First Deal

First of all, congratulations on making the decision to start your real estate investing career! You pose a great question. I recommend you try a FSBO. I have a great book titled, "How to Sell You House in 5 Days," by Bill Effros. Follow what it says to the letter. You'll save yourself a minimum of 5.6% (2.8% buyer's agent + 2.8% seller's agent) in broker compensation fees. It only takes 5 days to get your buyer!!!

To answer your q. about MLS listing fees. Yes, you can pay an agent to list it for you in the MLS for a flat rate of about $300. RE: appraisal. If your appraisal is accurate, then you need to stick with it's stated value. If you're not sure if the appraisal is any good, then you can go online and get comparables that have sold within the last 3 mos. The beauty about the 5-day sale is that it basically is a self-run auction and the highest bidder gets the house. Therefore, it's possible the top bidder may go over the appraised value.

Good luck!

Suzannavh,

So sorry to butt in, but, Did you see the 2 posts on 4/18 asking if anyone knows anything about the 5-day sales? NOBODY has responded. I bought that same book a couple of weeks ago and have been following his e-mails since. Have you done one? I'm VERY curious to talk to someone who has? If so, PLEASE tell us all about it!

Thank you!, thank you! in advance.

Rina

wjcyr,

Is there a certain reason you will ask $475,000 for your house if it is appraised at $360,000? It will probably be VERY, VERY hard to get. If you could give us more information, that would be helpful.

Rina

LOOK, THAT'S INSANE, o.k. here's how it works: if you get your property APPRAISED @ $360,000, then it's worth about $340,000-$360,00, you can't ask $115,000 over an APPRAISAL!!! people are going to think your NUTS!! so again,if it APPRAISED for $360,000 then list it for close to that range.CLASS DISMISSED,SULLY.

p.s.: I'm not trying to be rude or anything i'm just really SUPRISED,let me know if i'm missing something.

Sully, you make me laugh so hard!! I LOVE how you put things!

Literally,
Rina

Rina I agree, Sully is a nut, I get a kick out of his posts! Keep 'em coming!

I am from denver and was wondering if anyone is investing in colorado? If so I would like to work with you. I have read dean's book but haven't got rid of the fear of starting, and I also have poor credit but I am still educating myself on real estate investing. Sincerely Victor.

I'll take that as a complement,from the man that makes all things possible: ME,YOUR HERO,SULLY.

p.s.thanks

Rina,

No I didn't catch those posts. Yes, I'm happy to share my experience.

The property is zoned both residential and commercial. Come Sunday evening, I had 3 bids. The highest bidder ended up being unable to get financing, so the house is still on the market. Even though it did not sell, I received invaluable direct feedback from everyone who showed up for the weekend inspection. Basically, I was able to gleen that it is best to focus my marketing on the commercial sector. Finding out that feedback in one weekend as opposed to over the course of potentially 3 mos., was priceless. Give it a whirl! You have nothing to lose!!!

Best wishes,

Suzanna

Student to Teacher Sully I have a Question?? LOL This is what I don't understand, how they get the appraised value of the home. I believe most people would think their home is worth more than the appraised value, Like me... But I compared the value of other homes in my area and notice the homes that the appraiser selected to compare with mine and I don't think their value would the same. For example most houses that have sold in my area sold in the range of 335,000 to 395,000. They had aprox. 2.55 acres, 1 or 2 full baths, basement unfinished, one had fireplace others no, one no garage others 1 or 2 attached, no outdoor shed, Style capes or colonial, quality of construction average and one was new, age of house 1, 12, 23, baths 1.5, 2 and 2.5, bedrooms average 3, same heating, all had one average deck size, approx same sq. ft for home. Now I compare mine: 2.55 acres, basement is 75% finish with storage room, bedroom or office has carpet, rear entrance and hall is tile, full bath with tile, Bar area with bar sink w/granite counter, frig, dishwasher, upper cabinet with wine rack, living room area, and small entrance room with bistro table with hardwood floors.
Upstairs has 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, dining room, kitchen, living room, laundry, most of area is tile with carpet and hardwood floors. Then we have 2 outdoor decks one large one by the pool and a outdoor patio. outdoor shed 12X12 and our garage is a detached 3 car garage with radiant heat, small mechanical room with boiler, WH, washer and dryer, sink, toilet. One room is a weight room and the upstairs is unfinished with rough plumbing for a full bath, kitchen, bedroom and living area if someone desires to finish. House is 9 years old and we have maintain it well and added quite a bit to it. So I believe my value should be more.
Sorry for being drawn out, but this is what I don't understand, I can't compare these houses, should I get another appraisal, or am I looking at the wrong info. I guess I just should not sell?? and maybe just start buying other houses. PLEASE educate me!!

when you get an appraisal work up, it is an estimate of the value of the product to be sold. these other houses that are in your area to which you are looking at or comps. not appraisals. Go back to your appraiser and ask him/her to go over the appraisal that they gave you and how they came up with there values. there again it is just and opinion. earl

EDUCATE US...because I want to know that one too. I grasp the concept but whats the equation

Oh my i wish i would have known about this. That is awesome. Let me know how things turn out. I have my house listed by a realtor and a contract. Next round i will learn more about the 5 days. Thats really great. Good luck, Cindy.

I know he should also be a commedian. He's so funny and probably doesn't even realize it. You keep going Sully or SILLY.

With regards to just listing with MLS, I do not think that will be enough to sell your house. In todays market in my area, MLS is just the start, but there is marketing and networking that needs to happen to get a sale. I just listed my house with a real estate agent and because of the marketing efforts of this broker and agent my house sold in less than 2 mo. and for a price that was higher than any other house in my subdivision has sold for in the past. I say not bad for a down economy where all housing prices are depressed!

Clint

The way appraisers work is roughly like this:

Closer in location is better.
Closer in TIME is better. (A year ago is basically meaningless in this market.)

Then the appraiser will start adding or subtracting items. How much they add?? I dunnot about that. But it works like this:

Your house is 2 years newer. Add 1000.00
Your house is 100 square feet smaller. Subtract 400.00.
Your house is in "better condition", add 5000.00.
Your house has a 2 car garage rather than 1, add 1000.00
And so on..

If you have made significant upgrades ie flooring, countertops, a pool, a spa, an addition, a deck, a new room etc. then the appraiser SHOULD take this into consideration.

But you have to TELL the appraiser.

One more thing... a lot of times you value upgrades to your home more than an appraiser or another buyer would. As an example, when I was looking for my house, a friend of mine was trying to sell me on his. He kept telling me about his reverse osmosis water filtering system and how it was worth an extra 8K. No WAY was it worth 8K to me but I guess it was to him.

Susannavh,
or dgadmin,

Can you move your/her answers about the 5-day sale to that topic? It would be nice to have all the info together.

Thanks,
Rina

P.S. Susannavh, Thank you SOOO much for responding. I would love to hear more.

I am in the same boat. I live in ohio. I need to get over the scared to start.
How do I start? I have poor credit and no money.

It takes very little preparation. Follow the steps in the book. You can read the entire book in 2 hours. It is an auction with restrictions, selling to the highest bidder. We had our house on the market for 4 months with no success. We had only 4 people look at it during that time. We fired our real estate agent, lowered our price to what we could get by with making as profit. After reading the book, we advertised Wed thru Sat, had an open house on Friday and Saturday(30 people came by), we had 3 couples interested. We sold the house on Sunday for $5000.00 more than we hoped for. It was amazing. It's all in the book and it was a blessing in disquise. Good luck.

Jerry in Georgia

Wow, that's awesome!! Thanks for sharing!

Does it cost anything to do the 5 day sale?

Shonda

Only the cost of the book (unless you borrow it from somebody) and the cost of advertising (which is only for 5 days!). And then the closing costs, but you'd have those no matter how you sold your house.

It WOULD be really neat to try.

Look at the "5-day sale" forum topic if you haven't already. It outlines the whole structure of the sale.

Rina

Hey! are we related? I'm in the exact same boat as you.

I have been doing some birddoggin for other local investors... but have yet to have one of the deals I sent them close so that I get paid.... Gets frustrating and I'm starting to lose my interest in birddoggin for a quick $500 a deal... many deals no bites. I think I'm going to spend more time on how I can come up with my first deals

I read up top on how you are wanting to sell your house for way more than it was appraised. My view on real estate selling is that if you want to sell your property faster then you have to be competitivly priced. For example, lets say there is a house down the block with the same amount of rooms and the quality is about the same but the one I'm selling has maybe a few better additives. When a someone looking to buy a home looks at both of the homes they are going to see that the houses are almost the same, but mine has a little better materials, and maybe they don't care that much about it. I want them to buy mine right, even though if I leave mine priced a little higher I'll make a lot more money, why shouldn't I, mines better (in my eyes). But, the one I'm selling is an investment home, so if I want to sell it faster and make a quicker profit then I'll have to price it differently. The key is to build it in a quality matter, but not OVER REHABING. I've seen it on those "Flipping" shows, they get emotionaly attached and build what they like, not what's selling. You may sell your home at $475,000, who knows. But, how long will it take to find the right buyer, and what type of person will purchase it. The top expert in the country will never know for sure what your home will sell for, the buyer at the time makes all the difference. Look at Wal-Mart, the may have the same goods as the mom and pop store down the road, but, they are priced a lot lower than them. The reason is because they aren't trying to make as much as them off of that individual item. They are relying on selling a large amount of items at a cheaper price. The more items they sell, the more they make. So pricing at what it is worth is not always the smarter move. If you want to make a quicker buck, think about what will make it sell. Congrats on stepping into the real estate market though, I hope that it all works out for you. Keep up with it, practice makes perfect. Can you afford to hold onto it until it sells?

version to what i said...but, whatever,YOUR HERO,SULLY.

by the way that's some pretty good advise there buddy.

Have you found a house you want to buy yet?
Jrgnsn

Have you found a house you want to buy yet?
Jrgnsn

Check local factors as well, obviously you wont get the 475K but at leas the 360 it was valued at. Also look around the house and see if there's any minor improvements you can make to move the sale along faster. Then once you have a sale start looking at tax sale properties to invest in perhaps some tax lien certificates on the side as well. At pennies on the dollar ya can't beat the deals with a little research and "thinking a little differently".
All the best to you on the sale and future investments.

Everything starts as a thought so choose the good ones. If you focus on your fears then your going to get more thoughts that will fuel your fear and then you may never get started. Here is what i suggest and this is from a newbie who is still reading the book. A Quote from the Universe.
Everything that you perceive as being hard, will never change until you first think of it as being easy.
Just go for it you can do it, look at the end result and focus on it, the rest is easy.............
Yahooooooooooooooo

A repost to bring this topic back to the front