FSBO selling techniques

put a filter on your phone to weed out all of the calls you will get from brokers telling you how miserably you will fail, and how you need their services in this market!

you need to do the following:

1 - take good pictures
2 - make a floorplan
3 - list amenities
4 - detail the pet policy
5 - be clear on what financial requirements are for the building
6 - post all of the above on Streeteasy (if they let you), Craigslist, NYTimes, Village Voice???, and some other sites.
7 - if you have a doorman who is noisy, speak to him. he will bring you clients who are interested in your building. just remember that you will have to make him happy before you leave.

You have to underprice the market. I made this argument in another thread and the guy who argued against me is pretty much the most famous failed FSBO on this board. I will explain my rationale one more time: You are competing with homes sold by brokers. If it cost me the same to buy either a FSBO or a brokered apt. why would I spend my valuable time doing anything a broker would do for me? The only reasons are if your place is unique or I have a monetary incentive.

The seller nets more, the buyer pays less, the brokers cry and your soon-to-be old neighbors blame you for ruining their home values. So it's win-win-win-win!

Do everything opposite of this:

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/9261-open-house-today-130-400pm-high-floor-corner-1-bedroom-407-park-avenue-south-18b

if anyone, broker, or owner, did what ab_11218 suggested it would be a big improvement over much of the listings available.

I would add - make sure you note if the building has storage, bike storage, garage, laundry.

Thanks for the advice.

Posting on nytimes.com and Craig's list. Don't think Streeteasy accepts FSBO. Any other
recommended sites?

splot - yes, also let everyone in your building know your unit is for sale - they could know someone who wants in.

What i've found that it is worth it to do an open house in NY Times print. It's expensive though. If you can get the package with online and in print, use it. There are plenty of people out there who just can't seem to understand that everything is available on the web and they are the oblivious ones that will end up paying more due to that.

You also need to consider what you are going to do with the brokers, buyer's brokers that is. There will be plenty of calls of "I have 100 clients now. I need an exclusive NOW." You can ignore those. You will get a call saying that "I have a client that is looking at apartments like yours, can I show it and what commission are you planing to pay?" These are the ones you need to take seriously and figure out the numbers. (2-3% usually)

If your community has a local weekly paper, you might want to think hard about an ad there. They're usually cheap and the people who read that little paper typically love the 'hood. I have no experience doing this, but that's what I would do.

The NYTimes is a must, in my opinion, since so many other powerful portals are unavailable to you without a broker helping. There's a guy in my office who makes a specialty out of pursuing FSBOs in the Times, though, so expect to hear from him ;)

If you don't want buyer's brokers bugging you, please put in your Craig's List ad: "no brokers, please." Or "NO BROKERS DAMN IT!!!" I never, ever contact anyone who says no brokers. Never.

If, on the other hand, you're OK with buyer's brokers, say so. "Brokers protected" or "X% to buyer's brokers." Or "For sale by owner, buyer's brokers OK." Something like that. I ask for 3% but will settle for less if the apartment is expensive enough. That's the determining factor for me personally, the apartment's price.

And for heaven's sake, take some pictures! It's so weird to see all these FSBO ads and no pix. What are they thinking?

I hope you get lucky and don't have to work too hard to get it sold. You only need 1 buyer!

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

Good advice from Fluter...and nice to see a member of the brokerage community handing out sound advice to a FSBO and not instinctively dumping on the mere suggestion that someone other than a real estate agent could handle a sale of a NYC apartment.

Having said that, given current market conditions, a sale by owner needs to understand that paying 2.5% of the ask to a professional listing agent might not be the worst investment in the world right now....

Just a thought....

liar liar pants on fire.

how do you sell your place through a broker only paying 2.5%?

If, as a FSBO who is listening to the above, you're already prepared to pay 2.5% to a broker bringing in a buyer, then the incremental cost of also having a listing broker and getting the benefit of the listing broker's web presence, open house effort and print ad placement will be around 2.5%....

And I don't see that as a lie, cc

And I'm not a broker....if that's what you're thinking.....

so...now you're selling it yourself and paying the full boat commission? brilliant strategy.

and..if you're not a broker...I'm a pickle.

so:

mjsalisb
about 7 weeks ago
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NYCMatt: I also just completed course work leading up to passage of the broker licensing exam (though I have applied for an actual license).

I do not believe there is any restriction in NY State on what the by-laws of a condo association can impose with respect to information that must be provided prior to transfer of a condo. Quoting from "Modern Real Estate Practice in New York for Brokers" by Lank page 190 (common text for Broker license prep):

"[Condo] Owners are, however, bound by the bylaws of an owners' association to which all belong. Monthly fees are levied for the maintenance, insurance, and management of common elements.....The bylaws also set up covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) which, for example, may prohibit the display of For Sale signs or painting the front door bright red. Owners even may adopt bylaws that restrict leasing of units."

Sounds to me like conditioning the sale of a unit on the production of buyer financials would be well within the permitted boundaries of NY State Condo Bylaws.

mjsalisb
about 7 weeks ago
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Should read (though I have NOT applied for an actual license)

hilarious.

you took the course to be a broker but not the exam?

so--?

The broker comment made no sense. If it actually cost as much to do the simple things (like listing on NYTimes) as you would expect a broker to do for you, brokers wouldn't make money.

I would suggest -
creating a website
being honest about square footage
pointing out links to comps to justify your pricing

If you would consider working with a buyers broker, there are services out there that will get your listing out there on MLS etc that buyers brokers browse, as well as streeteasy.

"and..if you're not a broker...I'm a pickle"

so....I guess you're a pickle

Seriously, it's too bad people on this site get so hung up on vilifying the NYC broker community that they can't hear advice....even perhaps good advice.....through their antagonism.

I've bought and sold a lot of real estate....and have sometimes done it FSBO and sometimes I've used the services of a broker. Each decision was a function of the market conditions at the time and the degree of difficulty in selling the property in question.

Right now, here, in NYC, selling conditions are to say the least VERY CHALLENGING. So in my mind, a best practice for a FSBO is to be very aware of the role that a buyer broker can play in getting a deal done (which is one of the things Fluter was adding to this discussion).

And what I was TRYING to add to the discussion was the observation that another best practice for a FSBO is sometimes admitting to themselves that the marketplace is SO saturated with product that a sale by owner MIGHT be too difficult to pull off. The time to nicely tell Prudential Douglas to go to h*** with their offer to list your property is during a SELLER's market....

Just a thought....

so OP starts the thread to solicit best practices?

you say "Having said that, given current market conditions, a sale by owner needs to understand that paying 2.5% of the ask to a professional listing agent might not be the worst investment in the world right now..."

by which you actually meant: "the marketplace is SO saturated with product that a sale by owner MIGHT be too difficult to pull off."

but of course you didn't come out and actually say it until challenged.

and by your own prior post you previously have told said that you have taken coursework to be a broker but never took the license.

And, you think you represent a giver of unbiased advice?

There are often disagreements here about what is the right course of action, etc but at least when people are straightforward in explaining where they are coming from and the advice they are offering, others can listen, evaluate and make their own decision.

whatever...

yes...indeed and while you're at it: don't forget whoever.

I agree with the early suggestions - we made our info sheet so good that brokers always copy it when they sell in our building, they literally copy our paragraph word for word .... one even used our floorplan, a good FBSO web site can also be very helpful. The only ads that we found worked were NYT.

The other thing we did that was very helpful was we made a "how to buy our apt" FAQ kit. It listed our attorney and detailed the steps that potential buyers would need to go thru. We spent a lot of time on it and it definitely paid off.

We also had so many people ask us for our contractor name/number that we included it on that sheet so we could just hand it to people at our OHs, even those who clearly weren't interested in our apt. We were pleased with the contractor and happy to send him business.

For everyone thinking about FSBO -- do it. Talk is cheap, fear is paralyzing. Just do it. Here's how:
Go to Homestead.com and set up a web presence. First 30 days free, then a small fee per month (around $20). It took a few hours to fill in the templates they provided. Take good pics and post them. Write sincere copy. Provide info - all buyers want info. Use the NY Times print/online adv. feature. I spent about $250 for a ten day web presence, and Sunday print presence. List on Zillow. Know your building - if it is a large apt. building, consider a 1-month subscription to Property Shark for info on how much your neighbors spent for their apts, and when. Then you can judiciously price your apt. All in all, it took me 6 weeks to sell, and 3 Open Houses (every 2 weeks). I saved 30K commission fees, and spent only about $1,000 total in adv., etc. And of course my time (I'm retired; can afford to put the time in). Last but not least, I got the highgest per sq. ft. price EVER out of the 60 units bought and sold in my former condo building in the past 20 years-- during these hard times. I think people just plain liked my easy-going, truthful, straight forward approach, and the way I worded my adv. (Retired teacher - couldn't help myself. I wrote a lot). Made the Corcoran agent in my building jealous/mad when I told him I would rather spend 25K-30K gut-renovating a kitchen and bathroom then put an older unit on the market and have to pay him after he sells it at a lower price. If you want, go to my site, as it is still on the web. I will be selling another unit in the building in a few months, so it just doesn't pay for me to remove the site (and save about $20 a month) when I know all I have to do is "tweak" it a bit because i will us Homestead.com again to help me sell my next apt. For proof, go to: 44butlerplace.com and see my site. I'm telling you it's possible to do this yourself (if you have a pleasant personality and don't get emotionally involved). My wife said I should start a business out of this, helping people get set up for FSBO's. LOL. We'll see. Good Luck to all. MikeMazz1313@gmail.com

Good job, Mike. I see you just bought 1J (a 2-bedroom/2-bath) there for the same $475K you sold the one-bedroom/1-bath. Is that the one you'll be selling?

That is a very nice website, MikeMazz. As a former FIZ, I would only ask, "where is the floorplan?" unless I missed it? Congrats!

West34
12 days ago
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Do everything opposite of this:

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/9261-open-house-today-130-400pm-high-floor-corner-1-bedroom-407-park-avenue-south-18b

I see that this apt sale is not listed. Was it pulled from the market? If so, this indeed is an example of what to avoid. More shadow inventory? Price is everything/

Why not use a syndication platform like the brokers do? Brokers use RealtyMX or ListHub etc to get their listings out to every conceivable site, database, MLS. Just use a consumer platform like www.hauseit.com ... for $399 they'll put you on OLR (dominant broker-broker database in NYC), the Manhattan MLS, StreetEasy, Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com etc. for 3 months. This way you can "quasi-FSBO" and seriously offer a commission to buyers' brokers on MLS and OLR.

I had a friend use this recently and he had a bidding war and sold above asking after only 2 weeks! Point is, it's a hot market, why would you not give it a shot yourself first...

The market for NYC FSBO sellers is definitely non-traditional. Even though we live in the city with the highest prices and commissions in the world, very few people sell FSBO in the city and NYC does not have a traditional MLS. Obviously the fierce NYC brokerage industry does everything they can to stop FSBO sellers, but seriously even according to Inman it's not that hard to sell FSBO: https://www.inman.com/2016/07/25/the-underground-for-sale-by-owner-movement-in-nyc/

Agree, definitely don't write "no brokers" on a fsbo listing. In fact, even if you write "brokers protected" or "will pay 3%" it's still useless.

Why? Well think about it. Why would a buyers' agent risk bringing their client to you? What's the mechanism for them to get paid? A custom commission agreement every time? Who would bother to do that?

If you're really cheap and bent on not paying a listing agent, then just pay a few hundred bucks at least for a flat fee RLS listing. At least this way there'd be a way for buyers' agents to 1. see your listing and 2. be able to get paid

My company, RealDirect (www.realdirect.com), has offered a highly effective "Owner Managed" assisted FSBO program since 2010 and our sellers have sold hundreds of homes with it. We work with you every step of the way until your home is sold. You can see what the NYTimes said about it when we launched http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/realestate/30cov.html and read what we say about doing a FSBO in NYC here: https://www.realdirect.com/blog/buying-selling/how-to-fsbo-in-nyc/

Staging! Get rid of your excess, even if it means renting a storage unit for a few months. Nobody else thinks your cookie jar collection on top of the kitchen cabinets is charming. They think it means there isn't enough cabinet space. Get rid of unnecessary throw rugs unless they are dampening sound. Put away personal pictures and don't leave five shampoo bottles on the tub ledge. Clean, clean, clean. Spend the money to have a professional real estate photographer take pictures. They can see things you won't notice, and will make the place look better than in real life -- which is what you need to get people in the door.

I can't argue enough for professional photos. Take a look at the before and after photos here (http://www.hauseit.com/tips-selling-a-coop-in-nyc-without-realtor/) ... you will be shocked by the difference between spotty photos taken by your flip phone camera vs a professional photographer's.

Other than that, definitely get in RLS through either an agent managed FSBO or a flat fee RLS. You need to attract buyers' agents, not just trolls who want to get your listing...