Search Results for: sell your house yourself

How To Use A Flat Fee Service To Get Your FSBO on the MLS

What is a flat fee service?

If you’ve ever wondered where all those homes for sale on sites like Zillow and realtor.com come from, they come from the multiple listing service or the MLS. The MLS is where real estate agents and their brokerages put houses that they’re listing for sale so they’re all in one place. They can share those listings with each other through their membership in the MLS. Sites like Zillow and Realtor.com pick those home listings up from the MLS and put them on the internet for all to see. All means potential buyers, and, of course, looky loos.

We’re going to talk about how you can get your house on the MLS as a for sale by owner without paying those high commission listing fees. Hiring a real esta te agen t to list your house for you is expensive. You can learn to do all of the tasks an agent does for you and use a flat fee service to avoid commissions.

Check out my You Tube channel that will show you what you can do to get your house ready for market, price it right and anything and everything else to sell it on your own.

Flat Fee Service

If you want to put your For Sale By Owner on the MLS, which some people think is super important but I tend to disagree, there’s a way to do that without hiring a listing agent. And that’s by using what’s called a flat fee service. There are a lot of them out there. These are companies that will put your house on the Internet for one fee.

That fee can range anywhere from $300 up to a $1000 and sometimes even more. The price will depend on the service that you want.

Some of the services include;

How long you’re going to have it on the MLS,
How many pictures you want to put out.
If you want to have somebody help you fill out the paperwork
Some of them will give you fliers that you can print out.
A sign for the yard

There are more than several of these flat fee type companies to choose from. The original, forsalebyowner.com, founded in 1999, was the one that started it all.

Since then for sale by owner flat fee services have become more and more popular. It’s a much less expensive way to list your home on the mls where not only do consumers find It on sites like Zillow, but Realtors see it on their platform, the MLS, also.

To name a few;

Different flat fee services will work in different states. Some of them are licensed in all states. Google it, flat fee service or how to get my For sale by owner on the MLS. This is a great way to get your house on the MLS. While I don’t believe completely necessary, it will get more attention and it might help it to sell a little bit faster.

Real Estate Agents

Keep in mind that by putting your house on the MLS you’re saying that you’re willing to work with, and pay, a buyers agent. A buyers agent is the agent that is showing the buyer homes. The bonus part is that the agent will then do all the paperwork for you.

Part of a Realtors job is to help you price your house and show you how to get it ready for market. You definitely don’t need to hire a real estate agent to price your house for you or to show you how to get it ready for market. I can show you how to do all that. There are videos here that will show you all you need to know. Using that and a flat fee service you’re doing everything an agent does for you, at a fraction of the cost.

Selling your house is really not that difficult. Everything a real estate agent does for you, you can easily do yourself from pricing, to preparation to listing whether you want to use the MLS or not.

Why It’s Easy To Sell A House

by Joel Weihe

House with a For sale By owner sign in the front yard — Sell your house yourself

I will tell you why it’s easy to sell a house in this real estate market. In a nutshell, it’s because there are not enough homes for sale to satisfy buyer demand. There are a lot more buyers than there are homes for sale, therefore buyers are battling over homes for.

How it Works To Sell A House

For example.

I listed a house last week, and it sold in 4 hours. The amazing part is I sold that house exactly one year and 4 months ago for $175,000 to this guy. We listed it for $190,000 and got an offer, a full price offer, in the first 4 hours. The guy made $14,000 in a year, minus the $10,800 he paid me and the other real estate agent to act as middlemen for him.

What does that tell you about this real estate market?

One thing it tells you is he could have easily sold that house himself and kept that $10,800. It’s easy to sell a house yourself.

Houses are getting listed on the internet sites like Zillow and Trulia and that’s where consumers are looking.

Consumers are finding those houses on their own. Then they call their realtor and asking to see it.

Step by Step

In this section I will lay it out for you step-by-step.

When you sell a house, the first reaction is to call a real estate agent. The agent comes and meets with you for 45 minutes. They fill out some paperwork and list your house on the multiple listing service for $320,000. The Multiple Listing Servise, or MLS, is the proprietary service where Realtors list homes for sale.

The MLS then distributes that listing to all the different internet real estate sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and dozens of others.

There’s someone out there that has decided they want to buy a home. They open up the internet, search Zillow and see the house that your real estate agent listed, yours. They call their real estate agent who writes an offer for them and sends that offer to your agent.

Your agent calls and tells you about it. You either accept it or send a counter offer. Eventually you come to an agreement with the buyer. You both sign a contract. 30 days later you go to closing and the real estate agents collects $19,200.

Wow, $19,200 that you could have had to spend, or save. Think about what you could do with $19,200.

This Market is Different

A seller can sell their home themselves in any market it doesn’t matter if it’s a seller’s market or buyer’s market.

What’s particular about this current real estate market and why it’s easy to sell a house? I’ll tell you that this is the most active, fast-moving Market I’ve seen in my 11-year career. In fact, before I became a realtor I was a project manager for residential builders for 20-plus years. So in all my 30-plus Years Around real estate I have never seen a market like this. For instance even the great housing bubble of the early 2000s was not this crazy.

All around the United States, the housing market is super low on inventory. Simple supply and demand metrics are driving prices up making homes sell fast. As a result people are putting their houses on the market and if they’re priced right and presentable they’re selling in one, two or maybe three days.

Realtors are making thousands and thousands of dollars to sell a house that sells itself. Home sellers could easily keep that money.

I’m not complaining, I’m one of them, I’m a real estate agent, and the money is good. I like it. But it’s unnecessary for you to be spending that money.

Sell your house yourself. Keep your money. Put it to better use.

How Will Home Sellers Disrupt Real Estate

by Joel Weihe

Sell your home yourself and save thousands of dollars.

How will home sellers disrupt real estate? There is a change coming in the real estate industry. Where will it come from?

Not from an expensive Silicon Valley startup. It won’t be the Ibuyers and it won’t come from a change in Government regulations. Disruption in the real industry will happen as the public figures out how easy it is to sell their homes themselves and how much money they can save.

I’m seeing more and more For Sale By Owner signs and getting more calls from my real estate buyer clients about For Sale By Owners. I’m also seeing that For Sale By Owners spend more time on the market.

There really isn’t any need for that. Selling your house yourself is not that hard once you know the basics. All Real estate agents will tell you that spending to much time on the market is not good for your bottom line. There’s a saying amongst Realtors, “The longer it sits the less it gets”. I can show you how to sell your house, sell it fast and how to get the most money out of your sale.

I’ll show you the same way I teach new agents to sell homes. And believe me, if they can do it so can you. New agents don’t have any more experience or training than you do. In fact, the first home I sold in 2009 fresh out of “real estate school” I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing and no one to guide me. By asking lots of questions and reading lots of material I managed to muddle my way through it. The client never noticed my inexperience.

Home Sellers

So how will home sellers disrupt real estate?

To start you can go to my website, https://infinhomeservices.com/. Scroll through the articles and you can learn pretty much everything you need to know. If your the ambitious type then jump right into my extensive training, https://infinhomeservices.com/diy-real-estate-3/. that will teach you everything you need to know to sell your house yourself and get the most money, more than an agent will get you plus you get to keep the massive commissions.

You have nothing to lose and a lot to be gained from trying it out.

How To Price Your FSBO Using Zillow

by Joel Weihe

When real estate agents help you find a price for your home they use the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Agents do a Comparative Market Analysis or simply CMA. Basically they see what similar homes have sold for recently in the area. These sold homes are referred to as comparables. I’m going to show you how to price your FSBO using Zillow doing the same thing.

Watch the video to see how I price a home on my listings. This is one more thing you will soon realize you can easily do yourself when it comes to selling your home.

Why Price On Your FSBO Matters

Not all homes are created equal. That’s why I like the price per square foot method.

You may have two homes side by side that are the same model and size. One has been updated with expensive top of the line components while the other needs help so of course the updated home is going to be worth more.

In any given suburban neighborhood many homes may look the same. On closer inspection you’ll notice they are mostly of different sizes. That makes a difference. The bigger the home, the more square footage, the more expensive.

Sometimes when I’m at a listing appointment the seller will compare his house to one that sold down the street. He knows nothing about that house. It sold for this much and that’s what I should price his house at. That’s when I have to break it down. Explain, and show, what the real difference is between his house and the “one down the street”. The house down the street is 600 sq ft larger. They just recently upgraded their kitchen. It has 3 car garage ect. ect. ect.

Listing agent showing how to price a house — real estate agent at a listing appointment showing buyers the price.

That’s how to price your FSBO using Zillow. First find the average price per square foot of homes sold in the area over the last 6 months. Multiply that by the square footage of your house. That’s the average. Now adjust up or down depending on the features, upgrades and overall condition of your home. Be Honest with yourself.

Now What?

Once you have that price and your home has been made ready put it on the market to test your price. You’ll know if you got it right fairly quickly. If it’s a sellers market you should get attention right away. A sellers market happens when there are more buyers than there are homes for sale.

If you don’t get requests for showings it means your overpriced. Probably by a lot. If you can’t get potential buyers to come look at your hose it means they aren’t willing to pay that price for it. Personally in a strong sellers market I suggest my clients give it a week. If we haven’t received sufficient attention I recommend we lower the price.

Maybe you have had several showings but no offer. It still means your overpriced for some reason. Buyers are not willing to pay that price or even attempt an offer. If the price is attracting buyers but not offers it could mean something needs to be done to the house. It may need updating or sometimes just a good decluttering and cleaning. In that case you can elect to do the work or simply lower the price.

The only reason a house doesn’t sell is because of price and everything is relative to price.

Joel

Getting Your Home Ready to Sell In A Sellers Market

by Joel Weihe

Getting your home ready to sell in a sellers market is where you make the big money. The nation is experiencing a sellers market which tempts sellers to put their house on the market before it’s ready. If priced right it will sell. But…

By putting forth some effort and minimal expense you can possibly earn thousands more dollars. Properly preparing your home for market gets you more money, period!

Start with curb appeal to get potential buyers inside. Start off on the right foot by getting buyers excited about a house as they approach. People are forming opinions as they walk up to the front door. These first opinions are crucial.

Keep grass cut, trimmed and looking good at all times.
Trim bushes and hedges to keep them neat and from blocking windows.
Add some potted plants during spring and summer to the front porch.
Powerwash the house but especially the front porch area.
Check the exterior caulk and paint and improve as needed.
Check the front door hardware to make sure it functions smoothly and is in good condition.

By now the your buyers have a really good feeling as they enter the house. Keep that good feeling going throughout the rest of the tour by ensuring the house is clean, really clean.

The small defects may be overlooked by buyers because there aren’t enough homes on the market but you still want the house to be clean. Carpets and floors should still be clean. Paint walls if needed or a least make sure they’re mark free.

More than likely unless the house is drastically overpriced you’ll get showings and offers. Just as in any market the better the house looks, and “feels”, the more excited buyers will be. The more excited buyers are the more money they’re willing to offer you.

Get More Money

While there may be a shortage of homes in a sellers market that doesn’t mean a seller should slack off. Buyers may be desperate but they will still pay more for a house that is in excellent condition. The more impressive a house is the more people will want it. That means more people making offers, big offers.

When getting your home ready to sell little things like sprucing up the kitchen by clearing everything off the counters make a big difference. Polish all the appliances and clear the refrigerator of notes, pictures, calendars and anything else. Make sure the cabinets are all clean and in good working order. The kitchen is a big deal.

The rest of the house, like the living room, dining room, bathrooms and bedrooms should all be, yes, clean, clutter free and in good repair.

Make sure all doors are working smoothly.
Repair any holes in the walls.
Closets should not be crowded.
All the toilets should flush properly and be clean.
Check all plumbing under sinks for leaks.
Pack up as much stuff as you can before the sale.

The big take away is don’t be tempted to take the easy way out by simply throwing your house on the market. Take the time to get it ready. Make more money. After all, that’s the reason you’re selling your home yourself. To save money. Might as well make some while you’re at it.

Joel