5 Reasons to Sell Your Home During the Holidays

The holiday season is officially upon us. Many home sellers choose to wait until January to list their homes, but listing this time of year can actually give sellers an advantage.

Here's why:

1. Fewer homes are on the market during the holidays. That means less competition, and the opportunity for your home to stand out.
2. Buyers searching for homes during the holiday season are serious and motivated. This can translate to a quicker sale.
3. A home dressed up for the holidays will show beautifully. There’s a coziness that comes with holiday decorations. Just make sure they don’t make it difficult for potential buyers to walk through your home, or hide its best features. Also keep in mind that overly religious decorations may prevent buyers from seeing themselves in the space.
4. Some buyers want to buy before the end of the year for tax reasons. Have up-to-date tax records, inspections and legal documents ready to enable the buyer to estimate the tax advantage.
5. Many people relocating will need to find and purchase a home before the end of the year. Having your home on the market will help you capture those buyers. In colder climates, having a flexible move date may be a great selling point.

Homeowners who list their homes during the holidays can have some serious advantages over those who choose to wait.

Happy selling!

What Buyers Want

What do buyers want? And just as importantly, how can you give it to them?

The latest Census Bureau has clues as to what buyers want, based on how homebuilders are responding to market demands. If you are selling an existing house, you probably can't retrofit the whole place to make it look like a brand-new house. But you can recast your house in terms that will appeal to today's buyers. Here are tips on doing just that; find more selling tips at ForSaleByOwner.com.

•  Match the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.  Of the 53% of new single family homes built & sold in 2010 that had four or more bedrooms, over half had at least three bathrooms. If you are selling a large house, cluster the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in your listing so that buyers can see that you've got the plumbing to support the number of likely occupants.
• Don't worry as much about raw square footage. In 2010, the average new house was 2,392 square feet, down from 2,438 in 2009. Raw space isn't a big seller much any more; it's how the house lives. Emphasize an efficient layout and open concept instead.
• 52% of the new houses sold in 2010 had three bedrooms. If your house has a multipurpose room that you use as a media room, office or hobby room, be sure to list your house as having three bedrooms so it squares with terms that buyers are using when they search. (In most localities, a room has to have an outside window and a closet to qualify as a bedroom, so of course you should comply with that legal description.)
• In 2010, 25% of new houses were insured by FHA loans, compared to 24% in 20090 and 16% in 2008. Get familiar with local FHA requirements and complete any repairs that would likely be demanded by the FHA-required inspection. You will be all set for an FHA buyer, smoothing out one barrier to the sale.

 Image courtesy of Morguefile contributor alexfrance.

Most Bang for Your Buck

What minor improvements pay back biggest when you are preparing your house for market?

HomeGain has figured it out. 

• Cleaning and de-cluttering – Costs: $290; Average value added: $1,990  
• Lightening and brightening – Costs: $375; Average value added: $1,550  
• Home staging – Costs: $550; Average value added: $2,194  
• Landscaping – Costs: $540; Average value added: $1,932  
• Repairing electrical or plumbing – Costs: $535; Average value added: $1,505  

If your house needs even more work, these projects are more costly, but you will probably recoup the expense – while attracting an offer. 

• Updating electrical systems and/or plumbing 
• Updating the kitchen and bathrooms 
• Replacing or shampooing carpets 
• Painting interior walls 
• Repairing damaged floors 
• Painting the outside of the home

 

Image courtesy of Morguefile contributor duboix.

 

ForSaleByOwner.com Makes News Again!

As the leading real estate website for the "by owner" home seller, ForSaleByOwner.com is often found in news articles about home sellers who are selling their home without an agent in order to save thousands of dollars in would-be commission costs.

CBS MarketWatch recently interviewed us and one of our customers for a feature real estate article. We'd like to share this article with you, which includes some great tips on what you can do to get your house sold.

Be sure to also check out the video that's embedded in the article!

Property Photos on ForSaleByOwner.com... Larger & Unlimited!

If you've been browsing ForSaleByOwner.com property listings, you might have noticed that our sellers' property listings just got better. Home and property photographs are now larger and easier to browse. That's because the technology team at ForSaleByOwner.com has been diligently working to enhance how photos are displayed.

The improvements include easier-to-browse photographs that are 50 percent larger than before, providing a richer online experience for ForSaleByOwner.com's nearly 2 million monthly visitors. Another important enhancement is allowing our sellers to add titles and captions to their photographs so they can better describe their homes.

But what is perhaps most exciting of our improvements is that we now allows home sellers to market their homes with an unlimited amount of photographs. Studies show that more than 90 percent of home buyers use the Internet to search for a home, and we know buyers are attracted to websites that offer more property photographs. Our new "Unlimited Photos" feature allows home sellers to better showcase their home, making it easier for buyers to explore the home and get a better feel for everything it has to offer.

We just launched Unlimited Photos, so you'll have to keep coming back to ForSaleByOwner.com over the coming days and weeks to see a growing number of our home sellers who will be adding more photographs to their property listings. Or, if you see a home that you're interested in and wish to see more photographs (or have any other question about the home), our online property listings allow you to send a message to the home owner without having to go through a real estate agent!

Selling Your Home This Spring? Here's What You Need to Do NOW

With the spring home selling season quickly approaching, we want to educate home sellers of what they should be doing in the weeks and months ahead of putting their home on the market. A big mistake too many sellers make is not giving themselves enough time to get everything in order before that "For Sale" sign goes in the front yard.

But if you follow ForSaleByOwner.com's list of "Five Things to Do Before Putting a Home on the Market," you'll be putting yourself in a position to be a successful home seller.

“Five Things to Do Before Putting a Home on the Market”

1. Decide On a Home Selling Strategy: Sellers can either hire a real estate agent or decide to sell their home “by owner.” Agents do offer some convenience but their commission rates, which average close to 6%, make them expensive for too many sellers. It has become easier to become a “by owner” seller because the Internet offers the same types of advertising, marketing and pricing tools used by agents. The National Association of Realtors found that, on average, a “by owner” seller actually sells quicker and for closer to asking price than an agent-represented seller.
   
   
2. Start Researching Your Local Home Market: Any home seller can use Internet-based resources to compare their home to recently sold homes and homes that are currently on the market. This research will be invaluable to help a seller correctly price their home. ForSaleByOwner.com also offers an online appraisal service that provides a suggested listing price range.
   
   
3. Schedule a Home Inspection: A professional home inspection will provide a seller with a comprehensive report on the home’s condition. Not only will the report serve as a guide to help the seller determine what repairs to make, but prospective buyers will have more confidence making an offer because the report will tell them the condition of the house.
   
   
4. Get Your Home Ready: Now is the time to paint rooms in the house that need a fresh coat of paint and replace worn out carpets to give the home a fresh look. Sellers should also replace old or dated light fixtures and bathroom faucets, as well as rid the home of clutter to make it appear more spacious. Doing all of these things will help sellers get a jump on staging their home once it goes on the market.
   
   
5. Consult a Real Estate Lawyer: Real estate agents don’t handle the legal paperwork, only a real estate attorney or title company can. Consulting a real estate lawyer now will help “by owner” sellers navigate through any state or local real estate laws. ForSaleByOwner.com also offers state-specific real estate legal forms.

ForSaleByOwner.com's Predictions for the 2010 Real Estate Market

ForSaleByOwner.com not only helps connect sellers and buyers through a host of real estate tools and resources, but we are also relied upon by the real estate media to share our thoughts and opinions on the real estate marketplace.

As such, we developed our "Top 10 Predictions for the 2010 Real Estate Market" and shared it with reporters throughout the country. As consumers have become more educated about real estate, we'd like to share our thoughts with our blog followers.

Among our predictions are an increase in sales volume, a decrease in home prices, another increase in buyers using the Internet to search and successfully find their next home, and more home sellers using Internet-based resources to price, market and sell their home without the expense of paying commissions to a real estate broker.

We feel that the behavior of the real estate consumers will continue to change in 2010. More real estate data and information is available through numerous online resources and consumers will rely more on the Internet than real estate agents to buy and sell their homes. Sellers will resist paying real estate commissions and will instead look to ‘by owner’ selling alternatives, especially as falling home prices are motivating sellers to retain as much of their home value as they can as they sell their house.

ForSaleByOwner.com’s Predictions for the 2010 Real Estate Market

1. Overall homes sales – existing home sales and financially distressed homes – stabilized and slightly increased in 2009. Mortgage rates should remain low in 2010 and the extension of the first-time homebuyers tax credit should help the housing market. Prediction: In 2010, all home sales should see a slight increase in volume of 1-2%.

2. The median home sales price was $221,900 in 2006 and fell to $219,000 in 2007 and $198,100 in 2008. Median home sales decreased again in 2009 and will likely end up in the mid $170,000 range. Foreclosed properties and other distressed sales, with their severely discounted prices, helped to lower the median home price in 2009. Prediction: Distressed properties will continue to dominate home sales in 2010 and will keep pricing pressure on homes and they will fall approximately 4-6%.

3. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report, 36% of buyers found the home they purchased by first seeing it online and 36% of buyers found the home they bought through a real estate agent. The Internet and real estate agent as the sources for finding a home have trended in opposite directions annually since 2001, when 48% of buyers found their home through an agent and just 8% found it on the Internet. Prediction: In 2010, for the first-time ever, more people will find the home they purchase by seeing it first on the Internet compared to those who first learned of the home through a real estate agent.

4. Due in part to the $8,000 tax cut for first-time homebuyers, first-timers comprised nearly 50% of all home sales in 2008. Prediction: The extension of the $8,000 tax credit to June 2010 will attract more first-time homebuyers into the market and they will continue to be the most common type of homebuyer in first half of 2010.

5. According to NAR, 90% of all buyers use the Internet as part of their home search, up from 87% in 2008, 84% in 2007 and just 71% in 2003. Prediction: In 2010, more than 90% of all homebuyers will use the Internet to search for a home.

6. According to NAR, home sellers who sell their home “by owner” sell their home in six weeks while those who sell it through an agent sell the home in 12 weeks. NAR also discovered that the “by owner” seller achieves a sales price that is 97% of their asking price, while an agent-assisted seller gets 95% of asking price. Prediction: In 2010, “by owner” sellers will continue to sell their home quicker and for closer to asking price than agent-assisted sellers.

7. In 2000, there were 756,000 members of the National Association of Realtors. As the housing market boomed in the early part of the decade, its membership grew to a peak of 1.37 million members in 2006. People have left the profession as the market declined and NAR’s membership now stands at 1.13 million. Prediction: There will be fewer than one million real estate agents in 2010 due to increased competition for listings and as the Internet makes it easier for people to sell and buy homes without an agent.

8. Real estate agents have historically lowered their commission rates during a seller’s market and increased their rates during a buyer’s market. Prediction: Real estate commission rates have been approximately 5.2% the past couple years and will rise closer to 6% in 2010.

9. As home values have declined, more homeowners have realized that paying commissions to get their home sold decreases the amount they receive even further. Prediction: More home sellers in 2010 will explore other alternatives to paying commission and will choose to sell their home “by owner” to retain more of their home’s value.

10. Studies from Northwestern and Stanford universities have found that people who sell their home “by owner” are as effective as agents in maximizing the sales price of their home. Consumer Reports magazine found that “by owner” sellers get closer to their asking price than agent-represented homes. Prediction: More home sellers in 2010 will utilize Internet-based tools and information to compare recently sold homes and price their home more effectively.

Industry Data Shows FSBOs Sell Quicker & Closer to Asking Price than Agent-Represented Homes

Tucked away in an annual report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) were statistics and data that compared selling through a real estate agent versus selling "for sale by owner." The findings would make any real estate agent cringe and any home seller gain more confidence in selling their own home.

NAR's report (The 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers) found that people who sell their home on their own are able to sell it, on average, in six weeks, while it takes an agent double that time (12 weeks) to sell a home (see above image). The report also found that “by owner” sellers received 97% of their asking price on average, while those represented by an agent got 95% of their asking price on average. Considering that the goal of any home seller is to sell a home for as much money as possible and as quick as possible, this report is strong evidence that selling "by owner" is a smart choice for home sellers.

In addition to selling quicker and for closer to asking price, selling FSBO also allows the home seller to save on commission. Real estate agents typically charge a commission equal to 6% of a home's sales price, or $18,000 on a $300,000 home. As home prices have fallen, more sellers are quickly realizing that real estate commissions are costing them more of their home's value.

ForSaleByOwner.com has seen double digit growth in the second half of 2009 and our extensive real estate resources & tools help customers price, market and sell their home in an effective and cost-saving manner. Use our "Home Seller's Checklist" to learn how to become a "for sale by owner" home seller.

Tips on How to Price a Home

A home's asking price is one of the first pieces of information that buyers will want to know about any home on the market. If sellers price it too high they risk scaring potential buyers away. If it's too low the sellers risks risk losing money. In order to price a home accurately, a "by owner" seller has to become educated about the local real estate market. Doing so will allow the seller to set an asking price that will compete favorably against other comparable homes.

But don't worry, it's easy to do if you just follow these simple steps:

1. Know the Competition: Visit real estate websites and drive through your local area to search for homes for sale that are similar to yours in size, number of bedrooms & bathrooms, lot size and square footage. Educate yourself about their asking prices and, especially for condos, calculate the price per square foot. Trulia.com will do most of this work for you and allows you to print out a list of comparable homes, but you'll also want to visit Realtor.com and ForSaleByOwner.com to get a more complete list of available homes on the market.

2. Visit Open Houses: Now that you know what's on the market, visit as many open houses as you can in order to find out how your home compares to others. Your goal is to learn as much about those homes as possible, such as upgrades and renovations to the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms.

3. Learn About Recently Sold Properties: Your next step in educating yourself about the local market is learning how much homes have sold for in the recent past. Home sale information is public information and can be found a number of ways. Your county clerk's office and/or local town hall can provide you with this data, but the Internet has made the task even easier. Trulia.com and Zillow.com each have a "Recently Sold" feature that will list all information about properties that have sold near any given address.

4. Get a Starting Point: For a simple, cost-effective way to get a ballpark range of how much your home is worth, consider getting an Automated Valuation Model (AVM). Similar to a real estate agent’s Comparative Market Analysis, an AVM will compare your home to similar nearby recently sold properties. The AVM won’t know if your home has an upgraded kitchen, finished basement or new roof, etc., but it will give you a suggested range to price your home. The AVM will also provide you with a list of nearby recently sold properties. ForSaleByOwner.com offers an AVM tool that is available here.

5. Evaluate Your Research: Now that you have information about homes currently on the market, data on recently sold properties and a price range, you have all the data you need to compare your home to others in your neighborhood and local area. Evaluate the information you have learned and ask yourself how your home stacks up with the others. Be honest. What condition is it in and how does in compare in location, features and aspects like a remodeled master bathroom?

6. Live in the Now: One of the biggest mistakes sellers are doing in today's market is pricing their home at price points of one, two or three years ago. The national median home price has dropped more than 15% in the past 12 months (in markets in CA, FL and AZ the median home price has fallen by more than 20 percent!), and those that price their home too long will just see it sit on the market. The homes that are selling today are those that are priced competitively to other homes are on the market, providing buyers with the sense that they are getting "a good deal."

7. Take Advantage of Being "For Sale By Owner": Owners of homes being sold through a real estate agent will have to fork over expensive commission fees equal to 5-6% of their home's sale price (or $18,000 for a $300,000 home). Or, in other words, the seller of that $300,000 home will only "pocket" $282,000. As a smart "for sale by owner" home seller, you won't have that expense and -- depending on how quickly you want to sell -- you have the unique ability to price your home anywhere in that $282,000-$300,000 range and still come out ahead financially compared to sellers of similar homes. You'll also be able to get more buyers as well because they'll be attracted to your home's asking price.

8. Set the Price: The time has come. You now have a complete picture of your real estate marketplace. Set the price using all the information you've learned through the above steps.

Congratulations! You have reached a major milestone in your home selling process. Not only have you arrived at an asking price, you have become an expert in your local real estate market. Prospective buyers will be impressed with your sense of knowledge and honest assessment of your home's value, and you'll be able to communicate about its strengths and weaknesses as compared to other homes in your neighborhood, town and area.

Qualifying Buyers for a Mortgage

One of the biggest headaches any home seller can experience is working with an interested buyer and negotiating a sales price, only to find days or weeks later that the buyer is unable to obtain a mortgage. That's precious time wasted and perhaps you even turned down offers from other interested parties.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, roughly half of all mortgage applications are being rejected. Lenders aren’t giving mortgages to just anyone nowadays. They’re turning down applicants who don’t have a high enough credit score or are not making a sufficient down payment.

As a seller, you’ll want to focus your attention on those who can afford your home and can get the necessary mortgage necessary. Ask interested buyers if they have a pre-approval letter from a mortgage lender. They might say that they are “pre-qualified,” which isn’t as strong as being pre-approved because the lender has not verified the buyer’s credit score, income, assets or liabilities. (click here for more about pre-qualified vs. pre-approved).

If the buyer is pre-approved, great! If not, before you spend any significant amount of time negotiating a sales price, ask that they take the important step of getting pre-approved. Not only will you be putting yourself in a situation to only work with those who are more likely to get a mortgage, you will be providing sound advice to buyers who will gain more confidence in buying a “for sale by owner” home without the help of a real estate agent.

Tell them to visit local banks that handle mortgages or contact any of the large home lenders, such as Wells Fargo or Bank of America, to get a pre-approval letter. Online lender Quicken Loans can even help buyers get fully approved for up to four months while they shop for a home.

Having your buyer get pre-approved is actually a very simple process and will benefit both you and the buyer.

Competing Against Distressed Properties

With distressed sales accounting for half of all home sales, many home sellers are finding that traditional sales are competing with discounted prices offered by foreclosed properties and short sales in their local area. To help home sellers attract buyers and compete against the discounted prices offered by distressed properties, ForSaleByOwner.com offers the following tips and advice:

Skip the Agent: Housing has lost more than $6 trillion in value since 2006, and hiring a real estate agent can cost as much as another 6 percent of the home's sales price. Selling “by owner” will allow the seller to save that money while also marketing the home at a competitive asking price. The National Association of Realtors also recently found that “by owner” sellers actually sell quicker and for closer to asking price than agent-represented sellers.

Price the Home Correctly: Home sellers need to price their home according to today’s market and not based on the high price that a neighbor might have received a few years ago. Using a combination of an online appraisal and a licensed home appraiser will help today’s seller price the home accurately based on recent sales activity.

Market the Home More Effectively: Traditional home sellers have access to more marketing channels than distressed properties, since not all distressed properties are found on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), popular websites like Realtor.com or by owner websites like ForSaleByOwner.com. Traditional home sellers, including for sale by owner sellers, can market their properties with these resources to reach a larger audience of buyers than financially distressed homes. (info on getting your FSBO home on Realtor.com)

Keep the Home in Top Condition: Foreclosed homes are typically in disrepair and are in need of some repair or renovation due after having been left vacant. It can easily cost a new owner tens of thousands of dollars and months of work to get the home back in shape. A home seller should stage their home to give it the appearance of being in “move in” condition. The house, as well as all closets, should be kept clean and free of clutter to create the appearance of a more spacious home. Sellers can make their home stand out by doing things like landscaping the front yard to improve curb appeal, replacing worn-out carpets and old appliances, applying new paint in key interior rooms, and tackling other minor home improvement projects.

Offer a Quick Closing: An advantage of being a conventional home seller is being able to offer a quick closing, often an advantage for buyers who wish to move quickly. Distressed properties can take many months to reach a closing date. Sellers should be prepared to offer a 30-day closing date to attract buyer who wants to move quickly.

Qualify Interested Buyers: Nothing is more discouraging than spending weeks with a prospective buyer, only to learn that he or she is unable to obtain a mortgage. To avoid such situations, make sure that your buyer is pre-approved for the loan amount necessary to finance the purchase of your home.

Get Help with the Paperwork: For a couple of hundred dollars, a local real estate attorney or a title company will craft and review all contracts between you and the seller, and ensure that you are adhering to all state and local disclosure requirements. Remind buyers that while a real estate agent isn't needed to buy real estate, that they should get an attorney and/or title company to handle their paperwork.

Customers Ask, ForSaleByOwner.com Listens & Responds

Unlike many "by owner" real estate websites, ForSaleByOwner.com offers live customer support and we answer questions about buying or selling a home. Here's a good question that was recently asked of us that is applicable to many home sellers:

Once I have accepted an offer, do I have to take my home off the market or can I wait until they are approved for their mortgage? - Pete in Gallup, New Mexico

And our response:

Pete,

Hindsight is always 20-20, it is recommended that sellers pre-approve interested buyers before any offer is submitted or accepted. That is especially true for today's market, where buyers are having a harder time getting financing due to stricter mortgage guidelines. The pre-approval process doesn't take that long, and can be even be done through an online lender like Quicken Loans.

In your situation, does the Offer to Purchase state anything about taking the home off the market? In New Mexico, like most other states, most real estate contracts stipulate that once an offer has been accepted, the seller must disclose to other parties who come forward that the property is "Under Contract" but that the seller is accepting "Backup Offers."

We recommend that sellers and buyers hire a real estate lawyer to handle the sales contract, and provide counsel on all state and local laws.

-------

Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/FSBO_Guy

Sold By ForSaleByOwner.com

We're using today's blog post to ask recent ForSaleByOwner.com customers to share their tips on what they did to get their home sold in today's marketplace. Share any tips and pieces of advice so that others may learn from your successful experience and get their home sold while saving on commisison.

Below are some of the most frequently asked questions by FSBO sellers, so address one or more of these topics as you share your advice.

- How did you arrive at an asking price?
- Did you hold open houses?
- How did you know that interested buyers were qualified for a mortgage (did you ask for a pre-approval letter,etc)
- How did you handle negotiations with the buyer, etc?
- Who handled the legal work and other paperwork needed to complete the real estate transaction.
- How much did you save on commission?
- What other advice would you share?

Post your advice by clicking on the below "comments" link.

Adding an MLS Listing to Your FSBO Strategy

Once upon a time, only a real estate agent had access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which is a database of homes currently on the market. The MLS is a great marketing tool for any seller who wants to generate more exposure for their home. As this video explains, ForSaleByOwner.com offers a service that will put a seller's home on the MLS.

Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/FSBO_Guy

How to Hold a Successful Open House

If properly done, holding an Open House is an effective way to generate more marketing exposure and attract interested buyers. But it’s not as simple as tidying up and inviting people to walk through your home.

To get the most out of your Open House, follow these tips:

• Make Sure Your House Is Ready: Just because you put your house on the market doesn’t mean it’s ready for inspection by prospective homebuyers. Your house has only one chance to make a great impression, so make you do a thorough cleaning and make any minor home maintenance projects that would make it more aesthetically pleasing. For helping locating skilled professionals in any home improvement area, visit our free “Find a Pro” section.
  
• Weekends are Best: Open Houses are traditionally held on non-holiday Sunday between 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Let people know that you’re having an Open House by placing directional yard signs at key intersections. ForSaleByOwner.com also lets sellers schedule and advertise their Open House event on their online property ad, and allows buyers to search for properties having upcoming Open Houses.
  
• Stage Your Home: People arrange their furniture and decorations based on their family’s lifestyle and tastes, but buyers are mostly attracted to homes that appear spacious. So you’ll want to stage your house so it makes a great first impression. Here’s more on how to stage a home.
  
• Create a Sign-In Sheet: Create a simple sheet that asks people to provide their name, phone number and e-mail address.
  
• Print Our Property Flyers: Print out plenty of copies of your ForSaleByOwner.com property flyer so that prospective buyers have information on the house and your contact info.
  
• Offer Refreshments: One of the oldest tricks of the trade is baking cookies right before an Open House. It gives the house a pleasant aroma of baked goods and the treats give people a reason to stay and ask questions about the house, which will provide you with more opportunities to talk about its features.
  
• Get Freshly Cut Flowers: Is there a better way to complement your home’s beauty with a vase of freshly cut flowers? Buy them from a local florist so that when people inevitably remark how nice they are, you can ease into a conversation about the terrific shops and restaurants located nearby.
  
• Keep a Professional Mindset: Visitors may make comments about what they do not like about the home. As a “by owner” seller, you have to keep a professional mindset and understand that you are not selling your home but rather a house for others to decorate as they see fit.
  
• Answer Questions About The House: You can never anticipate the wide range of questions that a prospective buyer might ask about the house and local community, but be prepared to answer questions about property taxes and the age of the roof, heating and cooling units, and major appliances. For questions that you don’t know the answer to, tell that you’ll call them with an answer.
  
• Find Out If an Interested Party is Pre-Approved: Not every person who comes through your house will be interested. But for those who ask questions indicating that they might be, don’t be afraid to inquire if they are pre-approved for a mortgage. If they are not, recommend that they contact a financial lender or a mortgage broker to take the necessary steps. They can also begin the pre-approval process here.
  
• Follow-Up: Within a day of your Open House, send a “Thank You” email to everyone who took the time to visit your house. Include a link to your ForSaleByOwner.com listing and ask if they had any questions regarding the house. A few days later, call up each person who visited your Open House and – in a friendly manner – ask if they are considering your house. If they are not, thank them for their time and ask if they have any feedback that might make the house attractive to other buyers. For those that are interested, offer them the opportunity to come back. Without getting your hopes up, be prepared by getting state-specific real estate forms needed to begin the formal sales process.

The $8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit

In an attempt to help stimulate the housing market, the Federal government recently enacted a new Home Buyer Tax Credit for first-time home buyers who purchase a principal residence. The tax credit is equal to 10% of a home’s purchase amount or $8,000, whichever is less.

A tax credit is direct dollar-for-dollar reduction in what a taxpayer owes in taxes. A person who owes $8,000 in income taxes and is eligible for the full $8,000 home buyer’s tax credit would owe nothing in federal taxes.

In order to qualify for the tax credit, the buyer has to meet the following general parameters:

• Be a First-Time Home Buyer: The law defines this as a buyer who has not had ownership of any principal residence in the past three years.
  
  
• Buy a Principal Residence: Any home that will be used as a principal place of residence will qualify, including condos, newly constructed homes and manufactured homes. The home will also have to be purchased by December 1, 2009. (the tax credit is also retroactive to purchases made on or after Jan. 1, 2009)
  
  
• Meet Certain Income Thresholds: In order to qualify for the full $8,000 tax credit, a single taxpayer cannot have a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) that is greater than $75,000. For married taxpayers who are filing a joint return, the MAGI limit is $150,000. For those with higher incomes than these thresholds, the tax credit is reduced and is phased out completely for single taxpayers with a MAGI of $95,000 or more, and for married taxpayers with a MAGI of $170,000 or higher.
  

The District of Columbia also offers a first-time home buyer tax credit, but a taxpayer can only choose this local tax credit or the Federal tax credit.

Home buyers are becoming more aware of this tax credit and are using it to minimize to offset the costs of a home’s down payment. Sellers should also be aware of this tax credit, so that they can relay this important information to prospective buyers.

For more information about the home buyer’s tax credit, ask your accountant or visit http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com.

Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/FSBO_Guy

Myths on Buying & Selling Your Home

On NBC's Today show, Barbara Corcoran offered her "Five Biggest Real Estate Myths." As she normally does, she gave some very sound advice that I thought I'd pass along.

Barbara Corcoran's "Five Biggest Real Estate Myths"

1. Sellers Today Are Desparate
2. Dont's Buy Before Prices Have Bottomed
3. You Can't Buy a Home With Less than 20% Down
4. Now's the Absolute Worst Time to Sell
5. Before You Refinance, Shop Around

Watch the Complete Video Here:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/FSBO_Guy

A Real Estate Agent Speaks the Truth

I came across this interesting article today, and was very impressed with the honesty and candor of the ReMax real estate agent who authored it. Usually it's a financial adviser or someone from the "for sale by owner" crowd who advises people to sell their home without an agent and save thousands in commissions (studies from Northwestern & Stanford universities say the same thing, by the way).

Read what this agent has to say. I'll let his words do the talking that, especially in this weak housing market, using a service like ForSaleByOwner.com might be the best option for home sellers.

New Access to Realtor.com

Today ForSaleByOwner.com became the nation’s first “by owner” real estate website to enable home sellers to advertise their home on Realtor.com without appearing on a local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This new direct access to Realtor.com follows the May 2008 settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors.

Greg Healy, Vice President of Operations at ForSaleByOwner.com, stated, "We’re proud to be the first to offer this new consumer-friendly access to Realtor.com. In today’s challenging housing market, sellers need cost-saving ways to sell their homes."

Learn more on how to advertise your home on Realtor.com.

Tips for Selling in a Tough Market

Today the latest S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index was released, showing that most of the nation's largest markets suffered double-digit drops over last year. As the home prices have dropped, more people are realizing just how costly it is to pay that 6% real estate commission.

By providing online marketing, property pricing reports, real estate resources and access to legal forms, ForSaleByOwner.com offers all the tools that homeowners need to market and sell their home in today’s tough real estate market. We'd like to offer these “Top 5 Tips” to help people get started on how to sell their home “for sale by owner.”

1. Be Your Own Agent: An agent’s commission cost home sellers 6% of their home’s value. ForSaleByOwner.com customers are able to competitively price their home compared to similar homes represented by agents and still come out ahead financially because they are not paying commission. In addition, separate recent studies by professors at two of the nation’s most prestigious universities, Northwestern and Stanford, determined that unrepresented homeowners are as effective at maximizing the sales price of their home as agents.
2. Use the Internet to Market the Home: More than 84% of buyers use the Internet to search for a home. Putting a home on ForSaleByOwner.com helps home sellers market their home to nearly 2 million people monthly. Online property listings should boast multiple high quality, digital photographs of their home’s interior and exterior. Homes with multiple photographs receive more attention from buyers. The online listing should be combined with a yard sign to attract people driving by the home.
3. Price the Home Accurately: The market in 2008 is very different from a few years ago when bidding wars drove up home prices. In today’s market, home sellers need to become more educated about their local real estate market so that they can effectively price their house. To make it easy, ForSaleByOwner.com provides its customers with a customized property pricing report that contains recent home sales data and home valuation data. Sellers should also research their neighborhood to compare the listing prices of similar houses and use that information to competitively price their home.
4. Consider Placing the Home on the MLS: The Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, is a complete inventory of homes on the market. Sellers should remember they no longer need a real estate agent or broker to get their home on the MLS, and their home can be placed on the MLS through ForSaleByOwner.com.
5. Don’t Be Afraid of the Paperwork: While one of the biggest myths in real estate is that agents handle the legal paperwork, the fact is that other professionals provide these services. Whether a seller uses an agent or goes “for sale by owner,” outside help is needed to navigate through the legal process of transferring the title. A real estate attorney or title company will prepare and handle all of the legal paperwork for sellers.