[Mintjulep]

My brother in law sold his house with a flat fee service a few years ago.
It was in MLS, but he still did most of the showings.
He was happy with his outcome.

We had our house 'for sale by owner' for nearly a year.
We have sold 3 houses FSBO in the past during easier markets.

All my FSBO advertising, flyers, etc., got us lots of lookers,
but the hardest part is trying to find out if they are qualified.
They don't want to share their financial info with the 'homeowner'.
And even if they do, how do you know if they're telling the truth?

Sometimes, they just want to see the inside of your house.
So I did alot of work on alot of showings for nothing.

Don't know if the Flat Fee services offer a way to qualify your lookers,
as I assume you'll still be showing it yourself some.
But that may be worth checking out...

We finally put ours with a realtor and it went under contract in about 6 weeks.
When a realtor brought someone, I felt pretty sure they were qualified.
So felt better about the work to get it ready for the showing.

I admit I HATE to spend 7% on the fee.
Tho I did negotiate to get a really good referral fee as I have a real estate license .

I suspect FSBO's in TV do better, because older buyers have owned other homes with many years of equity, and are usually downsizing and so more easily qualified.

Just MHO

[jadebox]

Jan Ennis of Prestige Properties sold my courtyard villa in two days. Cash and I got about $10000 more then I planned on getting. This was just as prices were starting to fall so not in the real down time. I paid around $2500. The agents showed the house and would have held open houses if it had not sold soon. After on the market for a certain amount of time and not sold you need to lower the price or pay a % of sold price. This is not for everyone but I had met Jan and really liked her so figured I would give her a try before going to a regular office.

[Donna]

We were also going to do FSBO, but changed our minds..Too much work involved, especially since we are not in TV..

I am going to list with TV, any thoughts, or should I list with an outside agent??

[Barefoot]

It has been my experience that most flat-fee real estate companies charge a fee which is non refundable and they do nothing other than list your house on MLS. In tough times, more is required.

Owners often end up listing with a full-commission real estate company when their house doesn't sell. So they end up paying the flat fee plus the commission amount of the new listing broker.

It also depends on how long the owner is willing to wait for a sale. Assuming we're all in our "golden years", moving ahead with plans may be an incentive to "githerdone".

I was an agent for 20 years, but am retired. I certainly have the knowledge to sell my house myself. Even though the real estate market in Canada is healthy right now, I currently have my house listed with a full commission broker because I know I'll get the highest price that way. I received an offer two weeks after listing.

The best suggestion I can make: try to negotiate a lower commission rate with your full-commission real estate broker. Especially if you are trying to sell a "luxury" type home. Many agents are willing to negotiate commission.

[JohnN]

Donna,
My humble opinion. TV does push new homes first and foremost. I'd choose MLS, resales are their business.

Susan&Tom - I've bought and sold real estate without a realtor, FSBO route.
I've not used a flat fee agency, but have read various forums and notes on them.
Seems if you've the interest to personally show and market your property, they will fill the bill. I'd guess you're paying the selling agent (if there is one) their corresponding comission?

Anyway, no reason it can't work, but realtors do a lot of stuff to earn their pay, at least the good ones do. Best of luck.

[Lil Dancer]

We recently sold our home in upstate NY going the FSBO route. To get internet exposure I listed it on Craigslist. We had a lot of interest from Craigslist and ended up with 3 offers within the first 10 days. It is a nice home on a nice piece of property, which helped. Also, we had a good price on it. We had an appraisel done prior to listing to decide what price to put on it. We ended up selling for $3,000 less than the appraised value.. The other thing that helped was that we staged the house prior to selling i.e. got rid of all the personal stuff; redecorated and rearranged furniture to make the most of the features, and to make it look larger. I planted flowers out front, and put in new mulch to help the curb appeal as well.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[gfmucci]

Susan and Tom:

I used Flat Fee 250 (their fee for a one-year listing is $250) when I was selling our house in Destin, FL.* We sold it FSBO within 90 days.* The MLS listing via Flat Fee helped tremendously.* I think this particular outfit is licensed only in Florida and Alabama, though.* I highly recommend this type of service if you have at least a six month listing, you can cancel or change prices at any time without fees, and if you pay no commissions.* The additional exposure is well worth it.* This, plus well prepared yard brochures are a great combination.* Local newspaper ads for me have become a waste of money.

http://flatfee250.com/

[Just Susan]

Thanks for your input everyone. I really do appreciate the combined wisdom of this board. I will be away from my computer for awhile, but will check for any other opinions as I can.

I think at this point that we are going to try the Flat Fee.

We have a nice house. It is big and waterfront property on a lake...we are twenty minutes from either city downtown.

I know how to stage and I know how to sell and so do my sisters who will hold our open houses for us. Our neighbors are looking for buyers as we have offered them a healthy finders fee.

I will produce our flyers and take our pictures myself.

I would rather not do all this, but I just can't get past the amount they want for commission at a time when so much of our profit has evaporated. I think a good realtor earns their fee, but not when the fee is more than most people make in a year.

Worst case, we list with a realtor in the spring.

Wish us luck.
Susan

[tucson]

I used TheVillagesFSBO.com and I had a buyer in less than 3 mos. And they don't charge anything. They advertise on this web site.Check it out and good luck!!

[Barefoot]

I am extremely impressed with how many people have had success with Flat Fee Realty, Craigslist, and other less expensive options.
Guess it is a whole new world out there now that the Internet has brought us all closer together.

[tucson]

My last 2 houses were sold this way with no problems. If you have your house priced competively with other houses like yours in your area, plus staged correctly,willing to spend a little to give it "curb appeal" you'll probably sell it without waiting a long time. I've noticed in TV alot of preowned are priced way too high compared to the new homes that they're competing with. It's just simple logic that buyers will buy the new one instead of a preowned and pay far less also for that new house.