Not sure how to sell my house with the new rules, FSBO, prices ??

[silvor]

I have a somewhat unique property I plan on listing in a week or so. Unique as it's on acreage, close to civilization and affordable. I was thinking my property is worth 450k after talking to a realtor 18 months ago.

I have a possible FSBO buyer, but she wants to look at my property with her realtor and wants to wait until I get my official job transfer paperwork. Fair enough.

Thing is I found a similar house in the area that just sold for 575k. It's nicer than mine, but it's the same square footage and I don't think wood floors add THAT much value. I need to net $400k after fees and my $32k note, but I don't want to leave money on the table.

Has anyone listed a house under the "new" real estate rules?
Since the other house sold for so much more, do you think getting a realtor for me is a wise move? I would still need a real estate lawyer I figure if I did the FSBO I suppose. I did buy my first house FSBO, and it went pretty smooth.

Thoughts? Opinions? Comments?

 

[pacergal]

Have you checked Zillow or Redfin online to see what they value your house at? That might give you an idea, but not exact.
I have only used an agent in the past, so unable to address FSBO.

 

[silvor]

Have you checked Zillow or Redfin online to see what they value your house at? That might give you an idea, but not exact.
I have only used an agent in the past, so unable to address FSBO.

The prices of my neighbors are all over the place. Anywhere from 450 to nearly 600 for the same sq footage and acreage.

 

[sakowitzm]

I know nothing about the new rules. But I do know that a good realtor will pay for their fee several times over. Hi get one.

 

[sakowitzm]

I know nothing about the new rules. But I do know that a good realtor will pay for their fee several times over. Hi get one.

GO get one, sorry.

 

[Aerides]

Given the somewhat unique nature of your property, I'd at least meet with an agent and ask about comps, and how they'd stage/show your place. Then decide. But I'd lean strongly toward getting an agent if you have such a broad range of prices.

 

[rk911]

I have a somewhat unique property I plan on listing in a week or so. Unique as it's on acreage, close to civilization and affordable. I was thinking my property is worth 450k after talking to a realtor 18 months ago.

I have a possible FSBO buyer, but she wants to look at my property with her realtor and wants to wait until I get my official job transfer paperwork. Fair enough.

Thing is I found a similar house in the area that just sold for 575k. It's nicer than mine, but it's the same square footage and I don't think wood floors add THAT much value. I need to net $400k after fees and my $32k note, but I don't want to leave money on the table.

Has anyone listed a house under the "new" real estate rules?
Since the other house sold for so much more, do you think getting a realtor for me is a wise move? I would still need a real estate lawyer I figure if I did the FSBO I suppose. I did buy my first house FSBO, and it went pretty smooth.

Thoughts? Opinions? Comments?

*New* real estate rules?

 

[OldShooter]

I would get a fee appraisal, maybe even two of them. That will be far cheaper and higher quality work than anything you get from a realtor. From the appraisals, which by their nature are somewhat behind the market, you can come up with a price.

Re "I need to net $400k after fees and my $32k note ..." sorry to say that the market doesn't know or care what you need. The market will tell you what you get.

IMO the real estate industry will eventually evolve into a fee-for-services business. We don't pay our lawyers based on the size of the deal and we don't pay our CPAs based on AGI. Why should we pay people with inferior education investments and inferior professional credentials more generously than we pay other professionals? I suggest you broach a fee for services scenario with a few realtors and see what happens. A flat rate of a few $ hundred for creating and maintaining an MLS listing. An hourly rate for consultations. A lesser hourly rate for showings since they benefit the agent too. Maybe a bonus for a closed sale within 60 days. Get the agent's opinion on any offers (including the contract language) but also consider hiring a lawyer for a couple of hours' review.

 

[Texas Proud]

You can sell your house for whatever someone else is willing to pay... that is why you see the big swing on neighbors... someone might have really liked what they got so paid up for it...

As for RE agent... they will give you a number but is that the highest that you could get? They want to move it as a difference in $30K in final price is not much money in their pocket but is to you (to the buyer also)...

To me, the big problem with FSBO is you do not get the whole market out there... there is a FSBO house across the street and has been for sale for months... I tried to find it on any site but could not... well, they just listed it on the MLS site a couple of days ago... now it will sell...

 

[RetiredHappy]

Realtors don't always understand each home/development. It may be views, size, location etc that factor into what buyers are willing to pay. When we sold our 3,000 sq ft penthouse single level condo with the best views in the entire community, our realtor gave us really low price based on comps. We told her absolutely no way that we would be willing to sell for that amount. We set our price 30% higher than her proposal. She was nervous about advertising it and that it would become stale because it was priced too high. We told her to just use it as a pocket listing. Three days later she said she had a potential buyer who had enquired about another condo listing that she had. She mentioned our condo and warned the buyer that it's priced much higher than comp. Her buyer insisted on viewing our condo. The couple came and I did the showing since the realtor knew nothing about our development. They came back with an offer of $10K below our asking. We told the agent to meet us halfway and for her to compensate us $5K out of her commission while we compromised on the other $5K. The deal was done.

In our case, using a realtor was beneficial because she is well connected.

 

[FlaGator]

If you can find the broker with the best track record selling your kind of property in that area, they are worth the money. Doing so worked out very well for me in the last two sales, and I'm getting all the right signs now from the one I intend to engage in a few months to sell the current house. I found the first one by paying attention to their direct mail pieces, the second from the same, bolstered by a friend with MLS access, and the latest by watching sales in my area as the prices they were getting.

On the purchase side, I haven't had the same success. If it's on the MLS, you can find it at your preferred site-Realtor.com/redfin/zillow, they are all populated from the same local MLS sources. There are not enough "pocket listings" to make a difference most of the time, and I haven't found an agent who really understood what I wanted, in spite of my best efforts.

My take on the post-settlement rules is they will have a bigger impact on a buyer wanting to engage an agent to find a property, and those rules make it clear the "buyer's agent" is actually representing the buyer, and not just along for the ride of a commission split that the seller pays. Could be wrong on that, welcome to be corrected.

 

[RetiredHappy]

One more thing to add, the same realtor knew where we wanted to move to and the moment one of her former clients told her about thinking of selling their home, she contacted us and we went over to check out the home. We made an offer at their asking price and that's the home that we bought and are now living in. It never made it to MLS. So we sold ours as a pocket listing, and bought a pocket listing, well technically since it never got listed. All done through our realtor.

 

[Romer]

you may ask the realtor who sold the neighbors house for a lot more money for what they would do. I mean interview them. Seems there is a success (selling other house) to support them knowing what they are doing

 

[HI Bill]

With Redfin, you can create an owner's estimate of your home's value using comps of recently sold properties in your area that you manually select. If you have something that makes yours more valuable (larger lot, pool, gated community, killer view), etc., be sure to choose comp properties that share most of those attributes. Then you can calculate $/SF to adjust your value, and increase or decrease your estimated value if you have issues or high-end improvements.

Some realtors know their areas really well, others located in large cities may only have specific knowledge of certain areas or developments. I've purchased three condos using realtors, and it's by far the easiest way to go. I did one FSBO. More work, more risk, but I had a neighbor who wanted my condo.

Realtors can often keep a deal moving forward for the seller, solving small to medium-sized problems that might kill the deal. Or they can be an impediment if they make the wrong recommendations. I've had both experiences. In my last house purchase, the realtor showed me about four properties in about four hours. I had to keep following up with him to keep everything moving as expediently as possible.

 

[pb4uski]

I would get a fee appraisal, maybe even two of them. That will be far cheaper and higher quality work than anything you get from a realtor. From the appraisals, which by their nature are somewhat behind the market, you can come up with a price. ..

+1 I recently had an appraisal done for $800 so even if you have two done the peace of mind of knowing that you didn't leave money on the table due to ignorance is worth the cost.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I would also suggest contacting a realtor.

We sold our former home 3 years ago through a local realtor. She spent a lot of time before coming back with a list price. It was much higher than we would have asked on our own. She said that she lists homes based on what they're worth when they hit the market in a month or two, not what they would have sold for last year.

She also had some potential buyers on her contact list which created a little bit of a bidding competition. We got an offer from one the same day at asking price, we accepted. There was a very minor issue with the inspection and they backed out. She handled it for us and soon we had another offer from one of her prospective buyers at asking price, we accepted and she handled the minor details with the purchase agreement and we closed, walking away with a lot more than we would have asked for our house on our own even after paying her 6% fee.

By the way, the buyer's appraisal accepted the purchase price. From what I have seen the appraiser takes a lot of stock in the purchase offer when determining the price of a house.

I would not limit myself to one potential buyer, from my experience a good realtor is worth what they charge. In reality, it is the buyer that pays the realtor fee, not the seller. The fee is baked into the price of the house.