Can I call Realtors to let them know about my FSBO house?
I want to unofficially put my house on the market to sell it in the next 6 months. Can I call a few local Realtors who have sold houses in my neighborhood and tell them I’ll give them 4% if they find a buyer. Or should I only post ads on the internet?
I have 50% equity, so there wouldn’t be an issue with the banks.
Absolutely. This is a very good idea for you.
However, I would call their brokers (their bosses) instead of the individual realtors. Ask those brokers to bring their whole office of realtors by your house after one of their sales meetings. These meetings are generally on Tuesday mornings. This way, instead of getting one realtor per phone call, you’ll get entire offices with one phone call.
And this way, the realtors in the offices that you call will feel like they’ve got an advantage over their competitors at other offices, because they know where one more home for sale is than those other realtors. To the realtors that know about your home for sale, it will become known as a "pocket listing". This is a listing that a realtor knows about, but that does not show up on the local MLS.
And by the way, 4% is too much. Only offer 3%, because that’s all that a realtor would get from any other home for sale on their local MLS.
Good luck to you! Oh, and you also need to be prepared for 50+ different realtors to ask you to list your home with them. This is just a by-product of what you’re about to do. Just deal with it.
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:41 am
Absolutely! Though, don’t be surprised if only a few take you up on it and actually bring clients to see your house. They may consider it disloyal to other Realtors to show a house that isn’t listed by a Realtor.
But, 4% is very generous. They typically would get only 3% on a 6% commission (half goes to the listing broker and half goes to the selling broker’s office).
Good luck on the sale of your house!
References :
former Realtor
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
You can try it, but most will not be receptive, because they will not trust you. This kind of arrangement, a non-exclusive listing, is seen in commercial contexts, but somewhat rare in the context of residential property.
References :
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 pm
I recently sold a house on a "limited service listing". I had tried to sell it myself for about 2 years, unsuccessfully. I made two big mistakes! I spent a lot of money advertising the property slightly above what I should have expected to get. and I could not get enough exposure in the market place by myself.
So, I found a broker to whom I paid $350 up front. He did a market comparison of my house versus recent sales and it proved I was about 5% too high. He listed my house on the MLS service, and a broker-only internet service. That was much better exposure than I could get from costly newspaper ads. I personally did all the open houses. He provided me with blank forms and advice.
The house then sold in 40 days! The broker collected one half of a percent at the closing.
So it worked for me, and I hope it works for you!
References :
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Absolutely. This is a very good idea for you.
However, I would call their brokers (their bosses) instead of the individual realtors. Ask those brokers to bring their whole office of realtors by your house after one of their sales meetings. These meetings are generally on Tuesday mornings. This way, instead of getting one realtor per phone call, you’ll get entire offices with one phone call.
And this way, the realtors in the offices that you call will feel like they’ve got an advantage over their competitors at other offices, because they know where one more home for sale is than those other realtors. To the realtors that know about your home for sale, it will become known as a "pocket listing". This is a listing that a realtor knows about, but that does not show up on the local MLS.
And by the way, 4% is too much. Only offer 3%, because that’s all that a realtor would get from any other home for sale on their local MLS.
Good luck to you! Oh, and you also need to be prepared for 50+ different realtors to ask you to list your home with them. This is just a by-product of what you’re about to do. Just deal with it.
References :