Just sold my place. I recommend a realtor. More exposure then selling on your own and most buyers have realtors. Like 90%. A law was just past that says fees are now negotiable, not a standard typical 6%. I would go for 4% which is what I did. If buyers know it's a FSBO, they will in many cases offer 5-6% less or come back to you on inspection with things, this wastes valuable time and keeps it off the market while other buyers find something else, or worse case, your house gets stale. In this market in my area, realtor said if your house is on the market more than two weeks, buyers start to wonder if something is wrong with the house and price has drops.....One more thing, don't go fixing everything before you put it on the market, they are going to comeback to you anyway on inspection and in this market, can't come back with $50K worth of items, it's not a buyers market.
AKB: need info on selling my house without a realtor.
- Thread starter Lion Son/Husband/Father
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Weird dynamic happened in my Hood in SEPA. Hot market- but seems to be slowing down over last year or so w interest rates.
A neighbor listed at $639,900 w a realtor. Two years earlier an adjacent house had sold at $615k after being listed at $549k in a 3 way bidding war where two people had escalators set up to a limit. That house was all original 1960s inside as the widow who inhabited finally passed so it needed significant upgrades.
Shortly after that I had an unsolicited offer of $650k with no inspections for my home which we declined. I've got geothermal plus a whole house gene easily making up that +$35k value.
New listing sat for almost a month without an "Under Contract." We assumed that was bad. A new young family just moved in Friday with a 10 month old. Selling price was $665k.
Long winded way to say that if your home is a place where folks can see themselves raising their children as a long term home, with good schools etc, then there will be likely many frustrated young couples who are tired of the hunt, want to be in their nest, and will overpay.
Good luck!
Another issue is if your house has anything that is unique versus comparable houses in your area, that will be used for comps. For instance, do you have ten acres when everyone else has two. Or do you have barns and a horse paddock plus border state land that allows for riding but other properties don't have this. If you have uniqueness in your property there will be a buyer somewhere who will pay up for this but your realtor will probably price your home versus the comps and not add any value. Under-pricing a home for a quick sale for less commission is often more profitable than having to show it for multiple months at the right price to find the right buyer and in these situations making an effort to sell it yourself and advertising it in venues where it will draw interest could be to your advantage.
My home here in Ct. has a three acre pond in the backyard of which I own about a third of it along with a couple of other owners. As a Common Law state that makes it 100% private since we own the property around the pond and the pond bottom too.
It is an old Grist Mill pond that we reclaimed back in the early 90s by draining and removing enough material to take it down to 15' depths and bank-run gravel. I raise trout, swim in the pond, ice skate in winter, have a fire pit down by the water and a 12' square floating raft with a diving tower for the grandkids. Zillow has my house appraised at the median price of about a half dozen other 2400 square foot Colonial style houses that are in our "executive ghetto" area of various developments all with a two acre minimum. Only a couple of the houses have water rights of any kind or own a usable pond but they are all appraised about the same on Zillow based upon comps. I also get a fair number of unsolicited offers over the course of the year and the offer pricing indicates a willingness to pay a premium. So if this is your situation don't be quick to jump at the first offer and make an effort to try and find the right buyer.
My home here in Ct. has a three acre pond in the backyard of which I own about a third of it along with a couple of other owners. As a Common Law state that makes it 100% private since we own the property around the pond and the pond bottom too.
It is an old Grist Mill pond that we reclaimed back in the early 90s by draining and removing enough material to take it down to 15' depths and bank-run gravel. I raise trout, swim in the pond, ice skate in winter, have a fire pit down by the water and a 12' square floating raft with a diving tower for the grandkids. Zillow has my house appraised at the median price of about a half dozen other 2400 square foot Colonial style houses that are in our "executive ghetto" area of various developments all with a two acre minimum. Only a couple of the houses have water rights of any kind or own a usable pond but they are all appraised about the same on Zillow based upon comps. I also get a fair number of unsolicited offers over the course of the year and the offer pricing indicates a willingness to pay a premium. So if this is your situation don't be quick to jump at the first offer and make an effort to try and find the right buyer.
In a hot market, it's fine to price it a bit low to drive traffic and offers. Your agent will tell buyers that it's priced aggressively to drive interest. If there are multiple offers coming, it will create solid offers, often with escalation clauses.
Example: if you think your house is worth $710-715, price it at $700. It catches buyers who search with 700 at both their bottom and top end.
AJ, the wife and I are just getting ready to have our house put on the market in the next week. All the realtors we've spoke have asked what we'd like to sell for. We've given no indication except the sky is the limit. In dealing with your seller agent did they pressure you to provide some minimum amount that you'd except? I thought someone here said they revealed that number and that's exactly what the agent came back with LOL.
This is exactly what our realtor has been saying. The buyers who have lost out prior bidding wars are going to be especially desperate, and look to pay whatever. If it's a family with young children that's even more incentive to complete the deal. Right now our realtor is saying that there are 4 buyers looking at houses similar to ours. I just don't want to divulge to her what our acceptable price would be.
Interesting comments on here but you need to be prepared to do lots of stuff you are not ready for potentially. I enjoyed reading some on f the lawyers on here who dislike brokers. Lawyers reps are too different from used car salesmen just like brokers. Pot calling kettle black?
You wil have to. Write a contract with the buyer in rapid fashion. Normally a broker does this on a modified form. If the broker doesn’t do this is your lawyer going to do this for every offer?
The regulation is changing I hear in NJ where the buyer has to pay the buyer’s broker and if you have to pay the sellers broker if you have one. It’s a new world in NJ starting in June I believe. Check it out before you make your decision.
Lawyers can act as a broker in NJ last I heard with no brokers license. I’m not sure that this true anymore but you should check it out.
Finally, interview 3 brokers, get their input on pricing and how to maximize the value of your property. There is no obligation in meeting with the three brokers and they will teach you about how to move forward. In the end you can still try to sell your property directly if you wish.
I am a broker but I don’t sell houses fyi. I have dealt with some great lawyers and some not-so good ones. From a legal perspective selling a house is meatball surgery. Honesty is what you should be looking for in a lawyer and a broker.
I agree. The realtor's job is to get the fastest agreement and move on to the next. That's how they maximize their results. It's not how you maximize your results.
I don't think the market is what it was a couple of years ago due to the massive increase in mortgage rates, but there are buyers and pent-up demand. The surge in interest rates have significantly reduced the number of homes on the market because those with 3-5% rates are not going to move unless necessary or the ideal situation. Do you blame them?
Today's average 30 year fixed rate is 7.04%. It was 2.77% 4 years ago. If you have a new $500k mortgage, then you are paying $3765 per month. 4 years ago at 2.77% you'd be paying $2471 per month on the same exact value home!!
Now consider that the median home has increased in cost by 35% since 4 years ago. That means to get the same ($500k mortgage) house you would have bought 4 years ago, you would need a $675k mortgage right now. At 7.04% and $675k, you are now paying $4934 per month for that same home $500k mortgage at 2.77% that you would have paid $2471 per month for 4 years ago!!!
For most homeowners, they simply cannot afford to sell their home and move up right now. The math above shows that if you even try to rebuy your own home today, you would have almost twice as high of mortgage payments. That's freaking insane. I feel terrible for those who don't own a home yet and are looking because they literally have to pay twice as high of a mortgage payment as 4 years ago and come up with a 35% higher down payment to avoid PMI.
I've been telling friends and young people who have an interest in a house that buying land and living in a trailer or getting a fixer upper and doing work yourself is a much better option right now in most places.
Isn't it amazing the number of different topics we used to discuss on this board? We made it through controversial topics like 9/11. the Sandusky scandal, George Floyd, impeachment, covid, 2008 financial meltdown, nuclear reactor meltdowns, board of trustees betraying the university etc, etc and the board was fully capable of policing itself. It was those big discussions that always seemed to keep people engaged and interested during the offseason and was a nice reflection of Joepa's desire to have engaged, curious, and well-rounded Penn Staters. It really set this board apart from the others.
Investing in a home is a contentious point amongst financial advisors. Too much home for certain is a problem for people - house poor or worse, insolvent. They generally recommend a benchmark of about 25% for housing ratio 1. That means you really should be spending no more than a quarter of your income on housing payments. They also recommend no more than 36% debt to income ratio (so add in car payments, student loan, etc.) and divide by income.
Some financial advisors say you are better off renting and investing your potential downpayment in the stock market. I disagree.
Many people who rent never reap the benefit of a paid off home in retirement. So they continue to pay rent which has been increasing at 6% per year the last 3 years. To beat that in the market, you need to yield a return of about 10% right now because inflation is stealing 3.5% and income gains have lost against inflation over that timeframe as well.
Another factor is that while you are building equity, your home value is rising. It has risen 35% on average the last 4 years. The 25-year average for home value inflation is a little over 4% per year which beats the 25-year inflation average. So your home is an investment asset IMO even if it is not seen that way if for personal use by many financial professionals.
Further, if you have a fixed mortgage, the payments are fixed (taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. aren't but interest and principal are). Rent isn't. If you stay in a home for 10 years, your housing costs are significantly less than rent. True, renters don't pay for repairs and recurring upkeep. But they pay more in rent than if they had bought the home themselves. I know, I buy homes and rent them. I make sure that I have a reasonable positive cash flow every month over all of my costs (including projected and risk factor for potential vacancy or damages). So, you will play less long term in housing costs if you buy.
Now where homebuyers get in trouble is if they 1) buy more house than they can afford 2) buy a house that has major issues like structural 3) use the equity in their home like a piggy bank taking out home equity loans and never getting much closer to being paid off 4) do not keep up their homes. There are others but that's a good start.
I keep very detailed records on my investments. I can tell you that the homes that I've bought with the exception of one in NY (taxes and all other cost increases were criminal) definitely have outpaced my stock market investments. My stock market investments have been pretty good long term, but the real estate, particularly the rental properties have been better. And I have multiplied my investment capacity by having renters fueling additional income streams and building my equity in several properties (plus it is shows well at tax time being able to use depreciation on those properties). I've averaged building wealth (net worth increase) at just under 10% per year for a long time and owning several homes is a significant contributor to that.
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I second the suggestion to use a flat rate seller's realtor. I think I pad mine something like $400. That included professional photos, an MLS listing, a yard sign and handling all the paperwork that a seller's agent normally does. Potential buyers use a web site to schedule showings.
I saw one or two folks posts warning about needing a realtor's expertise in choosing a list price when you sell it yourself (if you use a flat rate seller's agent they'll help you choose a price). Most realtors will do a market analysis for you and suggest a list price. Just have 2 or 3 do that and then decide for yourself based on their suggestion.
I saw one or two folks posts warning about needing a realtor's expertise in choosing a list price when you sell it yourself (if you use a flat rate seller's agent they'll help you choose a price). Most realtors will do a market analysis for you and suggest a list price. Just have 2 or 3 do that and then decide for yourself based on their suggestion.
Plus school is ending....and families would want to get in and settled by the end of August for their new schools start- ideally sooner.
Good luck Roch!
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