By Erik Hare
In earlier entries, I outlined why my beloved Cristy decided to try to sell her townhome as a FSBO, or more accurately with a limited-service REALTOR, and how it went for her. The short answer was that it didn’t sell, and now has tenants renting it out. But it still is better to sell it, and with spring approaching it’s time for another round.
This time, she elected to go with the most creative and hard working REALTOR in the city. I’m talking about Teresa here. No, this isn’t a test for her, and I don’t want to report all the details of how Teresa sells a place. Besides, this is an unusual unit – one bedroom side-by-side townhome that is a bit small, but with a lot of great features and a great neighborhood. If we learned one thing from before it was how tricky this was going to be. As is true with so many FSBOs, eventually it was time to go with the pros.
The reasons were many. Not only did the last attempt not work, the situation with tenants makes it all a bit more complicated. Teresa explained the lockbox to the tenants so that they feel secure about REALTORs coming in for showings. The tenants also have 24 hours of notice before a showing. Getting all this to work properly has a lot to do with the fact that Teresa knows tenant law.
In addition to all the tenant stuff, Teresa has had a few very creative ideas for marketing the place. There’s a great phototour of the place on its own website. Teresa also provided a lot of information to help price it appropriately, and could give reasonable estimates of how long it might take to sell with existing market conditions. Most importantly, Cristy likes not having to spend her weekends doing showings to buyers that aren’t pre-qualified.
How will this work? Well, it went live on March 1, just in time for a big snowstorm. But the season of selling is on us, and we will just have to see how it goes. It’s not a market for the impatient.
The first report is that it is very refreshing to know that these details are being handled as professionally as they are. Will a REALTOR be worth the commission? Certainly, a sale is worth more than not having a sale, so the answer is likely to be a resounding “Yes!” if it goes anything like we plan.
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If you do decide to go FSBO and sell your home you must be dedicated. You have to do all the work a realtor would do. That means showing your home. Many people are not comfortable doing that.