Craigs list

[gtmeouttahere]

Anyone attempted to sell property on Craigs list? What was your experience?

Just thinking that we can offer a better price ourselves leaving the agents out of the picture. it would be a win, win situation for both sides. I am very familiar with the value of my home so it just seems to make sense. I also live in an area where Craigs is fairly active, don't really know about home/property sales though. Would you ever buy a property on Craigs? Anyone have any other ideas that have worked for them recently?

With the market being tough already, why overprice it just to pay a 6% commision?

Input would be very welcome!

 

[W2R]

I just checked my local Craigslist, after reading your post. Like most FSBO's in my area, the houses listed on Craigslist are way overpriced compared with those available on the MLS.

My answer is no, I would not sell my home that way if I seriously wanted to sell, because it would not sell. Even if I got a realtor later and lowered my price, by then it would have lost the advantage of being newly on the market.

Craigslist is probably more popular on the west coast than here.

 

[gtmeouttahere]

I'm on the west coast, Seattle area. I've just recieved 3 responses so far. One from Virginia from a couple moving thier family out here because of military assignment. I figure I could try it for a few weeks, what the hell, I don't think it would lose its newness on the market though as there are a lot of homes for sale. I just priced it a little under my competition. I feel Craigs gives me that advantage because there are a lot of reduced prices already. Having an agent doubles that loss for the sellers. I feel everyone is looking for a deal right now IMHO.

 

[W2R]

Sounds like you already made up your mind before you posted! Good luck with your decision to sell your home on Craigslist. I still wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, here in New Orleans at least.

 

[gtmeouttahere]

Sounds like you already made up your mind before you posted! Good luck with your decision to sell your home on Craigslist. I still wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, here in New Orleans at least.

I understand why you wouldn't. I figured I would try it out but wanted feedback on past results/experiences on anyone who has done it and also get feedback on what buyers would be thinking. The post only lasts 7 days so I figured whats the worst that could happen?

 

[calmloki]

Down here in small town Oregon we listed the house I had fixed up for my Mom on Craigslist. Real nice being able to have pictures, and with a little HTML you can have more than the CL 4, and bigger too. We got a dozen or so contacts, mostly tire kickers that enjoyed emailing, showed it a couple times. Person who bought it was local and saw the sign in the window. One month from sign up to sale. That was 2 years ago almost to the day.
We have rented several apartments from CL, and I think the applicants/tenants have been of higher caliber. Sold - and bought several cars that way. CL good. A one week run - What's the down side?
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e73/calmloki/fourth%20st/FridayJuly0920043.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e73/calmloki/fourth st/4th.jpg

 

[Nords]

Anyone attempted to sell property on Craigs list? What was your experience?

If it's taken off in your area then you can get everything on Craigslist. Use your imagination-- or use someone else's.

I haven't personally done this but I'd love to. If we sell our rental property I doubt that we'd even bother with print media.

Military love Craigslist because most of them have been stationed near urban areas where it's the only way to advertise. Other than a military base's housing website it's the best way to find a place.

When we moved to Hawaii (from CA) in 1989 we took an ad in the local paper with our criteria. A one-week run cost $85 and the only responses came from whackos & scammers. (It was quite educational and I learned far more about the Hawaii real estate market than any realtor would ever divulge.) Even with the MLS book I spent the week putting over 500 miles on the rental car and looked at over 50 homes. Craigslist would have greatly simplified the process.

 

[VaCollector]

A one week run - What's the down side?

Agreed - absolutley NOTHING to lose!....I'm new to Craigslist (something ELSE that I learned about HERE ) but I recently listed a short notice need for a vacation spot in the Outer Banks and it was filled quickly and with the multiple contacts rec'd, I had my choice of several nice places at discount pricing.

I too will have a condo to sell in the near future (uhhh....that would be a soon as I get off of my newly retired, can't wipe the smile off my face, buttocks....and finish the painting, etc.) and I plan to put it on CL 1st. BUT with the real estate market being what it currently is, I would decide just how you might be willing to treat RE agents....as in NO AGENTS, or 3% to selling agent with full price contract, etc....and put that in any ad.

Good luck with your sale and please let us know just how well it goes!!

 

[Martha]

We didn't try to sell our home on Craig's list as real estate isn't really sold that way yet in my community. However, we have rented apartments through Craig's list and I agree with Calmloki that the quality of the applicants tends to be higher.

Love with old with the new house pictures Calmloki.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

before we got serous about selling, i listed the inherited house on craiglist. total joke in this area at that price. i got one response from a lady also trying to sell a similar product. though listing is so easy i suppose why not but i wouldn't hold my hopes on that.

my uncle suggested we also try to sell the house on ebay. this is the uncle who advised us not to sell when i first wanted to sell (before mom died)because he was concerned with capital gains. what i wouldn't give to have had to pay only those taxes now. anyway, i looked up houses for sale on ebay. also a total joke as far as i can tell. mostly all i found were a ton of people trying to unload time-shares.

 

[queeneev]

I've never sold RE on Craigs List, but I have had enormous success in getting tenants. It does come with a downside - scam-ish email responses. I don't know if that occurs in the selling section, but I would presume so. Hint: anyone claiming to be from some other country, and willing to send the "full amount" right away and sight unseen, is prolly a joke.

 

[calmloki]

.....
Love with old with the new house pictures Calmloki.

isn't that cool? Found the old pic mislabled as to address in our local museum. No doubt that it was our house though - even the background house matched. Had to take the current photo from as close to the same angle as possible. The house really hadn't been remuddled before we gutted it and did a complete redo on the inside.

 

[VaCollector]

i first wanted to sell (before mom died)because he was concerned with capital gains. what i wouldn't give to have had to pay only those taxes now.

Lazy ~ I don't mean to but in here , but your tax liability should be less now (unless she passed away prior to the RE price run-up) as your inherited basis increased to what it was worth on Mom's DOD (date of death).....so when you sell it, your profit (if any) should look something like this: sale price LESS DOD value, LESS fix up costs, LESS closing costs, LESS selling costs, etc.

Hope that helps!! ....or maybe you're referring to the Robin Hood tax (estate taxes)....where they take it from the [-]those that have LivedBYM[/-] rich and give [-]to Uncle Sam[/-] to the poor

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Agreed - absolutley NOTHING to lose!

Your primary downside is failing to disclose something or a similar faux pas and getting sued.

Even *with* good disclosures you can have some fun times. I sold a house and disclosed that there had been an indoor cat on the premises. The buyer also had a cat and told me he planned to replace all of the carpets immediately.

A few weeks later my agent told me that the buyer and their lawyer had called, prepared to file a suit because "the carpet smells like a cat!". After some discussion and review of the documents, the apparently frivolous matter was dropped.

My only participation was a 3 minute "you wont believe what happened!" conversation.

I think the real estate game will change a lot, and I think sellers agents are a little overpaid while some buyers agents dont get paid enough to deal with their customers. But there are a few pratfalls and downsides to six and seven figure transactions that a pro might smooth out for you.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Lazy ~ I don't mean to but in here , but your tax liability should be less now (unless she passed away prior to the RE price run-up) as your inherited basis increased to what it was worth on Mom's DOD (date of death).....so when you sell it, your profit (if any) should look something like this: sale price LESS DOD value, LESS fix up costs, LESS closing costs, LESS selling costs, etc.

Hope that helps!! ....or maybe you're referring to the Robin Hood tax (estate taxes)....where they take it from the [-]those that have LivedBYM[/-] rich and give [-]to Uncle Sam[/-] to the poor

feel free to bud in at any time vacollector. i'm always bouncing ideas off others.

reference was to paying--while mom was alive--about 130k in cap gains taxes (basis on house i think was 1/2 of about 600k when we could have sold at just under 1.5mm) which is what i wanted to do as opposed to so far having lost about 400k off the top which i suppose we could convert now to a capital loss and apply that to future gains. i don't quite understand it all. uncle says i'm still in good shape but i think we could have done better.

 

[Brat]

Why not list on Zillow, particularly if you aren't asking much more than their estimate of value.

 

[SecondCor521]

Haven't used Craigslist but I sold my last house FSBO; paid <$2,000 in total costs and avoided ~$25,000 in RE commissions. No problems whatsoever.

Bought my current home without a buyer's agent. The seller had an agent and I just deducted 3% off the price because I had no agent on my side. Saved nearly $7,000 in RE commissions. No problems whatsoever.

I say go for it. As to Want2Retire's comment about newness, around here I don't think that listing your house in non-MLS ways is tracked on MLS at all. In other words, if you do end up listing in MLS, it will seem like a new listing at that point.

2Cor521

 

[xmanz3]

In my experience, Craigslist is the best online advertisement tool out there. I have sold cars, furniture, and rented both of my investment properties through craigslist. No fees and your ad will run for 45 days.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

why is it that whenever i read the word zillow i get a picture in my head of the norwegian scream.

could it be that they have my inherited house listed at over $400k lower than an identical house on an identical lot two houses south of us? or that it has our lot listed at $300k less than two other nearby lots which have 20 feet less waterfront than we do?

could it be that it has my personal house listed at $150k less than my neighbor whose termite-infested rat-trap hasn't seen a spit of paint in 30 years? doesn't even have air conditioning and has never been renovated inside or out?

oh, i don't know, maybe it's just the word zillow that gets me.

 

[BUM]

I'm currently selling a house (hoping to close in 3 weeks). I used Yahoo!, Craigslist and put up a For Sale sign with info sheets in an attached plastic box (ten bucks from Home Depot). This was done on Easter Sunday. The following Tuesday I received a call from from the eventual buyer. Weeks later I thought to ask how she heard about the house... Craigslist.