Selling your Home at Auction

Some homeowners are opting for a different strategy in selling their homes at a time when the market is slowing down. They are putting their homes on auction for a faster sale. Auctioneers have confirmed this demand since housing markets started cooling down in the previous years. The National Auctioneers Association (NAA) report that auctions of residential properties in the U.S. in 2005 went up by 8.4% from the 2004 figures totaling $1.4 billion.

Real estate experts say home sellers in America have a tendency to use auctions when the housing market is not doing well. It was in the late 1980s and 1990s when home auctions became highly popular as home prices dropped in several parts of the U.S.

Home sellers, however, should be aware that auction services are costly. They usually charge commissions and marketing fees worth more than 10% of your home’s value compared to the five to six percent rate asked by real estate agents. Bidding results may not always be very satisfactory as your homes could end up being valued far lower than you expected. Nevertheless, auctioneers explain that their service fees are reasonable considering the fact that they can sell your homes faster than the conventional method.

Selling Your Home In Today’s Market

The latest home selling reports show that sales of homes are slowing and mortgage rates are going up. When the market is slowing down, ideally it is not a good idea to sell your home. But if you need to sell your property, experts suggest that sellers act right away before prices further go down. Offering the best price to buyers would be a great solution.

It is a reality that not all homes for sale are purchased instantly; lucky for those that are bought within days after hitting the market. However, some homes stay on the market for weeks, months or even years. Buyers may consider several factors before deciding to buy a home they would like to live in. Sellers, should take extra effort to make their homes and deals appealing to potential buyers.

There are several important steps you need to follow to ensure that your home will attract buyers in a cooling market. Your priority should be to research on your local market and look into other homes for sale, their asking prices and the prices paid by buyers. Know your local market trend and current market values by checking the Internet, your local newspaper or real estate publication. It’s also best to visit open houses in your area to monitor competitors.

Set a competitive and fair price for your home. Keep in mind that there are numerous properties on the market and buyers have a lot of homes to choose from. Do some online research and find out the local selling prices. Experts suggest pricing your home a little lower won’t hurt that much.

Do your own marketing. Use the Internet and some networking to find a buyer for your home. Come up with your own property brochure and email it to real estate companies. Also, talk to your friends and relatives about spreading the word to anybody interested in buying a home.

Negotiate well and offer incentives if possible. Potential buyers will surely be enticed if you offer to pay for some minor repairs in your home and other expenses. You may need to shell out money but this may actually earn you more in the end.

Impress your potential buyers by improving your home’s appearance. This is one of the best ways to speed up the sale of your home when there are more properties on the market. Clean up your home, inside and out. Repaint walls if needed. Take away clutter to create more space. To rid of your extra belongings, you may hold a garage sale or donate them to charity. Also, find out the popular look of homes in your location and be not afraid to follow them. You can even landscape your front yard if you wish.

Decorating Do's and Don'ts for Home Sellers in 2007

Home sellers contemplating placing there home on the market in the next year and want to prepare, should consider what trends home buyers are saying yes too. This tips are based on a survey of 923 real estate agents, managing brokers and association executives who responded to a survey request in Agent to Agent. Agent to Agent is distributed monthly to real estate professionals in all fifty states and Canada.

Do's

-Consider glass as an option to ceramic tiles. Ceramic doesn't offer the decorative benefits of newly re-discovered glass tiles that reflect light and add a glisten and glow to kitchens and bathrooms. The cost difference is minimal.

-Specify drawer-style refrigerators/freezers and dishwashers. You’ll love the deign flexibility to place where you want them. Perfect for contemporary kitchens where you want only base cabinets with open shelves above.

-Research exotic and reclaimed woods. Recycled wood salvaged from soon-to-be-demolished buildings and eco-friendly rosewood is in growing demand as homeowners mainline individualism and earth-friendly wood finishes.

-Luggage rooms. With today's on-the-go family, where to stash all their luggage is a growing problem. Most harried travelers want it in one place, to find the right piece for the right trip and to have their travel sizes of 3 ounces or less in at-a-glance place.

-Look for bolder, deeper colors for trim like shutters, doors, and window frames. Professional color forecasters believe this is the next big trend.

-Textures. Mixing natural materials such as slate and stone, wood and natural fibers, earthenware and recycled barn wood. Anything weathered; wood, metal and glass gives newer homes a sense of history.

-Install engineered stone compound countertops. Cheaper than granite, but come in a variety of colors and finishes, this synthetic alternative to nature is cutting edge in 2007 kitchens.

-Place a second laundry in your Master Suite. Walk-in closets are everywhere, why not put your own laundry next to your dirty clothes? They've been popping up more and more in 2006, and sure to go mainstream in 2007.

-Put up a wrought iron fence instead of a wood or chain-link fence. Wrought iron says luxury to homebuyers.

Don'ts

-Install bowl-shaped above-counter bathroom sinks. The splashing and over-all up-keep has earned these the reputation of nice to look at, but don't want one.

-Install too many glass kitchen cabinet doors. It looks great in magazines, but busy homeowners don’t have the time to keep their kitchen cabinets organized to keep the picture perfect look. Plus if you hate washing the windows, having more glass in a greasy room like a kitchen is high-maintenance.

-Minimize breakfast bar countertop overhang. Buyers hate when they can’t pull up a stool comfortably for a cup of coffee. Make sure yours extends past base cabinets at least twelve inches, preferably fifteen-eighteen.

-Go cheap and omit trim around interior window openings. Drywall finishes-only around windows doesn’t say contemporary, it says like a bullhorn; cheap.

-Utilize concrete-blocks in exterior walls in new construction. One, it’s ugly and two, unless they are properly sealed at installation and every three years thereafter, they’ll leak moisture. Mold is a big by-product of improperly installed and maintained concrete-block, inside or out.

-Specify spiral staircases. Once the rage for mid-seventies make over's, now death to a home seller. The boomers have aged, their kids don't like them, unfriendly to pets and young children. Take yours out and put in a standard staircase (inside or out) before you sell.

-Underestimate softness of Bamboo wood floors. The first user reviews are in on this popular eco-friendly flooring, and they're not pretty. Easily dented and scratched, and prone to warping from variations in climate and humidity levels.

© Copyright 2006 Mark Nash

Mark Nash, is a residential real estate author, broker, columnist and writer based in Chicago. His fourth book 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home received eighteen five star reviews on Amazon.com. His latest book; Real Estate A-Z for Buying & Selling a Home will be published in December 2006. Mark publishes a free monthly ezine for real estate professionals. Agent to Agent features ten articles that offer free reprints for agents, home buyers and sellers through EzineArticles.com . Real estate news and book reviews, Celebrity Homestyles, Home selling and buying tips and advice, Joke-of-the-Month, Help this Agent, and agent marketing tips. Over 5000 subscribers in the U.S. & Canada. Subscribe at: http://www.AgenttoAgentEzine.com

Selling Your Home in Winter

Selling your home in the current cool real estate market can be a challenge. Make the decision to sell it in the winter, and you can have a real challenge on your hands.

The old cliché is that location, location, location is the number one rule in real estate. In general, this is true. There is, however, a second major rule regarding the actual act of selling your home. This rule is to create as much curb appeal as possible.

Curb appeal is critical when it comes to moving your property. Why? Well, the home purchasing process is an emotional one. Yes, there are a lot of hard factors that go into it such as the area, price compared to the market, schools and so on. At the end of the day, however, the buying process is still pretty much about love at first site. If a buyer sees your home and immediately pictures themselves living there, you stand an excellent chance of getting an offer.

If you decide to sell your home during the winter months, the issue of curb appeal can become a big one. One of the central themes of creating curb appeal is to buff out your yard. Adding plants, cleaning up the verge and so on are always recommended. If you live in Arizona or Southern California, you can still do this in the winter. Ah, but what if you live in an area where the winter months mean dead plants? Well, you are going to need to get creative.

The first step to dealing with your yard in the winter months is to make sure it is clean. Buyers in the area are not expecting anything great because they already know everything dies during the winter. While this is true, you can still take the extra step of having a clean and tidy dead yard. Sweep up all leaves, trash and so on. Make sure paths are cleaned and edged. Essentially, you want people to be able to envision how it might look in the summer months. This leads us to our second step.

If at all possible, you want to hunt down pictures of your home from the summer months. The pictures should include views of the home with the landscaping in full bloom and healthy. These pictures should be added to your marketing material. You should also put them on prominent display during an open house or when you show the home to a prospective buyer. The goal is to let the buyer know the yard actually will grow back and it will look pretty nice when it does.

Selling your home in the winter might sound like a challenge. By taking these steps, however, you can actually make your home stand out from others around it.

Raynor James is with FSBO America - save money when selling and buying with homes for sale by owner

Tips On Preparing Your Home When Selling FSBO Pt 1

Preparing your home to be sold FSBO, or for sale by owner, is not a lot different to preparing your home for a real estate agent to start selling it for you. The only difference is that you are in complete control over the process. To get a good sale price, as well as a quick sale you will need to be determined, and focused on the task at hand, you will also need to get some things organized.

De-Clutter

The ‘de-clutter’ word may make people shudder at times, as they think that all of their treasured possessions are anything but clutter. The trick to selling your home FSBO is preparation, and presentation. Remove the possessions in your home that make it your personal haven. By doing this you will give your potential buyers the chance to imagine their possessions in your home, and that will lead to them imagining how great it will be to live in your home.

While your house is on the market, place all of the things that you don’t need in storage leaving only day-to-day necessities out. When you have done this walk around your home and look at it. If it feels impersonal, and a little bare you have reached your first goal.

Scrub, Scrub, And Scrub Some More

Once you have removed all of your personal effects, and any thing that doesn’t have to be in your home, you are ready to start on your next FSBO step. You will notice there is a lot of empty space, bare places. You will now need to start in one room of your home, and get the scrubbing brush out and keep scrubbing until you have cleaned the entire room from top to bottom.

Once you have finished in one room, then continue to the next room, and repeat this process until you have cleaned the entire inside of the house. If you are using cleaners while you are scrubbing make sure to use protective clothing and open some windows to provide adequate ventilation.

Paint Your Walls And Ceilings

Regardless of what many people may think painting it is vital to the sale of your FSBO home. For starters you will want to make your home look clean, fresh, and salable, old paint never has that effect even if it is washed.

Another reason why you will need to paint your walls is because you may have color preferences of your own, which may not appeal to other people. By painting your home in clean looking neutral colors you will appeal to any taste in buyer as they will see your home as a blank canvas ready for them to personalize according to their own taste.

Look For Faults

Once you have your home looking clean and fresh you will then need to look over it for any faults, or for things that need fixing up. Are there cracked tiles? What about holes in the walls? Is there anything that you have just never got around to fixing up? Look around the home, jot the jobs down on a pad, and begin fixing them. If you cant repair these things yourself, then call in the professionals.

For more tips and information on selling your home FSBO see part 2 or http://know-your-rightsonline.com/for%20sale%20by%20owner.htm or visit our Blog at http://www.know-your-rightsonline.blogspot.com

Sell Your Own Home - Revealed: FSBO Information that Realtors Don't Want You To Know! pt. 1

Selling your own home is attractive to many people. In this article, we will look at the good and bad of going For Sale By Owner or FSBO.

Why would you want to sell your own home?

Obviously, you have the potential to save yourself money. By selling your home yourself (For Sale By Owner or FSBO), you can save the commission you would normally pay a real estate agent (often as much as 6% or more!)

You may need to sell your home quickly. By lowering the asking price by the amount you save on commissions, you may be able to price your home below market value, still make the same profit, and sell it as quickly as possible.

You are probably the perfect person to show your home to buyers. Who else knows your home and neighborhood better than you do yourself? Probably nobody! So, who better to tell others about your home? (Be careful here. You may know all about your home, but you don't know just what may excite or turn off a potential buyer)

You can keep better control of your life. If you are setting the viewing appointments, you can choose when to have the prospective buyers come see your home. If you aren't feeling well, or didn't get a chance to clean up after the kids this morning, you can schedule the buyers to come through later in the week!

These are just a few of the advantages to selling FSBO. Now let's take a look at some of the downside to selling your own home.

Difficulties in selling your home on your own?

Don't let this scare you off, but there are some potential problems when you try to sell your own home.

Many buyers look at FSBOs for the same reason many FSBOs try to sell on their own... Saving Money! Now, that probably isn't a surprise to you, but think about what it really means. Both the buyer and seller are trying to save the same money on the same house. There are ways to work around this, but don't get defensive when someone comes in and makes a "low-ball" offer on your home.

At least some of the money you save from not paying the Realtor's commission will still have to be spent on marketing your home. Yard and directional signs, newspaper ads, flyers... it all adds up. You can still save considerable money, just make sure you budget beforehand for these expenses!

You are still going to have to deal with Realtors! It is a fact that most FSBOs get an average of 2-3 times as many calls from Realtors as they do from buyers! Especially during the first weeks you try to sell on your own. We'll talk about how to deal with these calls in a bit.

Speaking of phone calls, expect to get them from Realtors, buyers and "lookers" at all hours of the day and night. It is often difficult for a seller to know who is actually a good prospect, so you will probably show your house much more often, for the same results. Also, you should have a way for buyers to get in touch with you immediately, which can be difficult if you work, or go shopping, or go to soccer games, or to... well, you get the idea! At the very least, you will need to get a good answering machine.

You will need to answer your messages frequently! The more motivated a buyer is, the less time you have to respond to them. You are probably not the only one they are calling, and if you wait a few hours to call them back, they will have moved on to another house.

Last and possibly most important, you will be competing against all the other home sellers in your area, and that includes those who have listed their house with a Realtor.

A good real estate agent does offer many advantages to their clients. The agent has access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and probably works in an office with many other agents, all of whom have buyers looking for different types of homes. They can advise you of the best selling features of your home and anything you can do to give your home more "curb appeal" so it will sell quickly. You will have to work harder without an agent, but you expected that, right? After all, you are saving their commission!

Preparing your home to sell.

OK, good. You're still with me. You can work around not having an agent, and possibly even get one to do some of the work for you for a lot less, maybe even for free! But first, let's get your home ready to sell.

First, get rid of clutter. Empty closets, clean the garage, if you don't need it, get rid of it! It is amazing what most people (myself included) can accumulate in just a few years of living somewhere! Get rid of as much as you can! I know it's hard, (get a storage unit if you have to) but I can tell you that 99 times out of a hundred, the house with minimal furniture and knick-knacks will sell a lot faster and for more than a house with all that stuff still in there. Plus, getting rid of the excess stuff will save you a fortune on your move!

Once the clutter is gone, clean your house. Better yet, save time and effort by finding a reputable cleaning service and have them do it! ou want the house to be immaculate. If your home is really clean, buyers will feel that you have also kept it in good shape.

Speaking of clean, if you have any pets, or if you smoke, have a friend or relative come over and smell your house. We don't see or smell what we get used to. I've been in houses that absolutely reeked of pet odors or cigarette smoke, and the owner couldn't smell a thing. This can cost you thousands!

Make minor repairs, or hire someone to do it. Little things can really turn off a buyer. They get the impression that your home isn't well cared for, and that costs you money! Paint a wall, fix a dripping faucet, replace a burned out bulbs, all those little things you've been meaning to do... get to them!

There's a reason it's called "Curb Appeal"

Your home's entry makes the first impression on your buyers. Paint the front door, it really helps your home look inviting. Bright colors are considered welcoming, many experts believe that red is the best color. Clean around your entry, if your screen door is unsightly, repair or replace it.

Mow the grass, rake up the leaves, trim those overgrown bushes, plant fresh flowers! If it needs it, seal the driveway and cracks in the walkways... your home will look very welll cared for!

Next, get your family mentally ready for what's coming! Having strangers walking through what is a private, secure space, is unsettling for everybody. Explain what is happening to young children. Who knows, you might even get them to keep their own room clean!

Finally, depersonalize your house as much as possible. The family photos of great-uncle Jesse may mean a lot to you, but will make it that much harder for buyers to imagine themselves living in your house.

Well, that's it for now. In the next installment, we will talk about setting up your team, pricing your home, attracting potential buyers, showing your home, and accepting the offer.

Bob Beavin is an expert in mortgage lending with Pacific Lending, Inc. in Vancouver, Washington. He specializes in helping people sell their own homes, without paying a thin dime to a realtor, and has developed a FREE marketing program to assist For Sale By Owners! He brings a wide variety of experience to the mortgage arena, having served as a Marine Corps officer, a Federal Agent, financial planner, and appraiser before focusing on real estate financing. For more information, visit his website at http://www.VancouverLoanTips.com or you can call him direct at 360-693-9321 to ask his advice.

Tips On Preparing Your Home When Selling FSBO Pt 2

Think Your Ready To Sell, Aren’t You Forgetting Something?

Once you have followed all FSBO the steps in part one, you are ready to progress to the outside of your home. Street appeal is very important when it comes to selling your home. Have you ever heard of first impressions? Well the front of your home is your potential buyers first impression! If the front of your home looks shabby they are likely to keep on driving and not even bother looking at your home.

Start off by removing all of the rubbish, or things in your front and back yard that doesn’t need to be there. Do a big clean up, and then get the mower out and mow all of your lawns. Once you have done this you will be able to see what areas of your yard needs your attention.

Pretty Sells

A well-tended yard attracts buyers. Think back to when you bought the house, you can almost guarantee that the yard was filled with well cared for gardens, with not a dead thing in sight. You need to get your front and backyard into shape.

Start off by making sure that you have clean lines between what is a garden bed, and what is lawn. Trim your hedges, and weed all of your gardens, so it looks tidy. If you have dead plants or planters with dead things in them remove or replace them.

Nothing makes a home look more inviting than flowers. If you are selling your home FSBO in the spring or summer annual flowers are sure-fire winners for giving a home street appeal. Carefully choose a color scheme, and begin planting your annuals in your garden beds. If you have concreted areas, try brightening them up with planter pots filled with colorful annuals.

Not only will the annuals make your yard look like a million bucks they are also very cost effective, and fast growing. About a month before you put your home on the market make sure you get your plants in the ground this will give them the time to get established, as well as start flowering for you.

Think Your Ready To Sell?

Look over your home, and ask yourself if it looks good enough to sell. If you answer yes then it is time for you to get a second opinion. Ask friends, family or even your neighbors to come through your home. Show it to them as if they were your potential buyers.

This will achieve two things for you. First of all you will get some practice in, since you will be selling your home FSBO you will need to polish up on your selling techniques. The second thing that this will achieve is you will be able to ask people for their honest feedback on what they thought of the home. Once you have done this you are ready to put your home on the market and sell it FSBO.

For more tips and information on selling your home FSBO see part 2 and http://know-your-rightsonline.com/for%20sale%20by%20owner.htm or visit our Blog at http://www.know-your-rightsonline.blogspot.com
This article has been written by Jade, it may be reproduced as long as it is not changed in any way, and the links remain intact.

Sell Your Own Home - Revealed: FSBO Information that Realtors Don't Want You To Know! pt. 2

In the first segment, we looked at the good and the bad aspects of going For Sale By Owner or FSBO. This time we will talk about setting up your team, pricing your home properly, and attracting potential buyers.

Setting up your Team

Just because you have decided to sell your house on your own, doesn't mean that you should do everything yourself. It is important that you set up a team of experts to help you with the details. Here are a few people you should have on your team:

Title Company/Real Estate Attorney: You will want help preparing the sales contract and any disclosure documents pertaining to the sale of your home. You really want to get this part right to avoid any legal difficulties later. If you have a trusted friend who is an attorney, they can help. Also, most title companies prepare these documents several times each day, and may provide these services free or for a reduced fee, with the expectation that your will use their services for title and escrow, a good deal for both of you!

You may also find a real estate agent who will perform these services for you for a nominal fee. If you are staying in the local area, your buyer's agent may help you with the sale of your home, and with a little negotiating on your part may even do it for nothing, since they are going to be compensated on the purchase of your new home (which you won't be buying unless your current home sells).

Mortgage Lender: OK, I'll admit that I may be a little bit biased here, but a good lender can be one of the most valuable people on your expert team. A good loan officer can pre-approve any interested buyers for you, so you can weed out those who are just incapable of buying your home. A lender should also be willing to prepare a financing breakdown on your home, allowing buyers to compare different financing options.

You can also get pre-approved for the purchase of your new home! This can save you money and puts you in a stronger bargaining position compared to others who may be interested in your NEW home. I have seen this one item make and break a home purchase agreement.

Home Inspector: You may want to think about having your home inspected prior to putting it on the market. This will help you with your disclosure statements, and makes a very favorable impression on buyers!

Pricing your home to sell

How much should you sell your home for? It's simple... Just as much as you can get, and still sell in a reasonable time frame, right?

Absolutely! The problem is that most homeowners don't really have an accurate idea of the value of their home. How can we solve this dilemma?

The best way to value your home is to have an appraisal done. An appraiser will look at your house and compare it to other, similar houses (comps) and arrive at a fair market value.

You would then take this value and make any adjustments you feel are necessary. Do you need to sell quickly? You might want to lower the price a little. Have time and want top dollar? Then maybe you want to leave the price right at market, or even a little higher.

Don't want to pay for an appraisal? After all, they will cost several hundred dollars. You can get an idea, though not as accurate as an appraisal, by asking your title company (you did remember to set up your team already, didn't you?) or a real estate agent to "pull comps" for you. Just take what you see with a grain of salt, and remember to figure in whatever direction the market is moving. Remember, comps deal with past sales prices, not what they would sell for today.

Attracting potential buyers

There are numerous ways to lure prospective buyers to your home. Some of the most common are:

Signs: Probably the most important thing you can do to sell your house quickly is to put a professional looking FSBO sign in your front yard. This will tell everyone who drives by that your home is on the market, and will also make it much easier for potential buyers, who may be looking for your house, to find it.

Flyers: You will want to have flyers printed up that describe your house. Be sure to include such highlights as the number of bed and bathrooms, square footage, and any unique features that may not be obvious at first glance. Put a photo on the flyer (black and white is fine). An excellent idea is to put some financing options on the back of the flyer. Your lender can give you this information.

Classified Ads: You will probably want to put an ad in the classified section of the local paper. Keep it short and sweet (it's cheaper that way). If you are holding an open house, you will definitely want to place an ad in the real estate section the day before.

Neighbors: This is an often neglected source of buyers, by realtors and FSBOs alike. Tell all your neighbors, or send out a postcard, that you are selling, and ask them if they have any friends or relatives who would like to live in the neighborhood.

Internet: Think about listing your home on the net. Many people start their home search online, but most are just browsing, and you may wind up with less serious shoppers. Be sure to weigh the costs vs. the advantages. Craigslist is a free site that is getting more and more real estate traffic, check it out before spending money on an expensive listing service.

Showing your home

Oh No! There are people coming to look at your house. What do you do now?

Before hand, make sure you have your flyers printed. Now, go out and buy a few packages of ready-made chocolate chip cookie dough and some microwave kettle corn, you'll see why in a sec.

OK. It's the day of the showing. First, take a quick run through of your entire house. Make sure everything is clean and picked up. Remember, no clutter is best! Next, give the carpets a quick vacuum. Even a soiled carpet looks better when it has been recently vacuumed.

About a half hour before the home shoppers arrive, put a dozen of those chocolate chip cookies in the oven. They will make the house smell much more "homey," plus you can put the cookies on a plate to offer to your "guests." This is an old real estate agent's trick, that will work wonders... try it.

What if you are going to be getting home from work just a few minutes before the showing? Pop the kettle corn in the microwave. The scent reminds many people of apple pie, and that has to be a good thing, doesn't it?

RELAX!! The showing will go much better if you do. You are now better prepared than most of the people who have sold their houses. You'll do just fine.

Accepting the offer

When you receive an offer on your house, don't take it personally. Remember, many people will look at any FSBO home as an opportunity to make a "low-ball" offer. Take your time, and try to look at the offer objectively.

Have a professional help you with the purchase agreement. Once again, your buyer's agent may be willing to help you look over the offers on your home. It never hurts to ask (preferably when you are interviewing various agents). You will probably want to make a counter-offer, and there will likely be a time limit on the offer you received, so again, it is best to have your experts lined up ahead of time. From my own experience, I can tell you that "Good contracts make for good friends!"

Again, remember not to take the offer personally. After all, this is a business decision for you. If the numbers work, Great! If they don't, then don't feel like you have to take the offer, especially if it is the first one.

Finally, before accepting the offer, make certain that the potential buyers have the ability to qualify for the loan. If they have not been pre-approved (not just pre-qualified, there is a difference) your lender can help you make sure they can actually buy your home before you waste a lot of time, and possibly turn away other, qualified buyers.

I hope this helps you negotiate the pitfalls of selling your home For Sale By Owner. Good Luck!


Bob Beavin is an expert in mortgage lending with Pacific Lending, Inc. in Vancouver, Washington. He specializes in helping people sell their own homes, without paying a thin dime to a realtor, and has developed a FREE marketing program to assist For Sale By Owners! He brings a wide variety of experience to the mortgage arena, having served as a Marine Corps officer, a Federal Agent, financial planner, and appraiser before focusing on real estate financing. For more information, visit his website at http://www.VancouverLoanTips.com or you can call him direct at 360-693-9321 to ask his advice.

FSBO Jargon – The Language of the FSBO Seller

When you decide to sell your home without a real estate agent, you enter the world of the FSBO sellers. As with any new experience, you need to understand some of the basic language.

Selling your home on your own makes a lot of sense from a financial perspective. Even though the real estate market has cooled off considerably, home prices are still pumped up compared to historical references. At 6 percent, the commission of a real estate agent can add up to a lot of money. On a $500,000 home, we are talking about a whopping $30,000, which can really eat into the equity you have built up over the years.

If you make the decision to go FSBO, you need to understand a few things. You are essentially taking the oars of the boat and doing all the rowing yourself. This means you need to understand both the concepts involved and the language used during the real estate process. Here are some tips.

FSBO – This term is short for “For Sale By Owner”. It is important to understand that it is used as a noun in the real estate industry. Simply put, you are a FSBO. Agents helping buyers will refer to you and your property by this term. Selling agents will also contact you frequently to try to convert you from a FSBO to a listing client, to wit, they want you to hire them.

FFMLS – This term refers to Flat Fee Multiple Listing Service. Many people that consider selling their home with an agent worry that they will not be able to list their property in the multiple listing service for the area. In the past, the “MLS” was a list controlled solely by agents and realtors. These days, there are ways to access it without using a real estate agent. You can pay a Flat Fee for your listing, thus the name.

CMA – This term refers to a Comparable Market Analysis. It is essentially a breakdown of homes in your neighborhood. Information includes things such as the listing prices of homes, valuations and so on. As a FSBO seller, you can obtain a CMA by just contacting a real estate agent. They use these reports as lead generators and give them out for free. Tell them you are a FSBO and they will still give you one. The eternal hope of the agent, of course, is that you will fail as a FSBO and hire them.

Obviously, there are many terms that arise in the real estate world. Most apply whether or not you are using an agent to promote your property. The above represent a couple you need to know as a FSBO.

Raynor James is with FSBO America - save money when selling and buying with FSBO homes for sale by owner.

Selling your Home By State, Tips for Each State

Here is a good resource for people selling their homes. We are adding states every week, so check back.
Selling your Home By State