For Sale By Owner Can`t Handle Bidding Wars

[AndreiAngelkovski]

Hello REIN Members,



Interesting situation that just happen to me and my Buyer client.



TRUE STORY`An owner tries to sell their house on their own to save on Realtor commission fees. They listed the property below market value to create a bidding war. When they received multiple offers they couldn`t handle the situation because apparently they didn`t want to `over complicate things` and therefore refused to look at all the offers and decided to look at only 2 random offers. They finally accepted one of them which ended up being less than what they listed their house for. In other words, they sold for well below market value.


By trying to save a buck, they actually lost tens of thousands of dollars by not hiring a professional Real Estate Agent to handle it and get the biggest bang for their dollar. WOW! The buyer really scored here! A big and expensive lesson to this Seller! I am not suggesting that people can't sell their own houses...I am trying to let people know that it is not a "walk in the park" as alot of sellers believe it is.



Stick to what you are great at and build your team to help you achieve the rest.



To hear the full story, click here.

 

[flyingsquirrel]

Interesting story.

The seller must be really really lazy. How difficult is it to look at all the prices from the offers?

And they pick the 2 offers randomly. What a joke.

 

[AndreiAngelkovski]

[quote user=flyingsquirrel]Interesting story.



The seller must be really really lazy. How difficult is it to look at all the prices from the offers?



And they pick the 2 offers randomly. What a joke.



I agree that is it not difficult to look at all offers. It was quite dissappointing to hear the owner tell me this. The crazy part was that she was being helped by a lawyer who was advising her as well.

 

[DK123]

In today's society you have to take every word a person speaks with a grain of salt. This story did not make any sense whatsoever. The seller either dumb or hiding something.

 

[morismemo]

Laughters .... a lawyer also advising her thats great... for save a littel he lost the big .

 

[Rickson9]

I have a property in Toronto that I'm going to try and sell myself. I think it will be a fun learning experience. And for the people who actually read the first post: do you believe that the Sellers took '2 random offers' because you personally know the Sellers or because you're assuming that the original poster knew them? Just puttin it out there...

 

[bizaro86]

[quote user=Rickson9]I have a property in Toronto that I'm going to try and sell myself.



Do come back and let us know how it goes. I'd be interested in hearing how someone with more intellectual heft than the person mentioned in the OP does that.



Regards,



Michael

 

[AndreiAngelkovski]

[quote user=morismemo]Laughters .... a lawyer also advising her thats great... for save a littel he lost the big .



That's exactly it!

 

[AndreiAngelkovski]

[quote user=Rickson9]I have a property in Toronto that I'm going to try and sell myself. I think it will be a fun learning experience



Trying to sell your house privately or on your own will definitely be a good learning experience. Same with trying to sue someone without the help of your lawyer, or trying to do home renovations without a licenced professional. Some people can do it and some people can't or choose not to. I personally would rather hire a professional I trust to do it and do it well. On the surface it may seem like you are saving money, however I have seen it many times where it ends up costing you a lot more in the end. Pay a reasonable fee , and you and your investment are protected.



[quote user=Rickson9]And for the people who actually read the first post: do you believe that the Sellers took '2 random offers' because you personally know the Sellers or because you're assuming that the original poster knew them? Just puttin it out there...



When I was speaking to the Seller, she told me that she was choosing the first 2 offers that were registered.

 

[Rickson9]

Coincidentally I spoke with a colleague today who sold his property himself. Hes moving back to Quebec. Closing in a month. Doesn't sound too hard to me. Looking forward to trying it myself!

 

[nubiwan]

[quote user=Rickson9]I have a property in Toronto that I'm going to try and sell myself. I think it will be a fun learning experience. And for the people who actually read the first post: do you believe that the Sellers took '2 random offers' because you personally know the Sellers or because you're assuming that the original poster knew them? Just puttin it out there...




I had two houses listed privately and later on the MLS with little action on either. They were a little removed from the city so the lack of interest was understandable. I don't normally sell my houses but there was a need in this case. So what did I do?



I put them both on a rent to own. Advertised on Kijiji, and I got about 50 emails on each property with numerous viewings. Couple of offers that went south for one reason or another, but eventually got great tenants (with better than average incommes - but no downpayments) in my houses.



Tenants are both on 12 month term leases and my units cashflow $500-$800 each per month, I have tenants vested in the well being of the properties and keeping them neat and tidy, and in 12 months I get my full asking price for each house. Not some haggled 3-5% or more off my asking price.



Add to this I am saving $25K plus GST in agent fees, then my advice to you would be to consider LTO as an alternative. If you do not need the cash right away, then LTO is perhaps a good alternative. If you have decent equity in the home, then you can also do an 80% HELOC to take out some needed cash.



I expect that you will have no problem getting viewers in your Toronto home that will translate into offers, having said all that, but at least you would have an option.



I sold my principal residence about 10 yeasr ago for $470K. Writing a cheque for $25K and tax for effectively listing a property on the MLS (perhaps not that fair to agents - but true in my case) nearly made me cry. In defence of my agent, I did get full asking price with some interesting last day activity which netted me $50K more on the sale, so definitely 2 sides to this coin.