to lie about everything and we asked him to inspect everything with a fine tooth comb. He agreed and got on his Columbo big boy pants for the task—you could tell he was enjoying it.
He wrote a very detailed and specific report outlining dozens of things that needed to be fixed.
We bought the house (for a good price) and then made every single repair on his list.
He nailed it—missed nothing.
We have lived in the house for more than two decades—no surprises.
“a man who represents himself has a fool for a client”
This old saying never sat right with me.
The only reason it has any meaning, when pertaining to our court system, is that our system of justice is a captured operation.
One of the biggest problems is the replacement of common law with civil law. The system has become riddled with procedural details which prevent getting anything done unless you have training.
The system is rigged to favor attorneys, judges and their corrupt ways.
I don’t doubt that the real estate system similarly has a multitude of internal roadblocks, but the corruption is minimal.
The first pictures are what it could look like, but you can fix it up to your specs. If I were in this income bracket, I would make use of an architect to make it nice.
It freaked my wife out totally as the suicide was by hand gun......TBH I wouldn’t have been comfortable there either.
As it turns out, since then that part of town has taken a downturn so deciding to go with new construction in a more rural area worked out all the way around.
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