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March 11th, 2006: CNN's Open House CNN SHOW: OPEN HOUSE 9:30 AM EST March 11, 2006 Saturday TRANSCRIPT: 031101CN.V03 SECTION: NEWS; Domestic LENGTH: 3649 words HEADLINE: Giving Your Home A Great First Impression; Detroit Home Prices Suffering With Auto Industry; Man Gives New Meaning To For Sale By Owner; Sprucing Up For Spring BYLINE: Gerri Willis GUESTS: Colby Sambratto HIGHLIGHT: Good morning. I'm Gerri Willis. Today on OPEN HOUSE, we'll take a look at selling your home without a real estate agent, and when it makes sense for you. WILLIS: In this softening market, are auctions or any kind of do-it-yourself deals right? Colby Sambratto is here to sort it all out. Colby, great to see you. COLBY SAMBRATTO, FORSALEBYOWNER.COM: Thanks for having me. WILLIS: Well, let's start right there. The market's a little weaker. Maybe there are a few buyers out there. SAMBRATTO: Right. WILLIS: So should you go it alone without a professional? (CROSSTALK) SAMBRATTO: Our opinion is, you should, because the benefits far outweigh maybe the time you're going to have to invest in the process. So, in most markets, maybe you're seeing some cooling off in the hot markets, Southern California, Washington, D.C., southern Florida. But the nation's a patchwork of regional markets, and most of those markets, from our experience, are still fairly solid. So you can do it. WILLIS: Well, if you are in one of those markets that's drifting a little bit lower, then should you think about getting a professional? Is that that kind of a decision? SAMBRATTO: Well, we still think it's in your best interests to give it a shot. I mean, you really -- the cost savings are so enormous that you owe it to yourself to try to sell the house without paying that big commission. WILLIS: Well, and let's talk about that. The median price of a home right now would indicate a commission of about $12,600. That's not chump change, obviously. SAMBRATTO: Right. WILLIS: But it's a lot of work to sell your own house. How much time does it take? SAMBRATTO: Well, you're going to invest some time, most likely, unless you come from a real estate background, in educating yourself about the process. But the good news is that the information's on the Web. On most Web sites, you can -- many real estate Web sites, so you can educate yourself about the process. You can now use the Web for marketing, so there's a lot of tools available to you now that weren't available to you about five years ago, so... WILLIS: Absolutely. And lots of tools out there. Cheaper MLS listings, you can just get the MLS listing, which is the multiple listing service. SAMBRATTO: Sure. WILLIS: Tell us about that, because your Web site does that. SAMBRATTO: It's a hybrid service so that you retain the right to sell by owner if it sells through, let's say, our service, you pay zero percent commission. If it sells through your MLS listing, if you accept a buyer from the MLS, you're obligated for -- to pay a commission between 2.5 to 3 percent. WILLIS: So you do pay something for it, but it gets your word out to more and more people. Let's talk about marketing without the MLS. SAMBRATTO: OK. WILLIS: What do you do, the newspaper? Do you use those circulars, those FISBO (ph) circulars? SAMBRATTO: We could. And a lot of our customers do use offline marketing in conjunction with online marketing. The big statistic nowadays is that over three-quarters of all buyers start their search for a new home on the Web. So it's a powerful tool. WILLIS: Yes. SAMBRATTO: Realtors use it. Owners can use it too. WILLIS: OK. Obviously, the Web very important here. SAMBRATTO: Right. WILLIS: What is the biggest mistake that most homeowners make when they try to sell on their own? SAMBRATTO: Pricing it incorrectly, right out of the gate. WILLIS: Too high, right? SAMBRATTO: Too high. WILLIS: And how do you figure that out? Because it's not intuitive. Look, even brokers get it wrong sometimes. SAMBRATTO: Sure, and they use comparables. And that's what we advise our sellers to use. Again, the good news that a lot of these tools are available to you. You can go on the Web. There's new companies like Zillow out there now that you can go on, and you can see what your home is worth, according to publicly accessible databases. After that, you have to do a little bit of work to figure out, you know, what is fair market value for your home. And that's a little different than just looking in a database. And there's some things you can do to do that. WILLIS: Who is selling on your own right for? What kind of person should be doing this? Because, I mean, let's face it, a lot of people just don't have the time for it. SAMBRATTO: Right. You know, traditionally, it was people who've gone through the process maybe once or twice before, they were comfortable with it. And they knew why it made sense, and they knew that they could handle it. Nowadays, we're seeing people who are first-time home sellers who've spent the time to educate themselves to do it. They're comfortable but working their way through the process. People who can't probably do it are people who don't have the time. You're going to have to show that property. So if you're too busy to be at your house to show your home to potential buyers, it's maybe not the best choice ... (CROSSTALK) WILLIS: And you do have other professionals along the way. There's an attorney there. They're going to help you get the deal done. SAMBRATTO: Right. WILLIS: There are lots of people who have a vested interest in getting this deal done. SAMBRATTO: We always tell people, Don't, you know, don't get too uptight. It's not rocket science. In this country there's three steps to selling real estate, there's pricing it, marketing it, and then ultimately the transfer of title. The transfer of title, you're always going to have a real estate attorney or a ... (CROSSTALK) WILLIS: Somebody. SAMBRATTO: ... helping you out. So it's not like you're going to be doing it by yourself. You'll have help along the way. WILLIS: All right. Colby Sambratto, thanks for joining us today. SAMBRATTO: Thanks for having me. WILLIS: Appreciate it. |
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