Real Estate Possible without an Agent?

Many people in the country have been hurt by the mortgage crisis. People are getting foreclosed upon; they can't make their payments. Many people are trying to sell their homes themselves. Here are some ideas from Chris Pirillo to work without a Realtor, to save you some money.



My idea would be find a Realtor, and negotiate an acceptable fee for the services provided. It's like a free insurance policy. :-)

Related: Realtor As a Wing Man
How Much Money Do You Spend Marketing A House For Sale?
Problem: No Buyers Agent Available
How much house can I afford?

Problem: No Buyers Agent Available

What client services are included when a home seller works with a Full-Service Realtor to list a home for sale?

• Agent-2-Agent Networking - Yes
• MLS Listing- YES
• Advertise Property - Yes
• Negotiate And Manage The Sale - YES
• Show property to other agents clients - ???

Showing a property to other agents clients is a hot debate among Realtor groups and real estate consumers. This extra service from the listing Agent answers the demand of home buyers who want to see a property before they buy it and then submit an offer through a Discount Broker. Before the Internets' transparent introduction of letting home buyers view MLS listings and Open Houses on their own, the Buyers Agent would accompany the buyer and show the property. Now a relationship with a Buyers Agent, is less of a requirement, to find a home.

Touring homes with Redfin participating as the home buyers agent is done through a service called Redfin Direct. The first tour, for up to three hours, is free and there is no obligation whatsoever to use Redfin as the agent. Future tours are $125 per home or $250 for a three-hour tour. Also Redfin explains:

Calling a listing agents or touring a property on your own is easy and listing agents are typically happy to show the homes they are representing to qualified buyers. For first-timers, Redfin offers an outline of what to say on the call, and a spiffy one-page Redfin introduction for you to print and show the listing agent once you do the tour.

Kevin Boer explains via his comments on the Refin Blog that there isn't an obligation to show property to other agents clients. Keep in mind - don't shoot the messenger.

...though it seems really, really, really screwy to folks outside the industry, as it stands now, the listing agent does not have an obligation to show the property, and if he/she does, it's going above and beyond...

Even though it's not a legal obligation to make oneself available to show the property on behalf of a missing Buyers Agent, I feel it should be a moral obligation. The owner and Agent have an interest to sell the house. A licensed Realtor in this situation should set an appointment to show the property and allow the home buyer(s) to tour the property by appointment.

If you're working with an Agent to sell your home make sure to ask how they will handle home buyers that choose to tour homes without a Buyers Agent.

Internet Marketing Exposure

"Build your ad once. Get it on several top classifieds sites. Free."

Postlets are category-specific ads that you build just once and then they are automatically posted on several top classifieds sites quickly and easily. Postlets are currently available for cars & trucks, housing rentals and real estate. My favorite feature of Postlets is that it generates hosted HTML code that can be used (cut & paste) to post your ad on other classifieds sites such as craigslist and LiveDeal as well as on your blog or email newsletters.

The classified sites included to the automatically submit process: Oodle, Google Base, backpage.com, Propsmart, edgeio, Vast, HotPads and more.

Also make sure to review: Postlets Plus - a website dedicated to your property listing. It gives you all of the good things you've come to expect from postlets plus:

• Multi-page listing.
  
• Huge photos.
  
• Integrated mapping.
  
• School info and mortgage calculator.
  
• Virtual/video tour and external links.
  
• No advertising next to ad.

Another option to look at is the SinglePropertySites tool that allows you to make a website devoted solely to the property. SinglePropertySites is mainly used by Realtors but they also have a FSBO platform available. You can log in to your free account, create a website (no obligation, no contracts, no charge). Then you will see a FSBO option from the site build wizard. Simply choose the FSBO to build your FSBO site.

For Example:

1122 Main Street
www.1122MainStreet.com

Zillow Homebuyer and Seller Tools

Zillow is one of the top five most-visited real estate sites on the Web (according to Hitwise), with 3 to 4 million people visiting each month. Of these visitors, more than 85 percent are homeowners and more than half plan to buy or sell a home in the next 24 months. If you have a house for sale than why wouldn't you -the Selling Side - advertise it for free on Zillow?

Zillow has added some new features:

• Post Any Home For Sale FSBO (view it)
  
• Post Any Home For Sale Agent (view it)
  
• Make Me Move Price (view it): Once you set your Make Me Move price, potential buyers can contact you anonymously via e-mail. Then it's up to you whether or not to sell your home.
  
• Real Estate Wiki (view it): Contribute and share knowledge with others. This particular wiki is devoted to all aspects of real estate.

Update: More Real Estate Consumer Tools When You Register and get access to "My Zillow".

Use My Zillow to:

• Track your favorites — Once you find a favorite home, add it to My Zillow to keep up-to-date on its Zestimate home valuation.
  
• Create and save your own estimates — For any favorite you've saved, you can create your own estimate using My Estimator.
  
• Manage your account — Update your communication preferences, e-mail account and password.
  
• Claim Your Home — Claim ownership of your home, then customize your Home Details page and make it your own.
  

As the owner, you can:

• Update facts about your home — Since we get lots of data from public records, the facts may occasionally be outdated or wrong. Set the record straight by editing your home facts.
  
• Create your own estimate — Start with the Zestimate, but you can fine-tune it with your own estimate by adding information such as a remodel.

How Much Money Do You Spend Marketing A House For Sale?

If you were selling a 600,000 house, how much money would you expect to spend marketing and selling that house? What is the average price for common marketing options available to the Sell Side of the market?

Marketing: Newspaper Listings

List your property for sale or rent on NYTimes.com now and reach over 1.1 million prospective home buyers and home renters in the New York area and nationwide today!

OR
Also you can Buy a Package or a Subscription

Marketing: - Real Estate Magazines

Free real estate magazines are displayed in high traffic locations such as grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, fast food businesses and hardware supply stores. Homes & Land Magazine: To advertise in this publication you need to be a licensed Real Estate Agent. So Im not able to get a cost to run a property ad.

Marketing: - Neighborhood Postcards

Well-designed or timely postcards can have a very high impact. Unlike letters, postcards have no envelope hiding their message. Also be aware that a local Title Insurance company will supply you with a FARM of neighborhood residents that live in a property that is non-owner occupied indicating that they are occupied by renters. Direct mailing to renters in the local area is a great way to find a homebuyer.

Marketing: - Virtual Tours - Professional Pictures

Sellers who want to maximize the impact of their listing online and print need professional pictures and/or virtual tours. The average cost I've noticed is around $149 dollars.

Marketing: - Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

The MLS is setup for Agent to Agent communication. If you are working with a Realtor to sell your home - ask to have your home listed on the MLS. The MLS is the single greatest marketing tool a Realtor has access too. There are also Low Flat Fee MLS services available online that will include getting the house listed on REALTOR.com - but make sure that you understand what's not included with the listing. For example, I bet dollars to doughnuts that the owner is listed for the contact information and that structure is disruptive to Agent to Agent communication.

Something's Fishy

What is the best way to protect yourself from fishy real estate deals.


How do you know that you're not being taken advantage of when you get involved with a real estate transaction? The best answer might be to maintain a "buyer beware" mentality. Ask all the questions you can think of, read all the small print, check references. Also you could call your state attorney general's office if something seems too good to be true, or doesn't feel right.

The good news is that the IRS is taking real estate fraud crimes seriously. The IRS started 309 fraud cases against individuals so far this year in 2006. Real estate fraud continues to grow and with the increase of home values the sleezbag scams will most likely not go away. There's an old saying that proclaims - "To find the problem find the money." Well it applies with real estate, especially when dealing with loans. In an attempt to vent some clean air into the rotten tank of real estate scams - I've listed a few below:

Equity Stripping: A lender convinces you to take out a home equity loan that you can't really afford by padding your income on the application to help get it approved.

Hidden Loan Terms/Balloon Payments: To avoid having your home foreclosed after falling behind on the payments, a new lender helps you refinance by offering lower monthly payments. But read carefully.

Loan Flipping
You feel you could use some extra money, so a lender convinces you to refinance. A few months later, he offers you more cash by repeating the procedure. But with each loan, you incur more charges in points and fees. You'll have a pile of cash, but the pile of debt is much larger and must be paid back with interest.

Home Improvement Loans
A contractor offers to arrange a loan through which you can pay for a remodeling or a major repair. After he begins the work, you're asked to sign a bunch of papers--he'll threaten to walk off the in the middle of the job if you don't.

Credit Insurance Packing
At a loan closing, the lender "packs on" credit insurance you didn't ask for at additional cost to you. Often, the lender casually tells you the insurance is a "standard" part of the loan.

Mortgage Servicing Abuses
You receive letters from a lender shortly after taking out a mortgage explaining that your monthly payments will be higher than previously discussed due to escrow payments for taxes and insurance.

Signing Over Your Deed
A distressed homeowner having trouble keeping up with the mortgage is pursued by another lender, who tells him it's necessary to deed the house over to him in exchange for new financing. Often, the money never comes.

Forged Deeds
Undeveloped land is prime fodder for a forged deed: A scammer takes over a piece of land illegitimately, then flips it before he has to repay the loan.

Straw Buyers
This scam involves a home owner who sells his property to an accomplice. The seller forges appraisal documents to help inflate the value of the house he is selling to the fake buyer. The bank lends money to the fake buyer, then he disappears--and gets a cut of the profits from the seller.

Lease Options
Landlords lure wannabe homeowners by signing them up to rent a home with an option to buy.

Also check out CNNMoney.com - they list some of the most common and destructive swindles to watch for when looking at home repair.

Sybil Pryor thought she was getting a deal. Early last year, a contractor showed up at the 77-year-old's Oakland, Calif. home and offered to install a new roof and new siding. The cost? Not to worry, he told her. All Pryor had to do was sign a few papers. Big mistake. The documents turned out to be for a home-equity loan, one that authorized a bank to pay out the proceeds of the loan -- more than $90,000 -- directly to the contractor... "It's awful, but I probably see 20 of these cases every year," says William Denny, the deputy district attorney on Pryor's case.

Slow Market Equals Sell Side Competition

Keep in mind that...

"By nature, blitzes are risky endeavors for the defense. Since the defense is taking away coverage defenders that rush the QB, there necessarily are holes in pass coverage. The defense does not and cannot cover all offensive players... Source: Answers.com

The real estate industry's commission-based sales structure is undergoing a strong linebacker blitz from the increasing group of low-cost online business models to attract consumers. In addition, the Listing Agent (Sell-Side) landscape is even more competitive because most real estate markets are slowing. Owners are now focused on how much money they will recieve after the house is sold and the transaction closed. With a response to the sellers concerns - the playbook of sell-side discounters is continuing to grow with examples listed below:

• Posting houses in the local multiple listing service for a flat-fee with exposure to Realtor.com (if the local MLS sends feed to the site) ... hmmmm
  
• Menu of services such as negotiation of contracts, advertising help, and showings - the seller pays only for the services selected.
  
• Yard Signs, Lockboxes and Brochure Boxes
  
• Property Profile Webpage with several top Internet classified listings.
  
• Offering varying levels of service for fixed fees
  

Still, owners who are busy and pressed for time or do not want to handle part of the work usually will go with a traditional brokerage. On the other side of the ball, owners who purchased a house at the top of the market really cant afford a 2.5 or 3 percent commision to the sell-side. The house hasn't raised enough in value to cover the expense to offer 6-5% to a Realtor to sell the house.

Home Seller Feeling Second Thoughts

Buyer's remorse is an emotional condition whereby a person feels regret after the purchase of an item. In the context of Real Estate there are a many possible scenarios that bring on buyer's remorse: such as - continuing to look at homes after you buy, no guidance after the transaction, or talking to others about the new house - etc... On the flip side of this is Seller's Remorse. Some scenarios that bring on sellers remorse are that the sellers start thinking about all the wonderful memories enjoyed in their home or how they think they will never be able to find another residence as nice.

If your a home seller avoid Seller's Remorse and ask yourself why do you want to sell your house. If the answer is a new job, divorce, financial problems, pending foreclosure, or moving closer to family then you should be safe from the issue of sellers remorse. However, if you answer that your curious what you can get for the house, need to sell for fast money, or your tired of the responsibilities of home ownership then make sure you want to sell before you list the house for sale.

Home Seller Beware: of the "we're not moving" possible legal consequences or penalty's of your breach of the buyers purchase agreement.

In a nutshell, if the buyer really wants the home, the buyer can bring a "specific performance lawsuit" to force the seller to complete the sale on the terms agreed in the signed sales contract.

To make matters worse for the seller, a savvy buyer's lawyer will usually record a "lis pendens" against the title to prevent the seller from selling to another buyer or even refinancing the property.

The legal reason is every property is unique, so monetary damages are not an adequate remedy for the buyer if the seller breaches the sales contract.

For more details about the results of breach of contract by either the home seller or buyer, it's best to consult a real estate professional.

Marketing a Home For Sale with Online Auctions

I just read an Article from MSNBC.com that talks about motivated sellers that are still showing the house through an agent but using eBay to market the home for sale. The article suggest that "online home auctions are not putting real estate agents out of business. Many agents are learning how to use these Web sites to their — and their clients’ — advantages."

Find a Experianced Realtor

Homethinking is an online service that helps home owners choose the best neighborhood realtors to sell their house.

They measure performance by monitoring real estate transactions to know which houses each real estate agent has sold, for how much and how long on average it took them to do so. There are also user reviews by home owners who have sold their house with the particular agent that helps determine the rank of them.

Attention Sellers: 1st impressions are HUGE

When you bought the hose it was state of the art design - but in 10, 15, or 20 years it might now be dated. Ask yourself or a Realtor their opinion about the look and feel of your home. Is the interior of our home what homebuyers expect to see when they shop for a house in this area? Also don't forget to touch up the exterior of the home for a marketable curb appeal.

Or ask a professional home stager:

Staged Homes
Center Stage Home

According to a 2004-2005 survey of 200 staged homes conducted by StagedHomes.com staged homes sell for an average of 6.9 percent more than homes not staged and in half the time.

UPDATE: Property Stylist Blog

Get a FREE SUV parked in your new Garage

An Illinois family is having trouble selling there high-end trophy home and decided they needed a way to stand out from the crowded housing inventory. They figured out a 4,700-pound incentive. And what is it you ask? Tell them what it is Bob~! A New CAR.

And that's not all... The Sellers are also offering one as a reward to the real estate agent who produces a signed contract on top of the commission.

Buy a Home and Get a FREE Plasma TV

A Full Service Real Estate Broker in the San Francisco Bay Area is running a free 42 inch plasma TV promotion when the homebuyer works with the brokerage before November 30, 2006 to buy a home. Use a Movoto Realtor and a plasma TV will be waiting for you when you move in.

I found a forum thread, from a company that provides Professional Real Estate Web Design that asks "How Do Realtors Feel About Closing Gifts?"

Movoto's VP Marketing, Mark Brandemuehl was a panelist at Inman ConnectSF for the Innovation Master Classes. The class was a hour long and the panelists talked about delivering new products, new business models, and new ideas. What do you think about the Free Plasm TV promotion?

Making a Open House Video

A digital camera is one of the best investments a home seller and/or a Realtor can purchase. The pictures and movie clips taken with the digital camera can be uploaded to the Internet or sent to homebuyers as e-mail attachments. Moreover the pictures can be used to print marketing flyers with data about the home for sale. Of course the biggest concern is what camera to get – Check out DigiCamHelp.

Making movies on a digital still camera isn’t exactly a point and click activity. Think about a professional videographer to film the home; If you're not sure where to find a local videographer try giving a local wedding photographer a call. However I found a blog with a few guidelines to help you create your own Open House video.

A Guide To Making a Real Estate Video in Three Parts:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Home Selling Advice

An excellent online resource of Real Estate information and articles can be found at Real Estate ABC. The company was founded to help educate the real estate consumer. Real Estate ABC has the vision "to help consumers with insight into how things [Real Estate] really work with straightforward analysis of market trends and "how to" guides."

I really like this site. I found a long list of Sell-Side information. Here is the link.

Contract Contingencies

A contract contingency is used in most transactions - most often in a buyers market. The homebuyer will make an offer on the house that includes conditional circumstances that expire in a set timeframe. Basically, if a contingency is in the mutually agreed contract the seller and the buyer both must be satisfied before they have a legal duty to execute the terms of the deal.

There are many types of contingencies of not completely foreseen circumstances but all have a date to "lift" or "remove" the contingency in question.

Loan Financing Contingency: The homebuyer usually needs to get a loan to purchase the real estate for sale. When the buyer applies for the loan they have a negotiated timeframe to obtain the financing from the start of the accepted contract. The statement in the contact would look something like, "Buyer shall have ____ days from acceptance of contract within which to remove or otherwise act on said contingency. Buyer agrees to verify all loan terms directly with lender prior to removing this contingency." If the buyer is turned down for the financing within the negotiated timeframe then the contract expires.

Note: If your selling a home its best to have the homebuyer submit the initial offer with a "Pre-Approval" letter from the lender.

Note: The homebuyer does have the option to submit an offer to the seller with no contingencies but it is done mostly in a hot sellers market.

A few more samples of contingencies are as follows:

Structural Pest and Termite Inspection Contingency
Property Condition - Home Inspection Contingency
Home Insurance Contingency