Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Just kidding

So, I was wrong. I am not giving a talk on Sunday - my husband is! So, um, if you read the talk I posted...I'm not sure that that is the talk that Tyler will be speaking on. But, it was a good read anyway, right? ;o)

What's going on? Stress. Since we're going to be moving this fall - many of our thoughts revolve around the idea of preparing our home for selling/renting. This is the first house that we've ever purchased. Consequently, it's our first house to sell. Which brings me to this next point: if you're sold a house before did you use a realtor or sell by owner? Spill your words of wisdom. I've never done this before!

6 comments:

Diana said...

I owned a condo in the Seattle area before we moved back to Utah. We thought we'd be so smart and try to sell it ourselves so we could make more money. Reality check! Not only did we not save any money, but we HAD NO CLUE WHAT WE WERE DOING!

After having the place on the market for a couple of months in anticipation that we "might" move, the offer came and they wanted the hubs in Utah ASAP. At that point, we hired an agent, but we'd really already shot ourselves in the foot with the FSBO. I had the choice of either staying in Washington with a new baby by myself until the place sold or packing up and leaving it vacant until it sold. We opted for the latter. Never in our wildest dreams did we think it would sit for 7 months before we were finally able to dump it.

We took a huge hit on it just to get out from underneath it. In the meantime, we lived in renter's Purgatory, paid the bills on two places, and were completely drained financially by the time we finally sold our condo. NEVER AGAIN!

Especially in a market like this, it's totally worth the money to hire someone who knows what they're doing...not just any joe blow who can put it on the MLS, but someone who actually knows how to sell houses.

Stefanie said...

I loved the realtor we used when we bought our house. If you want, I'll get you her name and contact info...

Liz said...

We sold our home in Fairborn with the aid of a realtor and were very happy with his services. I would be happy to give you his name if you want it. He went out of his way to advertise our home at the beginning of the housing market slump.

We did not consider renting our home for one second. Our choice was to pay the mortgage and rent until we sold our home and thankfully we were in a situation where it was not too much of a financial stress. The biggest reason we did not want to rent our home was that we did not own in a nice area and we didn't want to end up with a renter who would not pay rent and who might ruin our property.

Carina said...

Never done it, but just wanted to say: good luck with it! =)

Queen Mother said...

In this kind of market, you don't want to try to sell by owner. It's a buyer's market for sure. I woudl tell you differently if it were a seller's market and people were clamoring to buy whatever house they can find (like 3-4 years ago.)

Selling a house is a big pain. We've only done it once, our house in CA. I felt like I could never relax at home before the realtor would be calling saying that someone wanted to come by in half an hour.

Word of advice: Remove "personal" items...like photos (replace the ones hanging on the wall with a painting or something)..buyers want to be able to envision themselves and their own stuff in a house. Your personal stuff will distract them. Clear off everything on countertops..it makes the kitchen seem larger. Same with bathrooms. Also put away any unncesseary furniture and accessories so that rooms appear larger.

Just some helpful tips. =) My house sold rather quickly, for that I am grateful! It's very hard to sell a house when you have little kids!!

Krista said...

I would say use a realtor, but make sure they know the area and will work for you, not just for the money. We had a bad experience with a realtor who only helped buy and sell in a really well-to-do part of KC. He had no idea how to do it in our little middle to lower income area and we got gypt (however you spell that) big time.