Periodic tips and reminders to help focus your by-owner marketing and win your commission-free sale - from Canada’s by-owner web-site, www.privatelist.com.

THIS ISSUE:      Blunders To Avoid / Your Biggest Worry

ARCHIVES:     www.privatelist.com/newsletter.htm

BLUNDERS TO AVOID

"Are you kidding? $81,000! I don’t care if that’s your best offer. We’re asking $86,500 and we know this condo is worth between $82,000 and $84,000."

(Four months later the apartment sells through a realtor for $82,500: after a $4,950 commission - plus tax - the sellers net $76,725.)

Don’t let this happen to you!

• Lose the attitude: there’s no room in negotiations for belligerence. Low offers (if they are low) are simply part of the game, and no real indication of what a purchaser may be willing to pay.

  So don’t get upset. Do your homework and be prepared to demonstrate to purchasers that recent sales support something pretty close to your asking price. Surprise, surprise - they may well agree with you!
   

• Don’t negotiate verbally: the risk is too great that you’ll either give without getting or, like these folks, let your emotions blow a possible deal.

  A written offer with deposit suggests committment on the part of the prospective purchaser, and gives you time to carefully consider your response.
   

• Remember the commission! Our sellers seemed pretty sure of their condo’s worth: they knew what similar properties had recently sold for on the MLS. But they forgot to deduct the realtor’s fee!

  Not having offered part of that fee to purchasers right off the bat by way of a lower asking price (say, $82,900), they were pretty lucky to have received an offer at all.

  And in forgetting the fee, they rejected an offer that might have netted them more than $4,000 more than their eventual result with the realtor!

Selling privately should be a win-win situation. Approach negotiations with the attitude "How can we make this happen?" and be prepared to share some of that saved commission with your purchasers.

After all, depending on your circumstances, every $1000 you save by selling privately may be worth more than four times as much when you buy your next home (see our Oct 21/99 issue)!

YOUR BIGGEST WORRY

The scenario quoted above comes from an excellent book for anyone selling a home, either privately or through a realtor:

Rejnis, Ruth. The Everything Homeselling Book. Holbrook, MA: Adams Media Corporation, 2000.

Here’s another quote, intended to help you keep the big picture in mind during your by-owner campaign:

". . . your biggest worry is probably selling the house. But jot down other concerns that are causing some nail-biting. Will you be able to move before September, when the kids start at a new school? Will you find a buyer before the end of the year, an almost totally dead house-hunting season? Will everything blow up in your face if you buy that brand-new development house you want before you sell your present house? That kind of thing."

"It will help you to refer to this list when considering a buyer’s offer, thinking about reducing the price on your house, or making any other decision that might ease problem areas for you."

Nobody wants to make THE BIG MISTAKE - either through inaction or over-reaction. Reviewing a written list of your major goals in selling can reinforce a proactive marketing stance throughout your campaign and help you maintain the proper perspective in the heat of negotiations.

FRIENDLY REMINDERS . . .

It's important to maintain an active marketing focus until your property is sold. Just an hour every week-end, spent reviewing progress to date and mapping out a response, can pay real dividends.

Therefore, each e-mail version of PrivateList PROACTIVE ends with a series of reminders, and links to tips and tools for your on-going campaign.

To access these resources, press here.

©2000 PrivateList