FSBO BLOG

Yesterday, The Bush Administration laid out a plan to freeze interest rates for approximately 1.2 million people who are facing interest rate increases on their sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages.  They are hoping this will help the foreclosure/housing crisis.  Click here to read the full story from ABC News.

Let me know your thoughts…Is this a good idea?  Is this plan too late (are we already in a housing/sub-prime crisis)?  How do you think this will affect the housing market in years to come?

Any FSBO (For Sale By Owner) book or instructional guide  you read these will tell you that “overpricing” is the number one mistake that seller’s make when putting their property on the market for sale by owner.  Overpricing your home could be detrimental to your FSBO experience, and force you to list your property with a Realtor.  If you then add in their commission, you are significantly losing valuable profit, and most likely a lot of time.  There are a few ways to prevent overpricing of your home when selling FSBO.   

First, you must realize that the market determines the value of your home, and not you or your emotional attachment to the property.  You must stay competitive within your market if you want to make a realistic attempt at selling on your own. 

Second, you can obtain a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) from just about any local Realtor in your area for FREE.  They will be glad to pull all comparable sales in your area for the past six months, and give you their opinion on what the asking price should be.  They will do this for free in hopes that you remember them if in fact you ever decide to list with a Realtor if you are unsuccessful in selling it yourself. 

Finally, you can obtain an online appraisal  for you home, which will also give you comparable sales, as well as an estimate to what your property is worth in your current market.  The cost for this online service ranges from $9.95 - $29.95.  Hiring a Licensed Appraiser will cost you around $300 or higher.

Whichever option you choose, please just keep in mind that you are saving on commission on the sale of your home compared to your neighbor who is selling through a Realtor.  This will allow you to set your asking price 1-3% lower than your competitor, and still net more than them at closing.  Setting your price a bit under market value will make your property that much more attractive to potential buyers, and will most likely give you a better opportunity to have a successful FSBO experience.

The CBS Saturday Early Show recently featured FSBO.com as part of the five key things to consider before you start showing your home - Click here to check out their article and video!  The segment was quick but informative.  Touching on Home Staging, Virtual Tours and Photos, FSBO Marketing, Online Appraisals, and Online Real Estate Auctions.

I thought this was a great segment.  My only comment would be you DO NOT need to be as  “cyber-savvy” as they mention to have a successful listing on http://www.fsbo.com/, or on any other site in our industry.  Our user’s ages and computer skills vary significantly.  Anyone can list on FSBO.com easily, and in a very short time.  We do encourage you to take your time, and build an effective ad though. 

FSBO.com users have 24-hour access to editing their listings.  We are available Monday through Friday to help with any difficulty you may have.  We do not charge for adding or scanning photos.

With that, I say you do not need to be as “cyber-savvy” as most experts will tell you, but more “Resource-savvy”.  You need to utilize the resources that are available to you, such as the FSBO.com Customer Support, Photo Department and the online tools we have provided to make things easy for you.  Most online companies are willing to help you to create an effective advertisement that satisfies both your needs, and the needs of the buyer.

So, do you think you need to be cyber savvy to list your property online?

 There are many different types of Internet Scams right now, so I will just tell you about the main one that is targeting the Real Estate Industry.  It is called the Check Overpayment Scheme.    

How to Spot The Scam: 

Basically, you will receive an email/message from your online ad from a fake buyer willing to pay full price for your property, sight unseen.  They will send you a large down payment via check or money order, and come up with a reason why they need you to refund a portion of that money right away after you deposit it at the bank.  These checks or money orders look very real, and usually take the bank some time to realize they are fake.  By then, you have already mailed back a real check to the person pulling the Scam.  They deposit your real check and your money is gone. 

Key Facts: 

• Buyers are usually from out of the country
• Avg. amount they are currently sending for down payment $38,000
• Avg amount they are asking for you to return $8000

What FSBO.com is Doing About It:  

 We are currently building a system that will filter any message sent through our system for suspicious activity and key phrases.  We will continue to build on our library of key phrases as more and more scams are found and reported. 

FSBO.com will manually review all suspicious messages from buyers before allowing them into the Seller’s inbox.  Those found to be scams will have their Names, Email Address, and new key terms permanently blocked from our system to prevent them from sending other messages to our sellers.

Also, our sellers will be able to automatically “Report Fraud / Solicitations” on any message that might have slipped through our filtering system.  FSBO.com will again manually review these messages and block them as necessary.  This system will be in place early in the new year. 

The best way to protect yourself is to use common sense, and realize that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

For Additional Info on Scams please visit the Frequently Asked Questions section of FSBO.com or at www.fakechecks.org

Welcome to the first ever FSBO.com blog. My name is Michael T. Malkasian, President of www.FSBO.com. At FSBO.com, we believe our greatest strength is our personal customer service. This blog will be an extended version of that service and will encourage YOU to comment on and question the information in this blog.

I will attempt to deliver updated industry news, home seller/buyer tips, as well as address some of FSBO.com’s most frequently asked questions. This is your chance to converse directly with the President, and I encourage you to do so. I am here to make your FSBO.com experience all that it can be.

For the rest of the year, we will be discussing upcoming changes and upgrades to the FSBO.com website, touch on the Real Estate market trends in your area, and hopefully hear from buyers and sellers as they share their stories on selling For Sale By Owner.

With that, I ask YOU my first question: Why are you selling FSBO (fiz-bo)?

This question is not as easy to answer as you may think, so please, put some thought into why you are really selling FSBO. Once we get that out of the way, we can start talking about the important stuff - How you are actually going to Do It!