Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Home for sale by owner?

We are planning to sell our home. This is the 3rd home we have owned. We used a realtor to sell the 1st one but just put an ad in the paper and sold the 2nd one without a realtor. It was quite easy when we did it (summer of 2016) but not many people read the paper anymore so I wonder how we should go about advertising it. We live in a gated development so we will probably put up a for sale sigh out by the gate and may put an ad in the local newspaper anyway. What about on Craigslist? Any other sensible options?

Zillow.

There's your answer. May be the shortest post on the Campfire.

FSBO

Done two on Zillow.

Never use a realtor again.

Zillow and FSBO.

Make sure your purchase agreement is specific in all areas.

We have five high class rental houses in Asheville and Atlanta. The cheapo is worth $328K. We used to advertise only on craigslist.
These days, we advertise only on zillow. And so should you.

Thanks. I will look into the Zillow deal.

Zillow or FSBO both worked for us. Showing homes gets to be a drag but in my experience beats dealing with realtors...and the extra $$$ in your pocket afterward makes it worth it.

I've only used a realtor to purchase one house. Never used one to sell and don't intend to ever do so. When we sold our last one ~6 years ago we used Zillow and Craigslist and received hits from both, but I don't think Craigslist is nearly as popular as it used to be.

pros and cons of both approaches

I will say that around here, people are begging for homes to buy on social media because as soon as a house goes on the market, people are lined up to look at it and it sells within days.

all you'd have to do here is put your home up for sale on a social media site like a facebook group that is about your hometown.

that said, where the realtor comes in is making sure the person buying can get financing, setup appointments, inspections, etc - not to mention all the paperwork with deed transfer.

You guys must had chosen bad realtors, I'm not a realtor, but seems like you're stepping over a dollar to save a dime.On on probably one of the biggest financial deals of your lives the realtor's commission is very cheap insurance.Lots of of pit falls in real estate transactions. Do you trust your other financial transactions to free on line advice? Do you know what the real value of your house is, Zillow sure as hell doesn't! Can you evaulate best offer with all the ins and out of offers,. Hand shake or do you have a contract? These days hand shake deals or always trouble!

I don't trust FSBO's, and have avoided them in the past. I'm not the only one.

If you want a nightmare put it on Craigslist. You won't believe who will come to look at your house.

You use a lawyer for $1000 or a realtor for $18000+. Its your money, do what you want.

No doubt, Its not like your lawyer doesn't have the same boiler plate contract your realtor uses saved on his hard drive.

So it looks like even if I do a FSBO on Zillow I will most likely have to pay the buyer's agent a 3% commission (unless the buyer is not using an agent). I might initially list it on Zillow using their Make Me Move category. Any thoughts about the MMM?

Never ever use a realtor anymore. Absolutely no need and there is close to zero added value. You can do a $99 Flat Fee Listing on the MLS yourself and save all that realtor commission. You'll have the exact same exposure with the tool THEY USE.

But, you probably won't have to do the MLS listing if you:

1. Place an ad on zillow. Your 1st one is free. Works like a champ. Has text communications app built-in.
2. Place an ad on craigslist. You will need to bump the ad semi-frequently to keep it near the top. Just click on "Edit" and then just save again. You won't have to actually edit anything to bump your ad to the top. In my area, realtors will flag your ad to suppress it or get it deleted. They want you going to them to sell or rent your house. Just part of their game. In that case, you have to recreate the ad. No big deal. Have the text and pics stored on your computer. Easily recreated.
3. Get the cheapest 25 blank coroplast signs you can find and hand write a quick FOR SALE BY OWNER sign. Place them around the busiest spots in the area where your home is located. Have a pre-drafted text that describes the property in as much detail as you can get in the text without being too wordy (like this answer). Send this to anyone who texts you. When you take a call, you can also follow up with this text.
4. Place FOR SALE BY OWNER signs on stakes in the front yard and tied to any fencing that is next to adjacent roadway.

This is my current strategy for a sale or rental. Just used it to rent a house in 10 days start to finish and get $250/mo more than prior tenant.

GLWS.

I’d say 8/10 realtors are near worthless. And that’s being conservative. The “better” ones are more akin to used car salesmen.

NO reason to use a realtor. You don't need them to do jack schit for the financing, appts, inspections OR any of the deed transfer paperwork. The title company will handle that.