FSBO BLOG

This is a reminder to anyone participating in our National Open House Day next weekend that time is running out to receive a FREE Open House Sign. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog, or my previous blog about National Open House day with your FSBO.com ID# and the time and date of your Open House, and we will send you a free open house sign/arrow to help you drive traffic to your home.

As a bonus, we will now be sending TWO FREE Open House signs to anyone who comments from now until Monday night at Midnight!!!

I just wanted to thank Ed from OH for being the first FSBO.com customer to have our new Professional Photo Tour added to his listing. 

CLICK HERE TO SEE HIS FULL FSBO LISTING IN OHIO

FSBO.com Photo Tour Details:

Our professional photo affiliate will compile a professional slide show using YOUR photos (up to 20) that includes nice graphics and music.  The unique FSBO.com player allows you to share this as a link, or as an embedded code (like I have done above) on any other website or webpage you might have access to.  The player will include Contact and Property details.  Once you order the Gold Plus Package from FSBO.com, our affiliate will contact you with further instructions on how to submit your photos.  FSBO.com will automatically add this tour to your listing once it is complete.

In preparation of the FSBO.com National Open House Day coming up on May 17^th and 18^th, I wanted to ask YOU a few questions to get your feedback on holding Open Houses based on your past experiences.

What are the best times to hold and Open House?

Which is the better day:  Sat or Sun?

How do you handle multiple prospects in your house at one time?

Should you be worried about your safety?

What did you do right, what did you do wrong?

As for me, I plan to hold as many open houses as my schedule will allow for.  My house will be open on both May 17^th and 18^th, starting around 9:00AM.  I plan to have some light Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments to keep people in the home for as long as possible, a large stack of brochures, and all of the paperwork necessary for those buyers to make an offer which I purchased from FSBO.com’s Real Estate Contracts page.  Since the house is vacant, I will bring a comfortable chair and a book to occupy myself while there is no one at the house. 

I’ll post pictures for everyone of my National Open House Day experience after the event.  For now, I’d like to hear your stories, or plans regarding open Houses you have had recently.

NOTE:  If you want FSBO.com to send you a FREE Open House Rider for your property, simply post a comment on my first blog on the National Open House Day.

May Day, May Day, it’s time for National Open House Day!

Spring has sprung, spring cleaning is done-it’s the perfect time to sell your home! In recognition of May as “National Prepare to Buy a Home Month,” FSBO.com has set two dates (May 17 and 18, 2008) for “National Open House Day” to give our customers increased flexibility to participate in this event.  I encourage all of our current customers to add either date to their online “Open House Calendar”.  We now give buyers the opportunity to search strictly by Open houses in their area, so it is important to post this info ASAP. 

FSBO.com National Open House Day Info!

As part of the promotion for this event, I want to give each and every one of you a FREE “Open House” sign for your yard or subdivision.  Due to the large number of listings we have online, it won’t be possible for me to do that.  So, in order to receive your FREE Open House Sign/Arrow, you must first post the May 17^th or 18^th Date on your Open House Calendar, and then leave a comment on this blog with a link to your listing or with your listing ID#.  Once I see that you have the open house dates set, I will ship you a Free Open House sign/arrow. 

P.S. I will be holding an Open House on both days for my home that I have been making the videos for.  Good Luck!

I am happy to announce the latest version of FSBO.com has now been launched.  Among the many new features we have added, the most notable is the addition of our ability to take Rental and international Listings.  We now also allow our users to upload an unlimited number of photos to each listing at no extra charge.  Please visit www.FSBO.com to check out the new site, and to give me your feedback.

It is currently FREE to add your Vacation Rental, Long Term Rental, and International Listing to FSBO.com.  Please add yours today.

NEW FEATURES FOR SELLERS:

• UNLIMITED PHOTOS 
  • You may now upload an unlimited amount of photos at no additional cost
• FREE VIDEO UPLOAD
  • You may now upload one video to your listing at no additional cost
  • Professional Editing and Photo Tours Available in the Video Section
• NEW MESSAGE CENTER
  • Double Duty:  You no longer have to log in to check your messages. Messages will be sent directly to your email address, along with a copy of that message saved in your message center for later review.
  • Report Spam - You can now report scam emails directly to FSBO.com with a click of a link
• New Open House Features
  • Enter Unlimited Open House dates  - Add as many Open House dates that you have scheduled (or add them as you go along in the process of selling your home
  • FSBO.com now gives Buyers the ability to Search by Open Houses in their area so be sure to get yours posted right away
• New Hit Counter 
  • Your hit counter will now display both “Total” Visitors, and “Unique” Visitors.
• Rental Property
  • If your property is also available as a rental, you may automatically add it to our New Rental Section at no cost!  From your registered user’s area, you can select “Add as Rental” and we’ll automatically copy your property listing information over for you.  From there, you can then edit your Rental record to include more specific rental information to your potential new renters! 

I will be posting all week long about new Features and Promotions like our “FSBO.com National Open House Day - May 17^th & 18^th“

Ok, we have a winner.  Dahlia of North Pole, AK successfully guessed that it took me 23 takes to shoot the intro portion of my First video.  So far the feedback from the 2^nd video has been that it was much better, so at least I am improving. 

Since Dahlia’s listing is current “Under Contract” she will not be needing the Virtual tour.  I have decided to simply reimburse her for her Gold Package Listing ($99.95) for her participation and for winning my first ever contest. 

Since I can’t help to promote her listing (because it is Sold), I have asked if she was willing to answer a few questions for me regarding her experience with FSBO.com.  I have in no way modified her answers:

1. Did your buyer find you on FSBO.com, if so, by phone or email?

Our buyer is our friend from church, but we were contacted a lot this spring from potential buyers via the fobs website.

2. What other methods of advertising did you use: Other websites, newspaper, word of mouth, etc…?

We used (unsuccessfully) the newspaper on Sundays, and we posted flyers at the air force and army bases, as well as posted our house on ahrn.com (a military housing service) and also on baseforsale.com (a free classified website for the military).  Here in North Pole, AK, we are surrounded to the north and south by military, and they were our target market.  The other websites and flyers always had our FSBO.com listing, so the other forms of marketing always brought them to our website on FSBO.com
 

3. How long was your property on FSBO.com before going under contract?

We posted it in July, which, is the tail-end of house-hunting season here in Alaska (winter will be setting in and families usually don’t want to move in freezing, snowy weather) so we were late in doing that, but by February, we had an accepted offer!

4. Briefly describe your experience with FSBO.com, from the sign up process, uploading photos (did you do it yourself), receiving your supplies via UPS, leads received, etc…

It was the best site that we found for the “bang for our buck”.  It was very simple to make our site - we started uploading photos and had it going in probably less than an hour!  We received our sign and flyers very quickly (thank you UPS!).  We were very pleased with the customer service:  we posted a photo of our house just to get one on the site, but it wasn’t the “keeper” photo.  We had asked for our flyers to not be printed until we got an acceptable photo of our house on the site and because they had already been printed, we received another set of flyers with the correct photo on them!  Thank you!!  We will definitely use FSBO.com again - we saved so much by NOT using a realtor!  Great idea and keep up the excellent work!!

Thanks again for everyone who participated, and as promised, I will be sending all of you a consolation prize via email shortly. 

Mike Malkasian

Ok, Video #2 is Ready thanks to my good and talented friends at http://www.realtyflix.com/.  This Video highlights the biggest task I will face in prepping this house for sale; painting.  Painting every wall in the house a different, dark, color seemed like a GREAT idea a few years ago.  Just remember, whenever you decide to paint your home, the job is always only just half over, because you will most likely have to repaint everything in the end when it comes time to move. 

The only reason I decided to use a paint sprayer was that the ceiling, after 9 years, needed a face lift.  Otherwise, I would not have covered anything, and just done it all by hand.  I think you will enjoy this video, and see that Mike Malkasian, President of FSBO.com, is not afraid to get his hands dirty. 

Paint and supplies (which include Pizza and “refreshments” for my friends) cost just under $400 for the entire project (paint sprayer was borrowed from a friend).  Based on the quotes I received from professional painters, I saved between $1100, and $1300 by doing it myself.  A special thanks to Matt, Jeremy, Chris, and Phil Minnes (Google Him!) for helping me paint.

Charity Info I Mentioned:

The green shirt I was wearing in that video is from my favorite non-profit called H.E.R.O. for Children (http://www.heroforchildren.org/).  H.E.R.O. became the first non-profit organization in the State of Georgia to solely focus their effort and energy to raise funding and awareness for the Quality of Life of children affected by / infected with HIV/AIDS.  I have been involved with them for over 3 years, and I mentor (big brother/ SuperHERO) an 8 year-old boy whose mother is infected with HIV.   Getting involved in this little kid’s life is the best decision I have ever made, and plan to continue my relationship with him for the rest of my life.  We are best friends! 

If you live in the Atlanta area, I strongly urge you to get involved, and consider becoming a “SuperHERO” yourself.  If you do not live in the area, I ask that you consider visting the website, and making a donation.

The SuperHEROes program:  The SuperHEROes program is the only one-on-one mentoring program for children affected by HIV/AIDS in Georgia that provides year-round, positive role models with each matching meeting a minimum of 24 times per year with their child. (Source:  www.heroforchildren.org ) 

 Money Magazine is working on an article for their May issue and are looking to profile “real people” who are utilizing creative & different techniques to sell their home in today’s real estate market.  For example, videos, blogs, lease/purchase options, home swaps, etc.  The more creative the better!

If you would like to be considered for this article, please leave a comment with your name, FSBO.com ID number and a description of your creative home selling techniques.  We will then contact you with more information.

 For a limited time only, FSBO.com will include a FREE Directional Arrow with every new Gold Package purchased.  Supplies are limited, and will be sent out on a first come, first serve basis while supplies last.  This information is posted on the “Advertise Property” section of FSBO.com, but I just wanted inform you again of this special promotion. 

The directional arrow will automatically be included in the UPS package we send to you.  Nothing is required on your end once you purchase the Gold Package for $99.95 from FSBO.com.  This package also includes a nine month listing on FSBO.com, 1 Steel Frame yard Sign, 50 Professional/ color brochures, and a brochure holder.

This is our recommended package for anyone just starting the selling process, and does not have any marketing materials as of yet.  Additional Marketing Materials can be found in the “FSBO Store“.

HGTV (Home & Garden Television) will soon be profiling the Metro Atlanta market and Atlanta homeowners on its television program, National Open House. National Open House is a real estate show which compares different real estate markets around the country to give viewers a good idea of how far their money can go between markets.

They will be shooting in Metro Atlanta March 5th thru March 9th. They are looking to find homeowners who own properties valued within the following price points: $250K ($230K - $270K), $300K ($275K - $325K), $500K ($475K - $525K), $600K ($575K - $625K), $750K ($725K - $775K), $800K ($775K - $825K), and $1 Million ($900K - $1.15 Million). Homes valued at more than $1.15 Million are not eligible.

This is an opportunity for enthusiastic FSBO.com homeowners to showcase their property and talk about why they love Atlanta!

Interested Homeowners Must:
*Have furnished homes
*Homes must be owner-occupied
*Fit one of the above price-points
*Be available for 4 hours on one of the days they will be in town filming
*Be willing to talk about the value of their home and why they chose to buy in the Atlanta market

Please note: HGTV cannot guarantee when the episodes will air - if the home is currently for sale, it may be sold before the episode premieres

If interested, please leave a comment with your FSBO.com ID #, and we will send you instructions for getting your home included on this television program.

NOTE:  These are the types of opportunities we will be seeking out for our customers all year long, and into the future.  Please check back on the blog regularly for great opportunities such as this.