Why should I do a FSBO Open House?

It helps if you have already bought / sold a house or two before doing your own FSBO Open House because:

1. There's a good chance you'll go through an intense mental / emotional shift as you prep your home.

2. It's more work than you'd ever imagine.

3. It's skilled labor, a lot like learning auto mechanics or carpentry.

That said, an Open House is almost a requirement, even in a hot market.

Why?

CC-SA Cathy Malmrose

Why should you give up your time, energy, and all that just to let people walk through your home?

1. Because it brings in buyers, especially the qualified buyers.

2. Because the process of prepping your home for an Open House gets you closer to "fully staged", makes your home more sell-able.

3. Because it creates buzz (we had a near multiple offer situation at our last Open House)

4. Because of the cookies!

Here's the trick --> get a view tubes of cookie dough, turn on the oven and throw in a tray 10 min before the Open House starts. The house will smell amazing and it is a shockingly effective way to sell a home.

More on how to prep for an Open House in another post, but for now know the answer to:

Should I do an Open House?

is a resounding YES!

Example of the pre-Open House prep, CC-SA Cathy Malmrose

Should I do an Open House on a Sunday? (for a FSBO)

Whether or not you do an Open House on a Sunday totally depends on location! 

For our CA home, you absolutely have to have a Sunday showing. It's the hot, happening day.

For our UT home, no way. Sunday's are all Realtor's day off.

I was thinking that we might get some great buyers who want to see action / Open Houses but are going on their own since no Realtors are available.

During the 2 - 5 pm Open House we did get one, 1, potential buyer, and the only reason they weren't with their Realtor is "because he doesn't work on Sundays."

One other consideration - Sunday buyers are typically more serious (independent variable from location). Many get started on searching on Saturday and the less serious stop on Saturday. The dedicated must-move-now people or the extreme professionals who often work on Saturdays are often most likely to show up on Sunday. These factors vary widely depending on external variables such as weather, events in town, all sorts of other variables.

But now, with only 10 min left in a 3 hour Open House and only 1 visitor... I'm not doing this again on a Sunday. Live & learn.

What did I learn today?

1. Having an Open House on a Sunday in UT makes as much sense as letting your cat sit in the fridge.

2. I'd rather be home cooking food from that fridge.

3. I'd rather be petting my cat.

4. Or actually... maybe I should be home supervising the kids who put the cat in the fridge in the first place.

Do I accept the first offer for an FSBO?

Less than an hour after we finished the Open House I got a call from the Realtor who stopped by with her clients at 11 am. 

Realtor: "...I'm writing up an offer now..." 

Me: "Ok." 

Realtor: "Should have it by tomorrow." 

Me: "Ok, thanks." 

Most Realtors are very tight on time. There wasn't anything beneficial I could say at that point so I kept my replies tight. 

CC SA Cathy Malmrose

Do I accept the first offer? In this case, probably yes. My guess is that right now the realtor is trying to convince the buyer to bid as high as possible to get the sale closed. The realtor has been working with the particular client for years, yes, years and I'm sure wants to keep this short. 

So, here's our rule: For an offer that's in the 1% - 3% range (Asking is $195k, offer of $189k) is where we'll do real negotiation. For any lowball offer lower than $189k, we'll send it back, but only slightly lower than asking price to show them that we're serious about asking price. 

Assuming the offer is $189 or above, we can negotiate on the details. Example: What extras are they asking for? Do they want anything upgraded or repaired before movein? When are they wanting to close? (If it's a few weeks out then that costs us in downtime.) 

It's likely we'll get close to our asking price. So far I've gotten a lot of great feedback on the home being well-priced, but the proof will come when I get to put that SOLD sign in the front yard. 

As soon as I get the sale closed and recorded, then this is what I'm going to do for three days straight: 

CC SA Cathy Malmrose

What is DOM and why is it important?

DOM means Days on Market. It tells you how broken down the sellers are.

When your house is posted on the MLS or otherwise officially For Sale, that's Day 0. The next day, DOM 1. It gives you a real "clock is ticking" feeling.

Realtors generally have two strategies (over-generalized):

Front view CC-SA Cathy Malmrose

* Grab the DOMs in the 0-5 range, bid competitively and close the sale before the seller gets any other offers.

* Seek out the longer DOMs. Depending on your market, a long DOM might be 200-300 days. Nuts, but easy to see why Realtors would seek out a long DOM because there's more room for negotiation.

There are several ways to keep the DOM low: take it off the market for a day and re-list to refresh the DOM or relist with a different agent. But, if someone sees that your listing was on and off, they can do the calculation themselves.

If you just change price, it doesn't restart the DOM. Example, this house's DOM is 119 days at this point.

DATE	EVENT	PRICE	$/SQFT	SOURCE
02/27/15	Price change	$254,500-1.9%	$115	--
01/14/15	Price change	$259,500-2.1%	$117	--
11/01/14	Listed for sale	$265,000	$120	Keller William...

Next: How to keep your DOM low

How do I get people to come to my FSBO Open House? The Day of the Open House blow-by-blow

Nerves need not attend CC-SA Cathy Malmrose

This morning I was a wreck of nerves, stressing about everything being perfect for the Open House today.

8 am Up and looking professional but not uptight.

8:30 am Reply to 1 realtor who asked if he could bring a family by today. My reply: "Yes, please. Open House 10-4. See you soon." No exclamation points (high pressure). Confirmation + securing spot.

9 am Final sweep, vacuum, scents, all of it just right.

9:55 am Put the Open House signs outside, one by the front steps and one at the corner.

9:58 am Husband shows up with balloons, ties them on sign.

10 am Sit back and chill. Waaaay too nervous.

10:30 am Matt stops by, Dad househunting on his own for wife & 4 kids. Good fit.

Use balloons to welcome guests

11 am Brown-haired couple stops by. Probably not good fit since just the 2 of them & they want to work only with their realtor.

11:15 am I remember that I was going to bake cookies today. I chop off some cookies off a Nestle cookie dough roll and toss them in the oven. When they come out WOW, smells good!

11:30 am Realtor who texted me this morning stops by. She kept control of the viewing which was good. I was able to pop in & out without interfering too much. Note: You want to disappear into the background as much as possible so people can talk freely. Cookies put little girl and mom at ease.

12 noon Realtor who texted last night stops by with his sweet clients: father, mother, little boy who really liked the cookies.

12:30 pm Drive by. Got out & got flyer. I should have gone out on the porch and swept or something. They might have come in if I had. But I'm so shy.

1 pm Older couple thinking about purchasing for their daughter stops by (just like we purchased this place for our son). They have a little dog and since there's no yard it's probably a no-go. Bummer.

1:30 pm Family with two little kids, drive by, no realtor attached yet. Might not be able to afford it, but possibly. Super cute little kids liked the cookies.

Toss in a batch of cookies = air freshener

Hint: Ask their professions in a comfortable, non-threatening way and find a way to work it in to the sales pitch. One example: the 1:30-ish mom of 2 was trained as an accountant. I pointed out that the HOA fee took care of a lot of costs that you normally have to pay out of pocket (covers internet, some of your insurance).

Even at this point in the day I still have way too much caffeine in my body. I need do chill and slow down. Talking too fast.

At this point in your open house you'll probably have 1 of 2 reactions:

"When will this be over??"
or
"Now I'm in the swing of things."

2 pm Chillin enough to notice that we haven't had a single neighbor stop by regardless of the fact that we handed out flyers the night before. Interesting.

I'm assuming no more guests / walk-throughs today. There were enough potentials. I'm very surprised at how many potentials showed up!

Don't be surprised if you get 0 turn out. Don't let it get you down. If it had been raining today or other things had been going on, there's a chance every one of those drive-bys and appts would have cancelled. I'll do another Open House tomorrow and maybe another next Saturday.

2:30 pm Another couple with kids! I thought for sure they were done for the day since it's snowing now...

I'm guessing that being in a high traffic area is making a big difference in the turn-out. About 1/2 of these people seem like they knew the address ahead of time and came here for this house in particular and another 1/2 seem to be only drive-by traffic.

Also, I think I've been super lucky having only 1 family at a time here. I've read it's better to have multiple groups here at once (thus inviting the neighbors) but so far I've been able to handle just one group at a time. Bizarrely evenly spaced.

3:00 pm Another Realtor with couple! Sheesh, even in the snow, they're still coming. I've read that Realtors still going at the end of the day are more serious. And they were, just probably not the right fit for a place this size.

4 pm The first looky-lou. That's probably unusual to have so few. Looky-lou stayed until 5 sharp. Fun way to unwind after a longer-than-I-thought-it-would-be day.

How to Sell FSBO

1. Relax. Smile. People will be more likely to work with you well if you're calm and happy. Get a good night's sleep on a regular basis = more $$ for the final sale. How's that for great incentive for getting to bed on time!

2. Use sites like http://www.forsalebyowner.com/sell-my-house/ to do your research.

3. Learn how to stage a home! This is probably the most important. Compare the following:

My home, CC SA Cathy Malmrose

Someone who doesn't want to sell their home

Keep reading this blog for more information on how to sell your home. I'm a regular homeowner, but have been through the realtor training and have bought and sold 7 homes so far just personally, one that turned into an investment home, then another that was purchased just as an investment. Each one has sold fast -- I'm actually sitting at an Open House right now, typing this post inbetween shaking hands with potential homebuyers and Realtors.

Cathy hanging out during Open House

Want to hear more about my FSBO Open House? Here's the blow-by-blow account: