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weedyacres

My FSBO Marketing Plan...please critique

weedyacres
11 years ago

Here's what I've got laid out so far, for our house, which will be ready to go on the market 4/28. Your input/feedback is welcome.

1. Take professional photos (have a friend with a good camera and good eye)

2. Create great website ($10 to buy address domain for a year on godaddy.com, free website creation on weebly.com)

3. Buy professional sign ($86 for sign, stake, and brochure box from buildasign.com)

4. Buy listing on realtor.com (still researching options, cost ~$200). There's no flat-fee MLS option in my area.

5. Have home appraised *for selling price purposes*. Will contact appraiser who did our refi appraisal 3 years ago, ask for discount because they won't have to remeasure everything, just do market/comp analysis.

6. Create great brochure, leave B&W copies in outside box, color copies inside.

7. List on CL, with pics and link to website

8. List on Zillow, with pics and link to website

9. List on other free sites (any suggestions?)

  1. Create Constant Contact email and send to all area realtors on 4/29 (got 700+ email addresses off association website-took ~3 hours of typing), linking to website, offering 3% commission, and inviting to broker's open.
  2. Host brokers' open on Friday 5/4, 11-1, with lunch served.

BTW, for realtor access purposes, we're thinking of putting a keypad entry lock on the front door and changing the combination daily (or per showing). I work out of town during the week, so will ask a retired friend who lives nearby if she'll go to house in advance of showings, turn on lights and make sure everything's in place.

Comments (21)

  • turtleshope
    11 years ago

    As a buyer, I like Redfin; may not be in your area or free. Most FSBO's around here (Chicago) use FSBO.com -- I don't know about their pricing.
    Never thought of looking on Craigslist!

  • Suzanne Wolfram
    11 years ago

    B&W flyers look tacky and cheap, IMHO. Unless there are absolutely no photos in them.

  • terezosa / terriks
    11 years ago

    For your Craigslist ad I suggest using Postlets. You can create a professional looking e-flyer to post on Craigslist, and it also is distributed to multiple other real estate websites.

    I didn't know that you could place your listing on Realtor.com without using an agent. I thought that only agents who belong to NAR could do that.

  • sweet_tea
    11 years ago

    If you are priced aggresively and some of the comps are price a tad high.....you might consider a sign rider that has the asking price.

    If you change prices later, remove it or get a new one. Hopefully you sell quick and no price change.

    If priced well, folks that drive by might tell others that there is a good deal nearby and maybe send buyers to take a look.

  • Northlut
    11 years ago

    I don't know anything about weebly, but be careful with free hosting sites. A lot of them put tacky ads on the website you create, which I think might look unprofessional. You should be able to get ad-free web hosting for less than 10 bucks a month, which seems like a drop in the bucket for a house sale, and might be worth it.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for the feedback thus far.

    Holly: great idea to "borrow" pillows and throws for the photo shoot.

    Turtle: Redfin's not here (we're a smaller city).

    Terriks: The sites that will put me on realtor.com are realtors themselves. Not sure of the mechanism by which they feed listings to realtor.com. They also generally cover zillow and trulia. So far showcasebyseller.com is the cheapest ($99).

    Northlut: Weebly doesn't do ads. My brothers, who run a conglomerate of websites, recommended it.

    I called my target appraiser today and she strongly steered me towards talking with a realtor to get a free market analysis. I said I felt guilty doing that since I was going FSBO, and thus would be leading them on, plus the market analyses I've seen from realtors leave much to be desired in their lack of rigor. I couldn't convince her to just do the number-crunching on the comps for a reduced price, and said it would cost about the same as a full appraisal ($350). She REALLY tried to talk me out of buying her services...seemed a bit odd.

  • sweet_tea
    11 years ago

    Since the appraiser doesnt want your business, find another appraiser. Last thing you want to do is hire someone that doesn't want the job. Probably not a good end result for that.

  • ncrealestateguy
    11 years ago

    If you are changing the lock box code every day, how are agents going to know the code?

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    We'll tell them the code when they call to make the appointment.

  • sweet_tea
    11 years ago

    Are you worried that agents are going to keep the code and come back to the home and gain entry another day and steal things? Is this why you want to change the code each day?

    Or is it individual buyers without agents that you are worried about? Will they get the code and come alone for showings? Because you will be gone on weekedays, who shows the home to unrepresented buyers on weekdays?

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I don't think agents will steal things. It's more to make sure they check in and we know each time they're going back. That way we can follow up with them for feedback.

    If an unrepresented buyer wants a showing, we'll make sure that either my friend or one of us accompanies them. I won't be giving out the code to random lookers to wander at will!

    Just realized I've got another to-do: find a RE attorney to handle the paperwork.

  • lazy_gardens
    11 years ago

    Somewhere in that plan should be these.

    FIX anything that squeaks, leaks, or wobbles. Even take the time to adjust the door hinges and catches so everything closes nicely.

    CLEAN the place as if General Patton were doing a white-glove inspection. That includes under the sinks.

    REMOVE all clutter from yard and get rid of any dead stuff in the landscaping.

  • terezosa / terriks
    11 years ago

    If you design your website so that it also has a mobile version you could add a QR code to your flyer AND sign, linking to your website. It would be especially good on the sign, because buyers would be able to find your website even if the flyers were all gone. Also, of course just put the web address on the sign and flyers, along with the MLS#

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    lazygardens: good point. We've been doing the fixing and cleaning since January: wiping down walls, cleaning HVAC vent covers, touching up caulk and paint, cleaning the lint out from behind the dryer, and on and on, along with some staging. We just overhauled the landscaping beds weekend before last and mulched it all. All that's left is the garage.

    terriks: love the QR code idea. I already ordered the sign, but I could glue it to the front of the flyer box in case they're empty.

  • terezosa / terriks
    11 years ago

    You might also want to laminate one of your flyers and attach it to the sign.

  • sweet_tea
    11 years ago

    "In case the flyers are empty"...hopefully you stick 40-50 flyers in the box at a time so they never go empty.

    No reason to stick 8-10 or fewer at a time to evaluate how fast they are taken or to prevent someone from taking the stack.

    I used to do 40-50 at a time and you can count them daily if you want to evaluate how fast they move. I would have approx 5 per day taken no matter how many I put in the box. Nobody took big stacks at once.

  • azmom
    11 years ago

    We sold FSBO before. A couple weeks into selling, the flyers were gone one or two hours after we refilled with new stack but no one called.

    Finally one day I saw a woman took the entire stack of flyers out of the box. Later we learned that she was a realtor in the neighborhood who was also selling her house.

    We waited her to show up again, we walked toward the box with new flyers in hand. It was the last time our flyers 'disappeared'. We sold our house fairly quickly while hers was still on the market. It was a good feeling.

  • Bob968
    11 years ago

    I sold a house a couple months ago FSBO. Did most of what the original poster listed. The two main free classified sites I posted on were craigslist.org and theroadcode.com . The Road Code was good because their sign for my house was a lot better than a QR code...could be written or remembered. Got some good leads from it. However, we eventually sold by word of mouth to a family friend. Never underestimate word of mouth.

  • Parkview603
    11 years ago

    Just wondering how your FSBO went, weedyacres??

    We are listing as soon as we get some things finished and plan to take advice listed here!

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    We had lower-than-expected showings, so we went through an extremely thorough realtor-vetting process and listed it with one in November. I think we did a better job on the presentation (photos, website, etc.) but they've got the MLS access and can work the realtor side to an degree that we can't. Haven't sold yet (you can look for my other threads if you are interested in the gory details), but I'm happy with our agent team so far.