Feeling good about selling my house FSBO...

[Grimey]

(Caution: Brag ahead) 

I just finished a hurried month of getting my house ready to sell and listing it myself.  I did my market research, asked some trusted advisors/friends for advice, and worked in earnest for 4 weeks (painting, repairing, cleaning, moving stuff to storage, and staging) in order to get myself ready to put my house on the market.  Last week, I put the house on Zillow as a "Make me move" and added pictures.  On Monday, new counter-tops were installed.  I hooked up the kitchen plumbing on Tuesday.  I paid a flat $99 fee to get my house listed in MLS.  On Tuesday, I called back all the folks who had shown interest and let them know I was showing the house now.  The MLS listing went live at 11am Wed.  I had showings at 11:30, 2:30, and 6:30. I got an offer Wed evening. I countered.  It was accepted.  I am under contract close to list price with much less commission (3% to Buyer's agent)than the going 6%, no closing costs and closing date of my choosing. Less than 12 hours after the MLS listing went out.

Today I had a 'Back-up offer'.

I feel like a rock star, and I'm so happy to get to this point as I'm about to leave for vacation for 5 weeks.

The best part:

I went through a divorce 3 years ago and stayed in the house while we listed it for sale.  My ex had to pay me half of the difference between her house payment and mine until the house sold.  The market was soft, and we listed in late summer in the midwest with a pool.  Ex wasn't willing to help fix up the place or do anything in order to make the sale.  After paying me for 6 months and reducing the price, she finally accepted my offer to buy out her interest in the property. 

She got 27K net in settlement 2 years ago for her share of the equity.

I'll close next month and clear 70K after all is said and done (commission, pay-off, cost of repairs and improvements) This means that by investing in time and a little effort, I increased my equity by 43K. 

Over those 30 months I paid 38K for PITI before income tax breaks... 

So now, I kinda feel that by standing by my convictions, I can say the last 30months were 'rent free' and I 'found' an additional 5k, or that my 30month investment in myself made 260% ROI.

Either way, I'm happy to downsize and pocket the extra cash in my investment account.


-Grimey (occasional real estate maven)

[honaras]

beautiful work! congrats.

[Bearded Man]

Congrats and well done! A great example of DIY! I wonder if you could have escaped the fee for the buyers by making them represent themselves but I guess that's pushing it. I ask because I've considered the FSBO route but since I still have to pay 3% buyers fee...

Heck I have a team in my area that does listings for 1%, so 4% to be represented ain't  too bad. I guess it depends on 4% of what. 500K, yeah that stings. 100K, no big deal.

[newton]

Beautiful.  Getting ready to sell my house in the next year or so and have considered this.  Glad to hear it went smooth!

[MakingSenseofCents]

Wow great job!

[forummm]

(Caution: Brag ahead) 

I think that's assumed on the "Share Your Badassity" section :)

Super on the quick sale and realtor savings! That must feel fantastic to have it get snapped up so quickly. Not every FSBO knows how to price their house competitively.

[former player]

Congratulations.

A system in which estate agents routinely take 6% of the value on each property sold seems extraordinary to someone in the UK.  Here the estate agents act only for the seller, advertise rates at 2% or 1.5% and can be negotiated down to as "little" as 1% - which is still a decent payday given the price of houses here.