On the surface, it sounds simple enough. Put your home on the market yourself for 30 days to see how it goes. You just might sell it as a FSBO and save yourself that whopping real estate commission. At least that's the story some FSBO companies are telling sellers, and sellers are eating it up. Why wouldn't they be sucked in? Sounds good to me, too. What have they got to lose?
There is a FSBO thread going on about this very topic at my homebuying site. You can go there if you like and add your comments about sellers trying to sell without representation. I think you might have to register, but don't worry, About.com doesn't sell your email -- just don't sign up for any free promo offers -- I know how you salespeople are, it's tough to resist something for free. People say salespeople are the easiest people in the world to sell to, and I believe it.
It's amusing that public perception seems to be that all a seller has to do is cast out a fishing line with appropriate and attractive bait and they can haul aboard a big, fat fish. If selling a home was that easy -- if that's really all there is to home selling -- then why are we agents getting the big bucks to do it?
Because it's not that easy. Because snagging a buyer is only a small part of the picture. Not to mention, you can sell at the wrong price and lose more money upfront than you would pay in a commission. As a Sacramento short sale agent, sometimes I have to sell a home more than once. I get so much practice pitching that ball over home plate I can do it with my eyes closed. Sometimes, I sell each home 2, 3 or 4 times or more. I never give up or throw in the towel. So, that would mean selling 60 homes a year could be the equivalent of 240 homes.
I just closed a short sale in Elk Grove that I sold 3 times. The first buyer had a wonderful buyer's agent who I really enjoyed working with. Great sense of humor, too. As we got close to the approval, we were maybe 5 days away from the approval letter, the buyer got cold feet. Canceled for no reason. Dumped his agent, too. I suspect what happened was he found another home he liked better, maybe went to an open house, talked to an agent there and, although agents are not supposed to bad mouth each other, I'm betting that's what happened.
The buyer's agent said the buyer was feeling mistreated -- that he was given wrong advice. When in actuality his agent was looking out for his best interests. Somebody steered him wrong, but it wasn't her. That's water under the bridge anyway because this guy did not buy a beautiful short sale in Elk Grove. You've gotta love first-time home buyers.
The next buyer had a home to sell elsewhere and was already in contract. Our purchase contract was contingent on selling the first home. The buyer's buyer had put money into escrow and was in underwriting. The loan was about to fund. It was the only offer we had so we took it because the clock was ticking toward foreclosure. We had a Notice of Default filed.
Sadly, it turned out the buyer's buyer did not qualify at the last minute for some obscure reason and the loan was rejected. This mean our buyer could not buy my sellers' home in Elk Grove. The buyer was heartbroken; the rest of us were astonished. But sometimes things go wrong in a transaction, regardless of how careful you are. Back on the market.
Enter our third buyer. This time, the bank issued short sale approval right away and gave us 30 days to close. There will be no short sale extension, warned the negotiator. He said if we could not deliver the bank's net proceeds by July 8th, this would go to trustee's sale. Of course, to add another layer of excitement, this was a HAFA short sale, so the seller was counting on a release of liability and to get $3,000 in cash.
All was hunky dorey until the home inspection. Uh, oh, says the buyer's agent, the water heater is leaking. So sorry, but the seller has no money, and this short sale is an "as is" sale. I sometimes forget that not every agent deals in the volume of short sales that I do. So, not every agent is aware of the fact that there are no repairs, no price concessions, no renegotiations on my short sales for any reason ever in a million years.
I often put that sentence in my addendums, too. Just in case there is a temporary lapse of memory, either between the buyer, the buyer's agent, or both.
But the good news is we closed a day early. The buyer got a great deal. And the seller did not fix the water heater. That's a small price for the buyer to pay in the overall scheme of things.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
