FSBO's and Buyer's Brokers for our LTT studio

Good Job, Kurt. Just a couple of minor points:

The opening sentence is a bit awkward. I would suggest rephrasing it very slightly:
"Owners offer this south-facing, sun-filled Chelsea studio with city views. Solid oak floors and beamed ceilings frame this alcove unit, perfectly situated in London Terrace Towers."

Since the apartment is a coop, the $921/month should be designated as "Maint.", not "CC".

"Pied a Terre’s" may alienate the the Chelsea chapter of the French Grammar Gendarmerie. "Pieds-a-terre", maybe?

It might be worth mentioning in the ad that brokers are welcome and/or protected.

Best of luck with your sale.

Selling is a lifelong craft and I'm sure not going to get it all into a chat board post.

However, one thing that might help you is to tell you that the point of first contact is ... to get to second contract. Just as you don't push to marry anybody based on a first date, your job in hosting an open house is NOT to sell the apartment. It's to disseminate information about the apartment in such a way that people who are interested will come back, where you or Demsker can sit with them one-on-one for a longer sales pitch.

So you want to be friendly, you want to be likeable, you want to present the top-level information ("it's a co-op, here's the maintenance, this is the deal with the gym") including any needed disclosures, you want to get people's contact information, you want to get people's reactions, and you want to make the interested ones understand how to come back for second contact.

Agents who are not morons should have all that top-level information already -- I know exactly what your apartment is, and so my curiousity is for second-level information -- when was the kitchen last reno'd? how flexible is your listing price? if I want to go forward am I going to have to pull all the documents or are you going to supply them? What if I have a client who presents a board problem, how well connected are you with the board?

Depending on your arrangement with Demsker you could either talk to the agent directly as those questions are asked and those answers are fished for, or you could send the agent straight to Demsker once it becomes clear what the trend is.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

thanks West81st, those changes are spot on and now in effect. very much appreciated. in fact I may post just for a web review since you caught so many things..

front_porch, I agree selling is an art and not the one I am a professional in. However I do need to learn what I can as to the process and flow. Thanks for your take, I have read your posts on other topics, and that is a really good advice as to what an open house is for and what it's not. we'll see how it goes as to how things get fielded.

I am just thinking when I say " I am showing the apartment" or "I am representing the unit" and not focusing on being the owner - which can confuse or put-off people - I don't also want to let anyone feel like I misrepresented the situation.

- Kurt

best of luck to you....let me know how it goes kurtNYC....I am not quite ready to go to listing yet, but hopefully very soon.

damier, did you decide to use someone to help out, or are you going solo?

KURT -- I can't put myself completely in the shoes of an unrepresented buyer coming to your open house, but I don't see any reason a buyer would feel either Put Off or Confused if they see the FSBO himself at the open house. Indeed, I would *assume* that you are the owner if you are doing the open house. If anything, I would think it weird if you were not the one doing it, as in "are they hiding?"

One thing I bet Tom told you (say hello to him for me, please) is NOT to provide one bit of "second-level information" that Ali (and I) would be interested in, if we represented buyers: "how flexible is your listing price?" While I am interested, I am certainly not entitled to that information. Personally, if I had an asking price of $469k and someone asked me about flexibility I would say "the price is $469k; if you are interested, make an offer".

A buyer should only reveal they are "flexible" if he considers it in his tactical advantage to do so, a calculation that can change over time. Most people will assume you are flexible, without having to be told; whether you are, or not, depends on how a negotiation goes. When I hear an agent talk about how flexible a seller is, I wonder if that is code for "desperate", and my buyer may bid accordingly.

Good luck!

that's funny, Sandy, when I hear an agent say, "the price is $469k; if you are interested, make me an offer," I hear "I have no instructions from my seller to talk about flexibility so you should assume my strike price is going to be whatever the prevailing listing discount is times my listing price."

absent any other information, that statement would probably cause me to go in lower on a bid than would hearing "we've got a little wiggle room, but not much."

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Hi Kurt,
I used Tom a while back and it was a very productive and smart move. I got offers but decided not to sell as the market was improving. To answer your question just say you are representing the seller and working with Tom. That's it. Some buyers brokers will get an attitude when they see you are using the new techniques to sell and saving thousands on commissions. Commissions the brokers would have gotten instead of you.

Good Luck. No Worries. It's the best b/c you're on the front lines with information. No waiting to hear a "status report" from your broker. ie. "We were busy talk soon!" then you hear again in 2 weeks while wondering what's happening. Screw that. I want to hear feedback directly. Forget the broker babble getting in the way.

You'll love selling on your own with Tom's help.

That's an interesting take, Ali. How about if I said, "we set a realistic price based on these comps [sale, sale, sale] so that's what we think it is worth"?

My problem with agents saying something like "seller is negotiable" is that I wonder if they *really* have permission to say that, as I have sometimes heard agents admit. If discussed in advance, there is nothing wrong with an agent responding "we've got a little wiggle room". I guess I was reacting to your original comment with that (somewhat tawdry) history in mind, and warning the FSBO that he doesn't *have* to announce how / whether he will be negotiable.

Bet you a quarter Demsker has already walked him through this ;-)

Coming from someone who has looked at many, many studios your apartment looks great..

Hi, Kurt--

Your listing looks great--wonderful photos and staging. One thing I might suggest, though, is that you not refer to the unit as an 'alcove' studio. You've done a great job in carving out a sleeping area in the space but it is technically not an alcove unit, which would have an 'L' shaped footprint.

Best of luck!

Oh, and a couple of copy-editing issues to mention--lose the 's in Pieds-a-Terre and add a hyphen to Live in Super (Live-in Super).

SMattingly - yes, I owe you a quarter!! He has indeed, and is very on it.( your quarter paid in cash money at the first open house, ha ha.) as for the discus with SMattingly re: answer. I like the comps answer plus steveF's take. everyone knows its a negotiation, and I have comps within 4-5% of my ask so their is that. skip the whole 'wiggle' vs 'flex' vs 'insert bendy word here'.

julia - thanks! its pretty and we'll miss it, but we hope to be backyard bound to Brooklyn this spring..

bramstar - I get the technicality, yet within my building parlance people say 'it has an alcove' with a unit like ours. I guess 'studio with alcove' might be more exact, but people looking at studios in my building know the differences very specifically as their are so many units. I guess it could go either way, maybe for NYT we change it. thanks for the look and the grammar check (done), glad it looks good! visuals is maybe one of the few advantages of being an artist in this process..

thanks all for taking a look, the feedback is really helpful :-)

- kurt

You're welcome Kurt. Have fun.

Kurt--no prob! I must say, your listing (photos, staging, layout) looks better than many I've seen by brokers--I'm not surprised to hear you're an artist. And please don't get me started on some of the inexcusable grammatical errors on many broker-rendered descriptions... you're way ahead of the game on that score too :-)

Best of luck!

^^should be IN many broker-rendered descriptions... If I'm gonna be the grammar police I'd better keep an eye on my own fat fingers, no? :-b

I like this system where Sandy makes a bet with me, and the seller pays off! Keep 'em coming!

ali

ali - happy to cover your streeteasy gambling debts, I'll stake you a buck! so lets see you got 75 large left to play with..