Who's Best to Sell Your House
 

We plan to list our house for sale in January. We've had both a Villages Sales Rep and a non-Village realtor give us a market analysis. Both were at the top of their respective companies so either one would be top notch. We're wondering what your experience has been? Who did you use and why? Did you have both give you a market analysis and if you did, what was the deciding factor(s) in who you chose? Does The Villages or non-Villages realtor sell the most houses? Which one is the most accurate in their assessment/price suggestion? Which one sells houses more quickly. We would welcome any helpful information. Thank you.

We would sell it ourselves. No neither of us are in real estate nor have we ever been. Our first home here we sold by owner with closing done by local closing firm who charged us less than $800 for all legal work, and filings.

I think The Villages sells more resales than the outside realtors. I would find a good agent in The Villages company and I would give them free reign to price and sell the house. But, I would reserve the right to fire them if I thought they were not doing a good job, and I would not hesitate do it.

I listed my first house with the non-Villages realtor who sold it to me because I liked him. No action for five weeks. I re-listed with a Villages agent and it sold within a few days. Maybe a coincidence, or maybe the Villages sales folks just have the process locked down. They get a lot of boots through the door on their agent tours.

I have been looking for a year. ...looking from afar... I can tell you that I scour all resources. I like the details provided by a realtor company (like $/sf, bond info, and the ability to quickly sort and find the types of things we want in a home. HOWEVER, I would prefer to skip the middleman and deal directly with the seller.

What are you selling? Good photos are KEY and so are complete information packages.

I would (if I were you) put it out there yourselves for 60 days - 90 days, then enlist some professionals.

I just sold some land that way, it worked out great and (as a seller) cost me only $26.00 in overnight mailing charges...just say’n...

I have sold my last three home on a FSBO basis. I would have sold many more that way, but I worked for companies that handled the sale of homes when they transferred me. Take the price that a real estate company would ask, and the price that you would net if they sold it at that price, and split the difference for your fsbo asking price. Eg: Market value is $320,000; At 6% commission you net $300,800; You ask $310,000 You get a good deal and the buyer gets a good deal. Too many people try to sell for the top of market price and they don't market correctly or have the connections that a real estate salesperson has. Then you have to get signs for open houses, get your listing on Zillow, and other fsbo websites, advertise your open houses in the SUN and on TOTV. It is some level of work, but saving several thousand dollars is worth it.
As for who sells more houses, the Villages sells about 60%, MLS about 40%. Part of the reason is the built in advantage that TV has. They get assigned to anyone on a Lifestyle Preview, they have the best advertising real estate in the Daily Sun for homes for sale and open houses, they have offices on all the squares which newbies tend to seek out, etc. I think there are some MLS agents who are as good a bet as the best Villages agents, but who knows.

This doesn’t answer your question but maybe you could answer one for me please. How close to the Zillow estimated value did the realtors come? I’ve wondered how accurate Zillow is to Village price. Thank you.

I would either sell it myself or go with an outside Realtor. Especially if the home is located in the northern part of TV.

I am so upset with a Realtor this very minute and would like to, to, to, well you know. I'm trying to stay cool because it just doesn't matter. Life goes on.

You pick a top producer and they short change you so they put numbers up on the board for THEMSELVES, You use some of the other ones and its a 50/50 shot that you can get involved with a listing machine with no intention of doing any of the grunt work to sell your house. I have had 4 different realtors in about three years and only one of them has proven to not be a snake with legs. God Help people who don't really know what's going on. I'm heated now so I think I'll leave it at that and if and when I get ready to go again, probably after the holidays I'm going to give it to someone I can trust thoroughly to be honest, kind, and do the right thing at every turn, ME.

To the OP. Consider tape recording your discussion with any realtor. I will find out the law and follow it if I don't sell it myself. I would lean towards an MLS agent from the middle of the pack or put yourself in the driver's seat by properly pricing your home and cleaning it within an inch of its life and go for it. Good Luck.

Question
 

How does one go about selling property yourself ???

I see the FSBO all the time, but thought maybe in the future if we ever sell again I might give this a try....

You do your research. Look at ads for all similar homes in the area for clues on how to price the home. Zillow.com offers "zestimates", based on the home sales for the area. These are usually pretty close, but won't take into account the value of upgrades (don't expect to get 100% of the cost of your upgrades in appreciation). Correctly pricing your home is vital! You need to contact a title company to handle contracts and closing documents etc. Then you need to clean, declutter, and stage the home - there is a ton of information of how to effectively do this online. I sold real estate for ten years and have bought and sold 15 homes - I can't emphasize enough the importance of decluttering and having an inviting looking home. Advertise everywhere feasible and hold regular open houses. I have, in the past, sometimes retained a real estate professional to handle negotiations and contracting for 1%, simply because many people don't like negotiating price with the owner personally. I don't know if any MLS agents will do that or not, but you could ask, if that appeals to you. Good luck!