Today we’re going to talk about where to list your home when you try to sell for sale by owner in NYC. It’s very important to realize that the buyer universe is extremely fragmented, there are literally hundreds of search web sites so you’re going to want to have maximum exposure. Friends will often ask me, why can’t I just put it on Zillow and be done with it? While Zillow is a popular web site, it is just one among hundreds of search web sites. If you’re going to sell your home, why would you only expose it to a certain small segment of buyers? The fact that the buyer universe is so fragmented is one of the main reasons why real estate brokers haven’t died out yet. Brokers make this problem worse by having broker-only databases such as the multiple listing service that regular consumers can’t even list their home on. While there are a few free listing services, which we’ll talk about later, you really need to list using a service that will get you on both public and private sites. What I mean is, you’ll need to be able to list on the multiple listing service in addition to dozens of public consumer search web sites. I’ve looked through many of these different services and, to be frank there aren’t that many in the city. The best one I’ve found is Hauseit.com both in terms of value and exposure. In terms of exposure, these guys will list you on your local MLS, OLR, Realtor.com, StreetEasy, Homes.com, PropertyShark, and dozens more. They forward all inquiries directly to you so you still have full control, yet you appear as a traditional listing. The pitch is you receive less broker harassment because it looks like you already have a listing agent. In terms of value these guys are the best by far. They charge ~$300 for three months to list your property everywhere that a traditional agent would. Moreover, they offer free managed open houses as many times you want. Best of all, their listing agent is not eligible for any commissions beyond the flat fee that you pay. It was difficult to find similar services that served the NYC market. There are a few classic discount brokers, and a few large national discount broker chains, however most of them either charged a lot more in fees or couldn’t list you on relevant local sites like StreetEasy or the relevant local MLS called OLR. Moreover, I found it easier to deal with Hauseit because they were a marketing company without conflicts of interest prevalent in broker relationships. Of course, if you’ve really wanted to do it yourself you could individually list on each of the relevant sites I mentioned before. StreetEasy charges $399 for 28 days on their site. Realtor.com is not available for individuals and neither is the multiple listing service or OLR. So if you are if you want to do it yourself completely, I’d start with listing on StreetEasy for 28 days and perhaps also the New York Times which also charges you I believe $200 for two weeks. I’d also list on Zillow, Trulia, propertyshark, homes.com, yahoo homes. You can do this and test it out and hope to get lucky, but just be aware that many statistics say that brokers represent 80% of the represented market. Good luck, remember to read the rest of my blog, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on your for sale by owner nyc experience!
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Today we’re going to talk about some of the common mistakes that investors make when they try to sell their home. One common mistakes is not staging your home properly. I’ve seen the homes of friends who try to sell by themselves where it is completely empty. I’ve also seen homes where it is a complete mess. It’s a serious problem when you are selling a $1,000,000 home. Believe it or not I have seen a home where the owner didn’t bother to clean up after his renter had vacated the property. There was garbage everywhere. So don’t overestimate your competition, you will be very surprised to see the kinds of people out there that are trying to do it themselves. Another very common problem are photos. When selling $1,000,000 plus homes some people won’t spend a few hundred dollars to have professional photographs taken. This does not make sense to me. Why would you not paid $200 or $300 for a set of sparkling photos taken by a professional that would make your home shine? It’s been widely said that one of the most important aspects of getting your home sold are the photos. Yet despite this widely known fact People still insist on taking horrible photos with their iPhone and posting it on the Internet. And this is not to knock on the iPhone or its abilities. An iPhone is actually quite a sufficient camera for most photos. However most people do not know what they’re doing. Most people will hurry into their property and take 5 to 10 random photos from the worst angles you can imagine. They won’t even bother to move furniture around or open the windows to get the best lighting. And they certainly won’t bother to make sure the photo is aligned correctly. How can you expect the buyer to purchase a million dollar home on distorted iPhone photos? What would they think when they look at the property versus another one with professional photos marketed professionally? Now I don’t mean to discourage you it’s certainly is possible with the right amount of planning and focus. All you need to do is hire a professional photographer, and there are hundreds of them in the city. You should also hire a draftsman or architect to make a professional floor plan of your home. An architect or draftsmen will make sure your buyers have a clear view of how your home is laid out. If you have a good floor plan and photos, some form buyers won’t even need to visit the property. I’ve heard of many stories of foreign buyers purchasing purely on the floor plan. But the sad thing is most for sale by owner Sellers haven’t even thought of getting new, professional floorplans made. Is it too much to ask to also hire an architect to make a floorplan so your buyers can see it? So now you see, the packages offered by listing agents are really not that difficult to replicate. It’s quite possible to do it yourself, you just need to know where to look.
Hello guys today we’re going to talk about the mindset you should have before you decide to sell by owner. As I’m sure you’ve heard before, Mindset is everything. As someone once famously said, the man who thinks he can And the man who thinks he can’t both are usually right. The reason I emphasize mindset is because you’ll need a lot of internal strength when you sell by owner in New York. You will have to deal with constant harassment from brokers and their junior assistants.
You would think that people would respect your privacy. That is certainly not the case and even a civilized city like New York. If you think I’m joking or underestimating the problem you’re certainly mistaken. I’ve read stories from fellow friends who have literally gotten 200 broker cold calls in the span of a week. If you are not prepared for something like this I would advise you to seek another solution. As one friend told me, it’s not hard to sell by owner in New York, It’s only hard because of the constant harassment from brokers. Another interesting problem is that you can’t be angry at the brokers either and you’ll have to have a lot of patience despite their constant calling. The reason you can’t be angry at them is they are very important. And the reason they are important is because they still represent 80% of the current buyer base. So I’ve had friends try to sell by owner post on their listing “no brokers please.” That unfortunately is a mistake. In fact that is one of the most common rookie mistakes of for sale by owner homeowners. Homeowners think that by saying that brokers will not harass them, but in reality only brokers with buyers will not speak to them. And in fact, the listing brokers or brokers with nothing better to do and lots of free time on their hands will continue to constantly harass you. So by saying no brokers please, you’ve actually offended the broker community and did nothing about the harassment issue. We will of course talk about this previous problem in future posts, but it is sufficient for this post to warn you that You must have persistence like Churchill had when he faced the Nazis In 1940. Another issue is the number of fake bids you’ll receive and fake inquiry you’ll receive from brokers. Brokers will literally Create a fake e-mail accounts to send you Fake Bids Just to frustrate you. Since brokers don’t have an actual way to prevent you from trying to sell by owner, all they can do in NYC, is to have their legions of junior brokers and agents annoy the hell out of you. I’m not going to tell you too much more but hopefully you have a good idea now of just how frustrating the process can be. Selling by owner in NYC is one of the worst experiences of someone who can go through. But it doesn’t have to be like that, keep reading and I will share all the secrets and tricks that we’ve learned throughout the past few years selling by owner successfully! |
Scott McFarlsOne man's experience in selling by owner in the world's greatest city Archives
September 2016
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