There's More to Selling Your Home than a
"For Sale" Sign In Your Front Yard:
Even if a simple sign in your yard did produce a buyer knocking on your door how will you handle the following questions:
"How does your home compare to others like it in Sacramento?"
"How did you determine the fair market value for the property?"
"What about financing? Can you help?"
"If I make an offer, who will draw up the paperwork?"
"Why aren't you using a REALTOR? Is there something wrong with the property?"
"Since you aren't using a REALTOR, we can take their fee right off the top, right?"
Selling your home is one of the most important financial transactions you will make in your life. Don't take risks. Selling your home is nothing like selling a car. Every home is different, and every homebuyer wants to offer you as little as possible. How do you determine the real market value?
Other considerations:
Safety - let's face it, safety should be a concern. Consider the safety of your family and property when YOU bring strangers into your house. For Instance:
By Ed Silverstein
RISMEDIA, August 18 ? Realtors from throughout New Mexico are urged to be extra cautious after the brutal murder of an independent 74-year old real estate agent while he was apparently showing a $1 million house on Monday in Albuquerque, authorities said.
Police have released a description of the man who they are describing as a "person of interest" in connection with the murder.
Other real estate agents in the region may have been contacted recently by phone by the very same man, and authorities ask that they be careful when dealing with any new customers.
"We have alerted the real estate community," Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said today in a telephone interview with RISMedia. "Maybe someone out there wants to harm them simply because they´re Realtors. We just don´t know."
The man wanted by authorities is described as:
White or Hispanic
Well dressed
Early to mid-30's
This man is saying he is a corporate attorney from Arizona
He was carrying a briefcase or attache case with a shoulder strap
He was driving a mid-90's midsize 4-door Ford, either white or light blue with Arizona tags.
White said the man depicted in the sketch is a "person of interest, (and it´s) likely this person may just be the killer."
They have heard from several other Realtors that a person matching this description had contacted them about seeing properties in that area as well.
The victim, Garland Taylor, a church deacon, had worked for many years in real estate, and had opened his own agency. He was well-known and respected in the community.
"He was just a lovely man who´s going to be dearly missed," White says.
"It was brutal," White added about the murder. "It appears to be the most senseless, brutal attack I´ve seen in my career."
White´s office has worked closely with the Albuquerque Metropolitan Board of Realtors since the murder. The board has put up a special alert on its Web site, http://www.ambr.org
Among the precautions the board is urging its members are:
Do not meet strangers at your listings.
Meet clients at your office before proceeding on to homes.
Do not show listings alone.
The local real estate board is also asking all agents to look in listed homes to see if there is a business card for Garland Taylor for the last 2 weeks. If so, they are urged to contact AMBR with this information at 505-724-3462.
White also suggests that agents ask to see an ID from strangers looking to buy a home. Agents should also alert other Realtors who they are meeting and where.
"We´re very concerned for their safety," White says. "We tried to provide as much information as possible so they could take precautions."
Police were first notified about the murder on Monday evening. A neighbor became worried after seeing Taylor´s car still parked at the house at about 7 p.m. Monday. He had seen Taylor at the house with a prospective homebuyer at 10:30 that morning. Taylor was contacted at about 8:30 a.m. Monday by payphone, possibly by the man wanted for questioning.
Police are looking for help in investigating the murder.
"I´ve been doing this for two decades," White says. "You walk into a crime scene and more often than not you usually are confronted with a lot of evidence, information that leads to something about what happened and why." That´s not the case here.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the sheriff´s office at 505-798-7000. All information is confidential.
RISMEDIA welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: editorial@rismedia.com
Identity - how do you know the buyer is who they say they are?
Means - How do you know that they have the money to buy your house?
Disclosures - Selling your house yourself does not releave you from State mandated disclosures about the property's condition. These disclosure protect the buyer. Do you know what your responsibilities are under the law?
Negotiation - Are you prepared for face-to-face negotiations with strangers over price, terms, conditions, repairs...?
Almost all homes are sold using a REALTOR. As top real estate professionals, it is our job to help you negotiate with all those buyers who want something for nothing. Not to mention preparing your home for sale, marketing it locally and even nationally, and guiding you through the complex paperwork and pitfalls of escrow and closing. Make sure you are really ready to handle all of that before pounding that sign into your front yard. Errors can be extremely costly.
Remember: Buyers want to offer you as close to nothing as possible! While that "For Sale By Owner" sign might sound like a good idea, it usually means a different thing to buyers: "Try to steal this one."
If you must sell your own home, at least let me give you a sense of its true market value. Tell me a bit about your home, and I'll do a quick Comparative Market Analysis and let you know what I feel it is worth. I'll also describe, as experienced, top Sacramento Realtors, how I would market your property. This is free, with no strings attached.
Don't price your home by yourself! It's MY job to analyze the Sacramento market and determine the true value of your property. It's FREE and without obligation...
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