Flat Fee MLS

Know what other homes have sold for and get an appraisal on your home.

The single biggest reason for sale by owner homes fail is
because the owner has set an asking price far above what other
houses in the neighborhood have sold for.

If you have your for sale by owner house overpriced, don’t rush out and hire a real estate agent to represent you thinking that he or she will sell your house for what you are asking. The first thing your real estate agent will do is order an appraisal and check comparable properties to see what other homes in your neighborhood have sold for recently. You should do the same.

You want to set a realistic price on your house. Otherwise, you may not even get any calls to show it. If your listing shows your house priced well above other homes in your area, potential buyers will not even call. That’s why it is important that you set the right price before you list your home.

There are two primary and very effective methods for arriving at the right price:

• Comparative Market Analysis
• Appraisal

Good thing for you that you can order both of these online.

See Also

• Tips On Pricing Your Home
  Learn more about pricing your house right with a comparative market analysis or electronic appraisal.

Bookmark to:

Compare apples to apples and don’t list too high

So you are going to put your house on the market next week. Don’t be in too big a rush. You might underprice your home.

Most sellers are more in danger of overpricing their home than underpricing it. Historically, that’s what many home owners do. They are overconfident. They let their home sit on the market for too long at too high a price and when they finally discover they have priced themselves out of the market, it’s almost too late. Their best remedy at that point is to take their home off the market and relist it a few weeks later. That’s not a good strategy.

Many are waiting until next week to list. I suggest you wait until January the 8th and be careful. Expect an increase of listings friday the 5th. A smart agent will encourage you to list that day and have you take the weekend off. One purpose is to see if you get multiple offers.

That’s a worthy suggestion. See what the competition is doing. Most likely, the other home owners will be overpriced. But don’t list your house at the same price as other houses on the market right now. Proper market research includes a comparative market analysis that goes back six months and looks at house within a few mile radius of your property and of similar size and with similar amenities. That way, you are comparing apples to apples.

See Also

• Price Your Home To Sell
  Get a CMA before you list your house in order to prevent yourself from overpricing or underpricing your property.

Bookmark to:

Expect this tool to become more popular in 2007

Call it virtual voyeurism: By August 2006, 51% of all Internet users had taken a virtual tour of a piece of real estate, according to the latest release from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, up from 45% in November 2004.

You can expect in increase in these numbers in the next couple of years. Virtual tours will soon be an absolutely essential point of marketing for sellling your house online. If you want to hit buyers where they need to be hit to make that decision, a virtual tour will be the one thing that will give you the edge over other home sellers.

In fact, if you want potential buyers to come and look at your house, you will have to get them to take a virtual tour, then they are more likely to contact you.

See Also

• Virtual Tour
  Get your virtual tour at IHS Realty for $149.95.

Bookmark to:

Flat Fee Mls:: The Money Saver

Selling a house by yourself will save you a substantial amount of money compared to selling your house with a realtor. A realtor will take a larger percent of what your house will cost to sell to someone.

If you want to sell your house yourself, you will be at a large disadvantage because you do not have the marketing tools IHS Realty has to offer.

Your answer is flat fee MLS. Statistics show that the first place that people go to find a home to purchase is the Internet. You can save money by listing with a Flat Free MLS and reach more people wanting to purchase a home.

See Also

• IHS Realty
  Flat Fee MLS

Bookmark to:

Average U.S. Home Prices jump again in 3rd quarter

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) , the agency that regulates mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, released figures this week that showed that housing prices in the United States jumped over 12% in the third quarter over 2004. OFHEO’s chief economist, Patrick Lawler, said in a statement issued with the report that the rate of increase in home prices in the third quarter "were extremely strong".

This report comes on the heels of a report earlier this year from OFHEO that showed the largest U.S. house price increase in more than 25 years for the second quarter of 2005. In that report, Lawler said, "There is no evidence here of prices topping out." contrary to reports of an eminent housing bubble burst.

According to these reports, now is still a good time for home sellers looking to lock-in gains from the five year run on real estate prices.

See Also

• Average Home Prices Up 12%
  Pace slows from previous quarter, but increase still strong
• HousingTracker
  Housing data (including median asking price and housing inventory) for cities/metros across the United States.

Bookmark to: