bennnie

Collette - the St. Joseph statue should be buried upside down in your backyard. And you have to say a particular prayer every day. (Can't remember the exact prayer) My mom buried hers upside down in a potted plant in her dining room. When I told her to move it to her backyard her house sold at darn close to full price. Personally I think its the prayer that works not the location of the statue.

Good Luck and God Bless you.

Rachel

I will let the truth out-I am a lawyer and a large part of my pratice is residential real estate. I have no ties to realtors-sometimes they are the biggest pain in the butt. Here's my tips-
St. Joseph-upside down and facing east.
FSBO-sometimes it works out but here's the pitfalls-1. every loser who will not qualify for a loan will look at your house and come up with some stupid financial sceme to buy it. You'll think you have it sold, only to have the sale fall through is what i've always been told. 2. unless you get a good appraisal, you will price it too high or too low. Too high, it wont sell; too low, well, maybe that realtor's commission was worth it. 3. Safety-especially if your wife will be home alone. Do not overlook this.
Even if you end up with no profit, 4. remember, you had to live somewhere; had you paid rent, you would have even less to show. 5. YOu will lose a big chunk of the market as realtors will be reluctant to show your house as FSBO, and if it does sell, you will have to pay part of the commission anyways 6. the best compromise is to try the FSBO route for a set time period, and if it doesnt sell, list it. Good luck

Patrick

Well, Mark, you asked for advice and you've been given a lot. It's up to you to decide if you want to listen to advice or if your mind was already made up anyway.

One further point. I would guess that 9 out of 10 calls to a for sale-by-owner, and nearly half of the ones that lead to a showing, will be from realtors who will be trying to get your listing, or viewing your property to assess the market. Just be prepared for that major aggravation if you plan to remain firm about not letting a professional handle the sale.

cd

Mark
The Realtor's will call. You can offer to let them bring their buyers thru and you will pay 3% commission if they sell it.

mclaurie

Curious why nobody has mentioned the possibility of doing BOTH at the same time. There should be a way to list the house with brokers but also stipulate that if you sell the house on your own, you're not expected to pay commission (or pay a reduced commission). I have seen this done when someone felt brokers were not giving their house enough attention. If your house is valued toward the lower end of the market, many brokers would rather spend their time selling higher priced homes to get higher commission for basically the same a mount of work. Years ago when I was selling a studio apt in NYC, I tried selling it myself through an ad in the NYTimes because brokers wanted to sell bigger, more $ properties. Many brokers responded to the ad & I allowed them to show the apt. That's how it was ultimately sold-through a broker who had answered my ad.

There have been other times I've been shown a house by a broker & arrived to find a for sale by owner sign on the front lawn. I may have felt "gee, wish I had known..." but it didn't affect my feelings about the house one way or the other.

beachdreams

I can not speak for NY but can attest to the fact that it will be very hard to find a RE Agent who is willing to go for that kind of agreement. In fact I have never heard of this happening. The agreement you sign is for a set amount of time and with that agency. Basically if they signed that agreement, they would be forking over the costs of advertising for free if you sold it yourself (and my opinion is, if you used their advertising, you really are not selling your home yourself).

As for agents coming by, I just asked 3 of my friends who are residential agents (none of which I will use because of the friendship/business thing) but they said that they personally will not call on someone who is selling themselves even if they think the owner may actually pay the fees because it is too much of a hassle.

wolfshin

This is how we sold our home in one weekend without a realtor.
1) We determined what a fair market price was for the house by asking three realtors to view the house and give recommendations.
2) We advertised in all newspapers with the explanation that the house will be sold to the highest QUALIFIED bidder at 5PM Sunday. (Open house was on Sat and Sunday). Make sure you have on your information sheet what is included and what is not. Make sure you keep a record of who calls to inquire and who sees the house. Make sure you mention what you will accept as the lowest offer, which was our asking price. Make sure you have a real estate attorney ready to go.
3)We sold our house for $10,000 over our asking price, with three interested parties.
4)If you do not sell your house in one weekend--or two if you have no takers--go to a realtor, but make sure you give them a list of all inquiries, so if someone calls back at a later date, you will not have to pay a commission on the contact that YOU made.
5)Make sure the buyer gives you evidence that they are pre-qualified for a mortgage...the attorney will do the rest.
6) Remember, nothing is set in stone until the contract is out of attorney review. Even then, the buyer can back-out if they do not like what is found during house inspection, whether you use a realtor or not,so make sure your house is in good shape. Good luck.

mclaurie

wolfshin's story (which is a good idea) reminds me I've heard of people having a yard sale/garage sale at a house they want to sell to get people there. (You need someone else to run the yard sale with good stuff!) When people arrive and see the for sale sign for the house you can get some interest.

Austin

Cassidy- (And Mark?) FSBOs are always contacted by a buyers' realtor. It's up to them whether or not they want to accept and pay a realtor. My guess is that if a FSBO doesn't want to work with any realtor, they will greatly reduce (even further) their potential buyers and probably find themselves calling a realtor after their house sits on the market for quite some time. I think that again they won't be ahead in the game at all if they continue to pay a mortgage for potentially much longer than they would if they either had a realtor sell it or accepted customers of a realtor.

LN

This became a very interesting thread and I've certainly enjoyed it.

I don't know if you've decided to go with FSBO Mark but with the various avenues of advice given you've a couple doors open to you.

ronkala

Our house in Northern VA had been on the market six months before we heard of using St Joseph. We went to a Catholic specialty shop in Woodbridge and told the sales clerk that we were looking for a statue of St joseph. The clerk asked if this was to help in selling a house, and showed us a kit which also contained the prayer to be read every day. We wewre told to bury the statue upside down facing the street. Within three weeks we had a contract. The statue was dug up, passed on to a friend in Culpeper, and his house sold shortly afterwards.

Anonymous

The St. Joseph in question is the very same one that's in your household nativity set, no need to buy a special one.

I used the St. Joseph from our plastic, kids' nativity set, figuring that he'd be the most sympathetic to our cause. Also, figuring that he'd get lonely, I put a shepherd in there with him (more of a peer than a Wise Man would've been). As Ronkala explained, he goes upside-down, facing the street, in front of the house. Put him (or, in my case, them) in a ziplock baggie for protection, and mark the spot so you can find him later.

Canned prayers are OK, but I took the extemporaneous route, with plenty of explanations as well as exhortations.

I signed with an agent on Tuesday, we had an open house on Sunday that started at 2 PM, and by 2:30 I had a valid offer for $5K more than my asking price. We were IN our new house exactly 2 months after the day we decided to move.

I guess it's one of those can't-hurt-might-help things.

BTW, I also did everything else that agents mention to improve curb (and overall) appeal: I cleaned the house thoroughly, painted the front steps and door, etc. etc.

ColletteRI

For all those folks who did sell immediately or even over selling price, I assume you were in strong housing markets. I am in Raleigh Durham area which is very very slow ( I guess because of all the high tech lay offs). Also there are loads of new developments always popping up with cheaper prices. People here are extremely fussy. Unless the house is perfect you don't get an offer.
So, Mark.. original poster... what is the market like where you are?

As for St Joe's I better dig him up and put him back upside down. The little kit did not say that though I had heard it... The prayer they included is :
"
"O good St Joseph, patron saint of home and family and Foster Father of Jesus please intercede with Jesus and grant us this humble request. We have many happy memories of our home but it is time to move on. Please find another family who will love our home as we do. Thank you St Joseph for presenting our petition to Jesus>"

So, you can see I know it by heart and say it about 5 times a day.. not bad for a non-Catholic Girl.

cd

Also not Catholic but I'm a believer that St Joe is a great Agent! As a Lutheran, when my Catholic friend buried St Joe in her back yard upside down and prayed to sell her condo, I laughed!!It sold in 3 weeks...We, at the time had a sailboat for sale as we had already purchased another larger one. Soooo we put St Joe in the bilge and she sold in 3 weeks. 5 yrs later we wanted to sell the larger boat and again put St Joe in the bilge....yep, sold in a month!!!We are now getting ready to sell our home and you can bet St Joe will go into the ground upside down and we will talk to him and Jesus and our parents who are all residents of Heaven.

ColletteRI

Yeah, I hear you... I am saying that prayer like crazy and also begging for a little help from my grandma and Dad up there in Heaven. I went out in the rain last night to dig him up and put him back upside down. Here's hoping.

Patrick

Speaking of the absurd -- buried statues bringing luck -- I have another sure fire method. My house had been for sale for over three months. Then one morning I stubbed my toe on the bed frame. Within an hour the phone rang and an agent had an offer for the house. So just like St. Joe, I can guarantee that if you stub your toe you will sell your house.

RandyK

This is an interesting thread. I have a board member who is a FSBO broker. He does have people selling their homes that way, but if you want to sell, does it really "pay" to try to do it by yourself? Do the math on what it costs to remain in the home--not just the mortgage, but everything---taxes, utilities, homeowner association fees--everything. Take the monthly amount and multiply that by the number of months you think it will take you to sell the home. Then multiply by 2 which may be a more realistic timeframe. Are you really losing equity if you sell it sooner with a realtor's fee??? IF you want to save some $$$, negotiate the realtor fee. EVERYTHING is negotiable. I sold my last home at $375,000 and only paid the full fee for the first $100K and paid 3.5 for the rest. I sold my first home 20 years ago ($65K) for a 4% fee instead of 6% during one of the most depressed housing markets.

IF you've got the time and the skill, FSBO is always an option but most people don't have the patience and skill required to make this work.

Mark---let us know what you decide and come back to us when you've sold!

I don't work in real estate and only hate buying and selling a home a bit less than buying a car. Still, if my goal is to move a home rapidly, I'll go with the pro every time.