Report #1
SHOULD YOU TRY TO SELL YOUR HOME YOURSELF?
YOU MIGHT GET LUCKY
Hey, everyone wants to save a few bucks, so why not? Called a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) property, a sophisticated Seller could certainly navigate this process. But while the challenges are more than formidable, the truth is, you just might stumble across the perfect fully qualified Buyer who wanders in off the street and makes you a great offer. Besides, it just feels good to stand up and take control of your own destiny!
But be very cautious! Buyer’s who pursue FISBO’s are looking for a really low price because they know you are “saving” the cost of a real estate commission and they will demand a really great deal.
Bottom line? If you are in no particular hurry to sell your home, are locked into the price you want and don't mind getting calls from "Lookey-Lou's" and "Buyers" who have not already been pre-qualified for you, there is no practical reason to at least give FSBO a try.
One Word of Caution: MLS experience shows conclusively that the longer a property remains unsold on the MLS, the less the likelihood of obtaining the full asking price. Properties new to the MLS, create a burst of Buyer activity and interest. Homes remaining unsold after the critical first 15 days, raise questions in people’s minds. They become stale fruit and potential buyers tend to move on to fresh opportunities.
If your FISBO attempt is unsuccessful, you should probably wait 60 to 90 days before listing with an Agent, so the "stale fruit aroma" has a chance to dissipate and you have a fresh start in marketing your home.
WILL THE INTERNET BE ANY HELP?
Absolutely! 49% of Buyers found their homes on the internet, 31% from Real Estate Agents, 7% from a yard sign and 1% from newspapers. Recent studies show that 95% of Buyers begin by going online to search for a home. Only 17% of Buyer's look at print newspaper ads.
But Real Estate Agents have an existing internet strategy and connections and accounts already set up and in place to promote the sale of your home on sites such as Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Realtor.com, Homes.com and multiple social media outlets like YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Do you?
One ad meant to attract FSBO’s says that the vast majority of sales in 2017 were made by Sellers who utilized the internet. While true, this is a bit misleading. Initial exposure does indeed occur most often through the internet, but 92% of actual sales closures occur by using the services of a Realtor and that percentage has been increasing since 1991. Put another way, the chances of selling your home by yourself, are less than one in ten.
WHAT % OF HOMES ARE SUCCESSFULLY SOLD AS FISBO’s?
While only 10.2% of homes are actually sold by a homeowner, very few of them are actually sold principal to principal and most still required the services and expense of an attorney. Most of these sales involved principals who already knew each other or the sale was an intra-family transfer.
THE AVERAGE SALE REQUIRES 65 SEPARATE DOCUMENTS!
You might think that we are trying to scare you, but he truth is that the paperwork involved in the sale a home has increased dramatically as lawyer guided industry disclosures, regulations and advisories have become mandatory. This is one of the reasons that the percentage of people who sell their own homes has dropped from 19% to 8% over the last 20+ years, and that’s the lowest recorded figure since NAR began collecting data in 1981.
Your Buyer’s Agent will present you with a document called a Residential Purchase Agreement (RPA), which together with several associated documents total over 20 pages of densely written legalese. Are you prepared to deal with the following questions, all of which are dealt with in these 20 pages: qualifying your Buyer, structuring of offers and counter offers, FHA or conventional financing options, appraisals and contingencies, various government retrofit requirements, a dozen statutory disclosures, title and vesting, tax consequences, dispute resolution, escrows, remedies for a Buyer’s breach of contract, mediation vs. binding arbitration and verifying building permits.
Still not convinced? We will be happy to provide you the 2 page checklist of Documents and Forms that all Brokers must complete prior to consummating a sale or purchase. If you’re still set on selling your own home, you’re going to need this.
DO YOU HONESTLY KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING?
Corporate buyers acquiring apartment, commercial and hotel properties have staff attorneys on retainer. These advisors are intimately familiar with the process, procedures and paperwork necessary to consummate a deal. But residential buyers trafficking in sub $4 million homes almost never have the following critical skills:
(1) Are you capable of pricing and marketing your home, choosing and qualifying a Buyer and countering multiple offers? Do you have the experience and sophistication necessary to deal with the highly complicated 20+ legal sized pages of the Residential Purchase Agreement and a dozen other associated documents? Can you navigate the minefield of inspection and financing contingencies, notifications, declarations and disclosures and comprehend the nuances of the “legalese” in which everything is written?
(2) Do you have the negotiating skills necessary to bridge the gap between the often dissimilar and contentious interests of a Buyer and a Seller? It is said that the lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. How does representing yourself make you any different from such a lawyer?
INVOLVING YOURSELF IN A REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION IN WHICH THE OTHER PARTY HAS AN AGENT AND YOU DO NOT, IS MUCH LIKE ASKING A FUTURE SPOUSE TO DRAW UP YOUR PRE-NUPTIAL MARRIAGE AGREEMENT.
While residential Buyers may indeed scour the internet to identify prospective properties, they quickly seek the safe harbor and guidance of a Realtor. California law is very clear on this point: a Buyer’s Agent has “primary fiduciary responsibility” to the Buyer and the Seller’s Agent has “primary fiduciary responsibility” to the Seller. But FSBO Sellers don’t always have a knowledgeable professional standing beside them, guiding and protecting their interests. Your plans to save some money may very well leave you in an extremely lonely and challenging and difficult position.
To be fair, California has some of the very highest educational and ethical standards to maintain a Real Estate license and some of the finest people I know hold the title of Realtor. I have been a California Broker for over 30 years. You may check any Realtor’s records by entering their license number at www2.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/pplinfo.asp. My License Number is 00904384.
USING AN AGENT CAN ACTUALLY NET YOU MORE MONEY
I know what you're thinking! This paragraph is just a lot of blather made up to convince you about something you just can't accept. Well, relax. If you're still on the fence after reading what has been written up to now, I'd seriously recommend that you try a FISBO. You are a very healthy skeptic with a strong will and tremendous self-confidence and you just might be able to make a FISBO work out. But please read on.
Many homeowners believe that both the Seller and the Buyer get a better deal by saving the 3% real estate commission. But a study by Collateral Analytics revealed that FSBOs don’t actually save anything, and in some cases, may be costing Sellers more, by not listing with an Agent. One of the main reasons for the price difference at the time of sale is: “Properties listed with a broker that is a member of the local MLS will be listed online with all other participating broker websites, marketing the home to a much larger buyer population. And those MLS properties generally offer compensation to agents who represent buyers, incentivizing them to show and sell the property and again potentially enlarging the buyer pool.”
The study also showed that the difference in price between homes of comparable size and location is currently averaging 6% this year. Why would a person without any guidance, choose to navigate the totally unfamiliar legal and operational minefield involved in the sale of their own home when hiring a professional Agent won't cost them any more money?
Get the facts. Before you take on the challenges of selling a house on your own, sit down with a real estate professional in your marketplace and see what they have to offer. You might then decide to go the FISBO route, but at least you’ll have sufficient facts to plot an intelligent course of action.
REMEMBER WHAT THE IMPORTANT ISSUES ARE
(1) Sell your home for the highest possible price in the best possible time frame. Not necessarily the price you’d like, but the price the marketdictates…and then get on with your life.
(2) Your escrow can provide you with a “Seller’s Net Sheet”, which lists all foreseeable charges and expenses which would normally accrue in the sale of your home. Because you will know the size of the check you need to walk away with when escrow closes, you will know exactly how much you need to sell your home for. No surprises.
HOW CAN WE HELP?
Decide the price you need to receive for your home. The listing price could be determined by adding the real estate commission (usually 5%-6%), on top of that number. You would be in complete and absolute control because you can reject any offer that does not meet your requirement for a predetermined minimum return to you at close of escrow.
WHO ARE WE? SIMPLY PUT: WE ARE THE LARGEST AND
MOST TRUSTED REAL ESTATE COMPANY IN AMERICA!
(1) Ethisphere Institute is a consumer watchdog that tracks the corporate behavior of major companies and examines and analyzes how they conduct business and interact with the public. They designated Coldwell Banker as the Most Ethical Real Estate Company in America, for the last 6 consecutive years. You may verify this at www.ethisphere.com.
(2) For the 21st year in a row, Coldwell Banker is again ranked as the #1 residential Real Estate Brokerage in the nation in both sales volume and number of homes sold, by REAL Trends 500. Go to https://www.realtrends.com/top-10-real-trends-500-volume-2018 to download the full report.
(3) It is no accident that Coldwell Banker has consistently out performed every other Real Estate Company in America for the past 21 straight years. People love to root for the “little guy” and if that’s what you like, more power to you. But if you’re really serious about selling your home or looking for another one, it might be a good idea to consider a partnership with the one company which has both the very best reputation and the very best sales record.
I would love to show you what amazing resources the largest Real Estate Company in the World has to put at your disposal! Please visit my website www.jimmoranbrokerage.com.
(1) GUARANTEED SALE OF YOUR HOME AT 100% OF APPRAISED VALUE: Because we have sold more homes than any other company every year for the past 21 years, I can promise that if your home sells for anything less than its full appraised value as measured by the Lender’s appraisal, I will compensate you by reducing my commission dollar for dollar for whatever shortfall there might be.
(2) FREE 1 YEAR HOME WARRANTY FOR YOUR BUYER: This is a huge selling point because your buyer knows that all major components of all home systems and appliances in the home he is buying are fully insured for a period of one year after the sale.
(3) FREE HOME WARRANTY FOR YOU: This will fully protect you until close of escrow from any unforeseen or surprise expenses while your home is in the process of being sold.
(4) PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE QUALITY PHOTOGRAPHY: Photos and videos of both the interior and exterior of your home will be taken and used to create large tri-fold brochures for mailing campaigns and used for the internet, newspaper ads and TV slots.
(5) MAGAZINE EXPOSURE: Your home will have a full page color ad in View magazine, the monthly real estate color supplement included with the San Diego Union. View is the largest circulation real estate magazine in Southern California and is distributed in China.
(6) TELEVISION EXPOSURE: The photos and videos of your home will be used to create a professional 40 second segment on our Sunday morning TV show.
(7) MAXIMUM INTERNET EXPOSURE: Your home will be exposed to 900+ real estate websites and exclusively promoted on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Yahoo Real Estate and Homes.com. Your home will be promoted by links on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
(8) CUSTOM WEBSITE: Your home will have its own website with photos and a detailed description. Plus, the URL will be your own street address: www.9575jacksondr.com.
(9) OPEN HOUSES: Our Open Houses always include color newspaper ads and flyers spread throughout the area. We also host special “preview” showings for your neighbors.
(10) EXPERIENCED PARTNER TO GUIDE YOU DURING THE SALE PROCESS: I have 37 years of experience, personally owning and operating well over 1000 apartments, from duplexes up to a 340 unit complex. I have negotiated the purchase and sale of single family homes, commercial buildings and a major San Diego hotel for $22.5 million.
Combining the knowledge of an experienced Real Estate Broker with the trust and reliability of America’s largest and most ethical Real Estate Company, assures your confidence in the success of both a personal and professional relationship. I look forward to working with you. Please visit my website at www.jimmoranbrokerage.com.