How I Sold My Home Myself and Made an Extra $24,000

A few years ago my wife and I were living in a condo we had purchased three years earlier. We decided we wanted to build our dream home and searched out a builder, the perfect building site and house plans with every feature we had ever wanted in a home. Now all we had to do was sell the condo.

They said it couldn't be done

Since our condo was located in a popular area, we thought we would try to sell it ourselves. The condo association did not allow us to display any "For Sale" signs except one "Open House" sign at the entrance of the condo complex on the week-ends.

We bought an "Open House" sign, set our price almost one third higher than we had paid for the condo three years earlier (hope springs eternal and we wanted some negotiation room), placed an ad in the local newspaper and planned for an Open House the following Sunday.

As soon as the ad came out we started receiving calls, not from prospective buyers, but from Real Estate agents wanting to list the condo!

The agents insisted that we didn't have the expertise, knowledge or marketing skills to sell the property ourselves and assured us "you will never get the price you're asking...I know what you paid for it". Fortunately, we didn't listen to them!

Holding the Open House

Open House Sunday came. The condo was neat, clean, and ready for viewing by interested buyers. I mixed a couple of cocktails and my wife and I relaxed on the deck waiting for the doorbell to ring. I'm not a salesman. When people came to see the condo I just told them to feel free to look around and I'd be on the deck if they had any questions. A few people came in, looked around, asked a few questions and left. The Open House ended at 5pm. I took down the sign.

An hour later I got a phone call from a man who had viewed the condo earlier asking my "bottom line price". I dropped the price by $2,000 and he said "I'll take it...I'll be over tomorrow with a deposit." And he was.

Finalizing the Sale

I had already contacted an attorney specializing in real estate who had prepared a standard purchase agreement for me. When the purchaser showed up with his deposit, we filled out the purchase agreement and signed it. The deal was done except for the final transfer.

To make a long story short, the purchaser arranged his mortgage, my Real Estate attorney drew up the papers, and we closed the sale a couple weeks later. My total selling expenses were under $500 covering the attorney fees, the newspaper ad, the open house sign, and the pint of vodka consumed during the Open House!

The Moral of the Story

I know that Real Estate agents will say I was just lucky...maybe I was...but had I listed with an agent at the selling price they recommended and paid their 6% commission, I would have made $24,000 LESS than I realized by selling it myself.... and the whole procedure was painless.

"Do it Yourself"

• Find an experienced real estate attorney to guide you and handle the legalities and paperwork
• Plan an Open House and advertise it in the newspaper, on the internet (I didn't even think of using internet advertising then, but nowdays most people begin their home shopping on 'net. Newspaper advertising is expensive and the internet reaches a wider audience).
• Be sure your home is neat, clean and attractive on the day of your Open House. (There are lots of internet articles on how to present your home and even services which will come in and rearrange your furniture and accessories to make your home attractive to potential buyers).
• You don't need to be a high pressure salesman to close the sale. From my experience potential buyers just wanted to look the condo over and have their questions answered honestly. Your home either meets their needs or it doesn't.
• Be prepared to negotiate. I only had to negotiate the price, but you may have buyers who want to negotiate items like leaving all your appliances or your pool table! It's good to decide in advance what you're prepared to throw into the deal.
• Have your purchase agreement ready!