RESOURCE CENTER - "Buyers & Sellers Handbook", "The Legal Center", "Tools You Can Use"
The 'For Sale By Owner' Handbook - Information, Tips, How-To and Articles
Additional For Sale By Owner Tips
Concealing the property’s address
Buyers often drive by dozens of homes before coming up with a list of those they want to visit. If they can’t find your home, it may never get onto their short list.
Having an empty flyer box
Flyers lure buyers into your home, and help them remember its best features. They also keep buyers’ agents honest. In a slow market, some agents may be tempted to steer buyers towards their own listings—even though doing so violates the Realtor® code of ethics and some state laws. For example, an agent might discourage buyers from looking at homes listed by owners or other agents by saying that these homes have “problems” or that they’re overpriced. It’s harder for agents to do this if their clients have easy access to flyers.
Not getting on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
For a flat fee of just a few hundred dollars (with no commission for the listing agent), you can get a six-month listing on the MLS, Realtor.com®, and local MLS websites. It’s hard to imagine a more cost-effective way to market your home—Realtor.com® alone gets over 6 million visitors per month. As an added bonus, getting on the MLS will likely stop the flood of phone calls from listing agents who want your business. There’s one catch, though: to get an MLS listing you have to agree to “cooperate with” (i.e., pay a commission to) any agent or broker who finds you a buyer. But you should do this anyway. If you don't cooperate, you probably won't pocket all or even most of the commission savings. Buyers who make offers without the services of a buyer's agent usually expect a price discount.
Setting the cooperating broker’s commission too low
Unless your home is selling for at least $1 million, offer a 2.5 or 3% commission to buyers’ agents. Many agents are hard-pressed right now, so they’re paying close attention to commissions. As a result, homes offer higher commissions have a big edge over those that don’t.
Making it hard for buyers to contact you
Realtor® associations make it devilishly hard for buyers to find FSBOs and to get in touch with their owners. Realtor.com®, for example, won’t allow listings to be described as FSBOs, nor will it display a FSBO seller’s contact information on its public web pages. (Note: Though flat-fee MLS brokers are required to give their own contact information on Realtor.com® and other MLS websites, good ones will divert all buyer inquiries to sellers.)
All of this is frustrating for buyers who want to find FSBO homes on their own in order to capture the cooperating brokers’ commissions for themselves.
Setting the asking price too high
From 1991 to 1996, the median price of a home in California fell from $200,660 to $177,270—or by about 11.6%. Smart sellers were quick to lower their prices and many got out of the falling market early. A good rule of thumb in a slow market is to visit competing properties and price yours so that it’s one of the two or three best values in your area and price range.
Playing leapfrog with a desperate seller
Avoid getting lured into a price war if you’re competing with a desperate seller. If you win, you may get less for your house than it’s worth. If you lose, future buyers will likely learn of your rival’s sales price and use it when appraising your home. It’s sometimes better to let a desperate seller go first.
Taking your home off the market for the winter
If you wait until March to put your house on the market, you may find that prices have dropped over the winter and that your home gets lost in the surge of homes that come on the market in the spring.
Giving up and listing with a traditional agent
Listing agents normally charge 2.5-3% of the home’s sales price for their services. That comes to $15,000 to $18,000 for a $600,000 home. If you’re having trouble selling your home, you’ll likely get more bang for your buck if you use that money to either lower your price or boost the cooperating broker’s (buyer‘s agent’s) commission. In a slow market, buyers’ agents play a much larger role than listing agents in determining which houses sell.
How Much Can You Afford? This calculator provides an estimate of the maximum mortgage loan a prospective Buyer can expect to get from a bank or other lending institution.
Seller's NET CASH Calculator Use the calculator below to estimate proceeds from the sale of your house.
Neighborhood Reports Get city details about climate, education, housing, crime and more...
School Reports Get the facts on over 85,000 U.S. schools. From the Dept. of Education (2002) and other sources.
ByOwnerMLS Blog Visit our blog and read the latest postings.
The Legal Center
State Specific Real Estate Forms are a Must!
When selling or buying real estate it is very important, and required in many states, to have properly executed written agreements.
Our partner provides State Specific real estate forms for all your real estate form needs, including deeds, contracts, liens, contract for deed and many other forms. ...click here
The Moving Center
Need help with your move? We can make it easy! Get instant moving price quotes from professional full-service & self-service moving companies. Get your free moving quote
We've got great prices! Use our Moving Box Calculator to figure what you need, and we’ll get top brand quality supplies to you the very next day in most cases! Shipping is always FREE!...click here
Looking to Purchase Moving Supplies? Finally, a Manufacturer Direct option. We started selling direct to consumers and that’s the reason we can offer you new quality boxes at very low prices. We deliver over 100,000 boxes every day to our valued customers. Free Shipping!...click here
ByOwnerMLS is a Real Estate search engine that brings together virtually every "for sale by owner" listing nationwide.
Consumers can now search the most comprehensive resource for "for sale by owner" homes, condominiums, time shares,
rentals, vacation homes, town homes, multi-family, vacant land and commercial listings posted on the web.
Our Listing Company partners upload and modify their inventory as needed, providing our viewers an accurate
representation for every "for sale by owner" listing. (For more information about adding your inventory
click here). ByOwnerMLS consolidates the nations "for sale by owner"
properties into one marketplace, providing consumers with a comprehensive "for sale by owner"
search engine. All ByOwnerMLS syndicated sites receive maximum exposure from ByOwnerMLS,
The For Sale By Owner (FSBO) Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
ByOwnerMLS Regional For Sale By Owner (FSBO) Real Estate
The best regional For Sale By Owner real estate resource available for FSBO home buyers and home sellers. Click on a location below.
