18 Questions For Every Home Seller (Part 2)

Strategies and Tips From Getting Started to Getting Closed

Who is this book for?

This book is for sellers who have never sold a house, for veteran sellers who may not know about all the options available today, and even for buyers who want to learn more about how sellers think and how real estate works from the other side of the fence. This brief book is essentially a series of questions, and by the end of it most of these should be resolved. A few may require further research, consideration, and possibly consultation before they can be answered satisfactorily.

How this book works

Before each section, major issue to be considered will be illustrated by fictionalized characters discussing their efforts to sell their homes. The characters’ dialogues are meant to broaden your understanding of the decisions ahead of you and provide real-life examples in addition to the conceptual explanations that follow these discussions.

The final section of the book delves in some detail into a specific online auction option, oresy.com, a web site created by the authors of this book to provide a real alternative to traditional selling methods. Even if you expect to use traditional, exploring the range of contemporary tools available today will make you feel far more confident as you proceed towards a sale.

Defining our terms: brokers & agents

Traditionally, a broker or agent assists sellers in finding a buyer on a commission basis, collecting a fee based on the final price. Buyer’s brokers emerged to help buyers complete the sale of their property, collecting a percentage of the purchase price as a commission. In most places, professionals must be licensed before they can receive payment for acting as intermediaries in real estate transactions. Brokers are generally much more experienced than agents, which are typically supervised by a broker and unable to work independently. Both agents and brokers are typically licensed by the state.

Defining our terms: realtors

Members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) are entitled to call themselves realtors; these professionals might also be described as agents or brokers. Outside the United States, real estate professionals commonly use the term, but inside the United States, the copyrighted use of the term is legally enforced.

Defining our terms: FSBO

‘For Sale By Owner’ used to be the only alternative to broker/agent-centric sales. Do-it-yourself sellers simply didn’t list their property with any service. Instead, a sign on the lawn and an ad in the newspaper were typically the seller’s only route to a buyer. Nowadays, these tools are commonly augmented by online ads and FSBO sites that list the house for little or no fee.

Overheard in the cafeteria

“I don’t want to sell my house in this market even if my new place is a steal. I have no idea how to get a good price.”

“You know, Carl sold his house last year online. He told he did it without a broker. Maybe I’ll look into that.”

“No broker? That means he saved a bundle by avoiding a broker’s fee. I suppose there’s a thousand ways to sell it yourself. But how do you save on fees and still get top dollar for your property?”

“When I sold my place in Springfield, my broker listed the house, helped me work out the asking price, and helped make sure the paperwork was squared away. She was great, but sure, the commission was steep. With all the marketing options available on the web nowadays, I think I could do it next time by myself.”

Part 3 will be posted on Tuesday Oct 25, 2011