NF - Listing my house Privately

[The Urban Fisherman]

Hey Gang,

 

Hate to tab on another NF thread, but OFC has always been a good place to go for general advice, or when looking for help when it comes to charity events and such... And who know's, there might just be somebody out there on OFC looking to buy a house in FROGMORE ontario! hahaha

 

Anyways, Ginny and I bought this house off her parent's who ended up pretty well living with us for several years while building a new place of their own... They actually built on a lot next door and as awesome as they are to us and our kids, living with, and then next door to your in-laws is one hell of a challenge! I'm the type of person who needs my space, and for the most part likes things done a certain way, so as you can imagine, out of respect, I have to bite my tounge on a daily basis. We've also realized that living in the country has some drawbacks with young kids. Any activities,(dancing, swimming, hockey etc.) schooling or simple things like (Damn! we're out of diapers) is a bit of a pain. It's a 1hr + round trip to town to get anything we need on a whim. Local stores close before I'm done work during the week etc. etc. Averie starts school in September and we'll have to drive her 25 minutes to and from school every day, we've spent nearly $8000.00 on internet in 3.5 years and although it's much faster than anybody else's in the area, it's still slower than anything you'd get in town, and less reliable. On top of all this, we have a $550.00 a month OSAP loan that has recently kicked in. So with the renovations we've done on our current home, we can use the equity to pay off the majority of said dept.

 

Port Rowan is a small community, but has everything we want and need. Ie: good school within walking distance, high speed internet (important for work reasons), town water and sewer, grocery store, home hardware, doctors office, the list goes on. Also, lucky for me, it's right on long point bay - a 1 minute drive to the boat launch...

 

Down-side:

 

We would have to down-size to a slightly smaller home, (2000 sq. feet upstairs alone, to approx. 1400 sq. feet) and we'd have to buy another "fixer-upper" as any newer homes have no yard, and a large yard is a MUST for our family. Also, I've already donated my fair share of weekends to house renovations, have this house done the way we want and am not really looking forward to renovating again. (reno's in the new house would be spread out over years though)

 

Anyways, here's some shots of our current home... any thoughts are appreciated. I hope everyone has a great and safe weekend out on the water! I'm hoping to hit the bay for at least a couple of hours this weekend.

 

Cheers,

Ryan & Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2010 by The Urban Fisherman

[JohnF]

Your place looks great.

 

JF

[Harrison]

Very nice place Ryan. 25 mins each way to school would be enough for me to make my decision. Heck probably longer in the winter to boot.

 

I'd be Port Rowan bound especaily if that $550 mthly OSAP will disappear.

 

My daughter starts school this year too. I feel ya.

Edited July 9, 2010 by Harrison

[fish_fishburn]

Hi Ryan, thats a beautiful home you have there. Ya theres pro's and con's living in the country. Especially with a young family, I have lived in both the country and town and would love to move back to the country. I like my space and you just don't get it in town. Some day I want to have a nice little hobby farm with good outbuildings to store all my toys in. I'm fortunate to have good neighbours all around me, but if you move to town and have a dick for a neighbour, you will be a very unhappy camper in no time. All the best and hope everything works out for you. It's a very tough decision to make.

[bigfish1965]

There are many advantages in being 'in town'. Port Rowan is not a big city, so you are not giving up much int he way of lifestyle. For the kids, there would be more activities, friends, etc. You'd be closer to work, medical, grocries, etc.

I'd bet you could get a fair bit for the current home and when the kids are older, you can always move back to the country.

[torco]

You have a gorgeous home. can't imagine it would be hard to sell, too bad you have to move but it seems to make the most sense.

 

I guess at the end of the day, as long as you are with your family any house will likely feel like a home.

[lookinforwalleye]

Very nice house you have Ryan, love the open concept.

Good luck with the sale but I think selling private in this market might be kinda tough.

[canuckjack]

Very nice home, it's a shame you have to leave it.

 

My totally uneducated opinion: I would consider changing the colour in the pink room before listing.

[crappieperchhunter]

Your house is a beauty Ryan...and lotsa room outside too...it must be a hard decision to make.

 

My brother has listed privately and sold a couple of times. He keeps telling me that anyone who list through real estate is a idiot. He is a very intelligent man and has it figured out real well.

 

I can't offer you any pointer's Ryan cause I have always used the normal real estate channels for anything I have done. However if you have any questions I would be happy to forward them to him. He might have a few things to suggest to make things easier for you and save you some time and $$$. Just shoot me a PM if you want.

 

Good luck with it.

[JohnF]

 

 

He keeps telling me that anyone who list through real estate is a idiot. He is a very intelligent man and has it figured out real well.

 

 

I'll get a kick out of passing that on to some of my clients.

 

I expect their responsibilities running their respective companies along with the diminished mental capacity might make it tough to handle the sale as well.

 

Sorry. You got me with a double whammy there. A cheap shot at my industry on top of an even cheaper shot at the mentally handicapped.

 

JF

[splashhopper]

 

My brother has listed privately and sold a couple of times. He keeps telling me that anyone who list through real estate is a idiot. He is a very intelligent man and has it figured out real well.

 

I can't offer you any pointer's Ryan cause I have always used the normal real estate channels for anything I have done.

 

Does that make you a one of the mentally challenged that your brother mentioned above then

[crappieperchhunter]

Hey I'm just trying to help Ryan out. Not trying to start anything here fella's. His post does state that he is selling privately. My brother has done it more then once...saving a ton of cash in the process. Just thought he might be able to help Ryan out is all.

 

Myself I have neither the time nor ambition to tackle it on my own...even with my brother giving me a hard time about it.

 

I won't be following this any further.... I'm on my way out the door for a week at the cottage with no internet....but hopefully lotsa fish.

 

As I said before Good luck Ryan.

[The Urban Fisherman]

Thanks guys! I'm going to get back to you all a little later tonight, but please keep this from becoming a private sale vs. realtor thread. I personally would MUCH RATHER use a realtor. John F has givin' me FREE, solid advice on numerous occasions out of kindness of his heart and after speaking with him I realized how little I really know, and how much a realtor really can help you. Unfortunately, I really can't afford to give up 10,000 in commission right now, so in this case I'm forced to go it alone on my sale.

 

Thanks again and I'll get back to you guys tonight!

 

cheers,

Ryan

[TennesseeGuy]

It's not a good plan to put it on the market, fail to sell and then list with a realtor. Decide which way to go. Be prepared and stick with it. Sticking with it might mean that you'll home school your youngsters, get a cheaper internet service and go with gas stingy ride.

[danbouck]

Ryan, judging by what your house should sell for and what a nice older home in Port Rowan goes for, you should be able to clear out A LOT of debt (although I have no idea how much you have, probably as much as me )

 

As for the square footage, don't worry about it. My house is only 750 square feet (not including the basement) and our kids are pretty well the same age. There is lots of room and a smaller home equals smaller costs.

 

The advantages of living in town are huge with kids. About the only thing to watch out for is to not get addicted to old port pizza lol

[JohnF]

It's not a good plan to put it on the market, fail to sell and then list with a realtor.

 

Essentially right, but it's because private sellers too often make the mistake of setting too low a price, or at least setting a price they can't live with if they ended up listing the property. Remember that the main reason buyers look for FSBO's is so they can beat the price down by the commission. And why are the sellers doing it themselves - to save the commission? Both the sellers and the buyers have a perfect strategy - save the commission. Someone is gonna be let down.

 

The fact is there's only one fair market value for every property, not one for a private sale and one for an mls sale. If you can sell for market value and pocket the money you would have otherwise paid a brokerage then you win. But what have you saved if you simply take the commission off the top and sell for much less than fair market value? The only winner is then the buyer and you've done a bunch of extra work and risked an expensive mistake thru inexperience for absolutely nothing.

 

I always chuckle at the For Sale By Owner packaging companies who get your attention by saying "Save the commission" and then explain to you that you can facilitate the sale by reducing the price by the amount you would have otherwise paid a REALTOR. That's haing yer cake and eating it too. I have a letter that was sent to one of my clients that says exactly that. They got a big kick out of it and couldn't wait to give it to me. The local FSBO franchisee says in the letter (all within one paragraph) that they could save the commission and also reduce the price by exactly 5% (they did the math for the sellers based on my list price) to make it easier to sell. I guess it's something millionaires don't fall for.

 

As Ryan has said I've been trying to help him out with advice for quite a while now which I'm happy to do. In fact we're trying to arrange a day of fishing so we can talk about it some more. Y'all might be surprised at how many pm's I get from all over Ontario asking for advice and I do my best to answer them as conscientiously as I can. We REALTORS don't always have to be greedy but that being said, we'd be fools not to defend the reputation and integrity of our business. In most cases it's our only job and what puts the bread on the table after all.

 

There's nothing wrong with trying to sell your own properties, guys. There's enough business out there for successful REALTORS to stay busy. In fact you can almost tell how successsful someone is in the business based on how threatened they are by FSBO's. But don't expect to go to a REALTOR when you've given up on finding your own buyer and expect him/her to work miracles with a price that has to be increased by a few percent, particularly in a smaller market where everybody knows everybody else and exactly what you were originally asking. The problem with this computer/internet age is that everyone is much better informed than a few years ago.

 

The other problem is that when a new listing of any kind hits the market the first few days are the most critical for finding a buyer. Once we get past those few days the existing prospects have all had a look and are likely out of the running as buyers for whatever reasons. When we in the industry finally get a shot at it we've lost the chance to do what we do best with all those folks who checked it out before we were there. Selling is what we do. I trust mechanics to fix my cars, plumbers to fix my pipes, etc etc because they generally know what they're doing and I know I'll get the job done properly and expeditiously the first time.

 

This advice I probably already have, and certainly will again share with Ryan. Jeez. I might have just done myself out of a day of Long Point fishing. I should shut up.

 

JF

[Twocoda]

I would think it all depends on the exposure you want to generate for your timeline...if you want to turn it over quick then your best bet is with real estate...if you have the luxury of time then ...it is possible to do the deal on your own (many have done it.. myself included)....ive had a few houses listed with real estate and i was the one that sold them...oh well...in one case it was the MLS listing that brought them by in the first place..

We just recently sold our house that we live in privately too.. July 1st it closed ( i dropped the idea in front of the right/wrong person (is how that materialized) and BAM its a done deal)...First thing i did was call a realtor to find me a piece of land QUICK!...why???because its what they do every single day and a good realtor will have his finger on the pulse of the area at all times...( JohnF if you knew the market for our area up here ...you would have been the one i would have called without a doubt )...

If you do sell privately ...your going to learn quickly that there is alot more to what a realtor does then stand in your house for two hours on a sunday and talk to people...

 

If your going to sell with a realtor ...do your homework on your representative and make sure he/she does their homework on the house that you now call home so it can be appreciated for the right reasons

 

Good luck on the sale ...it is a very nice home and your workmanship will reflect your price....

Edited July 9, 2010 by Twocoda

[The Urban Fisherman]

Very nice place Ryan. 25 mins each way to school would be enough for me to make my decision. Heck probably longer in the winter to boot.

 

I'd be Port Rowan bound especaily if that $550 mthly OSAP will disappear.

 

My daughter starts school this year too. I feel ya.

 

Thanks Harrison! Yeah my wife is pretty dead set against the drive. Kids starting school already... time fly's man!

 

Hi Ryan, thats a beautiful home you have there. Ya theres pro's and con's living in the country. Especially with a young family, I have lived in both the country and town and would love to move back to the country. I like my space and you just don't get it in town. Some day I want to have a nice little hobby farm with good outbuildings to store all my toys in. I'm fortunate to have good neighbours all around me, but if you move to town and have a dick for a neighbour, you will be a very unhappy camper in no time. All the best and hope everything works out for you. It's a very tough decision to make.

 

Thanks Fish! Lucky for me I've met both neighbours in the particular home we're looking at, and though I know things can change after a move - they both seem awesome so far. The current tenant (rental house) said they're awesome, and my wife's aunt who lives down the road say's they're great folks as well. Of course it doesn't mean we'll end up getting this particular house so I guess all we can do is hope for good neighbours.

 

There are many advantages in being 'in town'. Port Rowan is not a big city, so you are not giving up much int he way of lifestyle. For the kids, there would be more activities, friends, etc. You'd be closer to work, medical, grocries, etc.

I'd bet you could get a fair bit for the current home and when the kids are older, you can always move back to the country.

 

always strait to the point Rick! That's what I like about your posts.. thanks dude!

 

You have a gorgeous home. can't imagine it would be hard to sell, too bad you have to move but it seems to make the most sense.

 

I guess at the end of the day, as long as you are with your family any house will likely feel like a home.

 

Thanks Torco - it is nice, and finished just the way we wanted... originally we had planned to stay here, but we find ourselves looking at homes over and over again in Rowan, and are constantly complaining about living here... on paper it just makes the most sense... i'm just having a hard time with starting from scratch on reno's and such again.

 

 

Very nice house you have Ryan, love the open concept.

Good luck with the sale but I think selling private in this market might be kinda tough.

 

Open concept ROCKS... you can see hte kids from anywhere in the house... problem is you can also see their mess from anywhere in the house to! lol We'll see what happens tryign to sell privately...

 

Very nice home, it's a shame you have to leave it.

 

My totally uneducated opinion: I would consider changing the colour in the pink room before listing.

 

Thanks CJ - I understand what you're saying about the pink room, but it's my 3 year old daughters room and giving her a pink room was her birthday gift from Daddy so it's staying that way t'il or if we move.

 

Hey I'm just trying to help Ryan out. Not trying to start anything here fella's. His post does state that he is selling privately. My brother has done it more then once...saving a ton of cash in the process. Just thought he might be able to help Ryan out is all.

 

Myself I have neither the time nor ambition to tackle it on my own...even with my brother giving me a hard time about it.

 

I won't be following this any further.... I'm on my way out the door for a week at the cottage with no internet....but hopefully lotsa fish.

 

As I said before Good luck Ryan.

 

Appreciate you taking the time CPH - Good luck at the cottage this week! Wish I was headed to a cottage for the week rather than worrying about this crap! haha This is just another reason to hire an agent!

 

It's not a good plan to put it on the market, fail to sell and then list with a realtor. Decide which way to go. Be prepared and stick with it. Sticking with it might mean that you'll home school your youngsters, get a cheaper internet service and go with gas stingy ride.

 

Thanks for the tips TG. We're listing the home for what it's worth, no more and no less. So if we decided to go with a realtor down the road we will be listing at the same price, and by listing with a realtor we'll be targeting a whole different part of the general population. Don't want to go to far into details. Home schooling isn't an option for us, and the money spent on internet had to be done for my job. We were told when buying the house that high speed internet was possible, which it wasn't without spending a pile of money. Our fault for not looking into if further.

 

Ryan, judging by what your house should sell for and what a nice older home in Port Rowan goes for, you should be able to clear out A LOT of debt (although I have no idea how much you have, probably as much as me )

 

As for the square footage, don't worry about it. My house is only 750 square feet (not including the basement) and our kids are pretty well the same age. There is lots of room and a smaller home equals smaller costs.

 

The advantages of living in town are huge with kids. About the only thing to watch out for is to not get addicted to old port pizza lol

 

hey buddy, yeah we can clear a pretty good profit on this house...we hope! haha It was just appraised a few weeks back so we know what it's worth...it came through exactly at what we thought, and we had 3 agents tell us the same thing. The size isn't that big a deal... we've just been spoiled with this big house being our first home. It's nice to know that you guys are good with that size of home and a smaller mortgage and cheaper utility costs would be nice also.

 

the Take-out bills might offset the savings though! haha

 

Essentially right, but it's because private sellers too often make the mistake of setting too low a price, or at least setting a price they can't live with if they ended up listing the property. Remember that the main reason buyers look for FSBO's is so they can beat the price down by the commission. And why are the sellers doing it themselves - to save the commission? Both the sellers and the buyers have a perfect strategy - save the commission. Someone is gonna be let down.

 

The fact is there's only one fair market value for every property, not one for a private sale and one for an mls sale. If you can sell for market value and pocket the money you would have otherwise paid a brokerage then you win. But what have you saved if you simply take the commission off the top and sell for much less than fair market value? The only winner is then the buyer and you've done a bunch of extra work and risked an expensive mistake thru inexperience for absolutely nothing.

 

I always chuckle at the For Sale By Owner packaging companies who get your attention by saying "Save the commission" and then explain to you that you can facilitate the sale by reducing the price by the amount you would have otherwise paid a REALTOR. That's haing yer cake and eating it too. I have a letter that was sent to one of my clients that says exactly that. They got a big kick out of it and couldn't wait to give it to me. The local FSBO franchisee says in the letter (all within one paragraph) that they could save the commission and also reduce the price by exactly 5% (they did the math for the sellers based on my list price) to make it easier to sell. I guess it's something millionaires don't fall for.

 

As Ryan has said I've been trying to help him out with advice for quite a while now which I'm happy to do. In fact we're trying to arrange a day of fishing so we can talk about it some more. Y'all might be surprised at how many pm's I get from all over Ontario asking for advice and I do my best to answer them as conscientiously as I can. We REALTORS don't always have to be greedy but that being said, we'd be fools not to defend the reputation and integrity of our business. In most cases it's our only job and what puts the bread on the table after all.

 

There's nothing wrong with trying to sell your own properties, guys. There's enough business out there for successful REALTORS to stay busy. In fact you can almost tell how successsful someone is in the business based on how threatened they are by FSBO's. But don't expect to go to a REALTOR when you've given up on finding your own buyer and expect him/her to work miracles with a price that has to be increased by a few percent, particularly in a smaller market where everybody knows everybody else and exactly what you were originally asking. The problem with this computer/internet age is that everyone is much better informed than a few years ago.

 

The other problem is that when a new listing of any kind hits the market the first few days are the most critical for finding a buyer. Once we get past those few days the existing prospects have all had a look and are likely out of the running as buyers for whatever reasons. When we in the industry finally get a shot at it we've lost the chance to do what we do best with all those folks who checked it out before we were there. Selling is what we do. I trust mechanics to fix my cars, plumbers to fix my pipes, etc etc because they generally know what they're doing and I know I'll get the job done properly and expeditiously the first time.

 

This advice I probably already have, and certainly will again share with Ryan. Jeez. I might have just done myself out of a day of Long Point fishing. I should shut up.

 

JF

 

John the wise I always say - To much here for me to comment on, but I can say that we are going out on the bay next weekend regardless of how much advice you give me. It's been a long time coming and I owe you more than just a few hours on the water.

 

Thanks again guys!

 

Cheers,

Ryan

[danbouck]

Essentially right, but it's because private sellers too often make the mistake of setting too low a price, or at least setting a price they can't live with if they ended up listing the property. Remember that the main reason buyers look for FSBO's is so they can beat the price down by the commission. And why are the sellers doing it themselves - to save the commission? Both the sellers and the buyers have a perfect strategy - save the commission. Someone is gonna be let down.

 

The fact is there's only one fair market value for every property, not one for a private sale and one for an mls sale. If you can sell for market value and pocket the money you would have otherwise paid a brokerage then you win. But what have you saved if you simply take the commission off the top and sell for much less than fair market value? The only winner is then the buyer and you've done a bunch of extra work and risked an expensive mistake thru inexperience for absolutely nothing.

 

I always chuckle at the For Sale By Owner packaging companies who get your attention by saying "Save the commission" and then explain to you that you can facilitate the sale by reducing the price by the amount you would have otherwise paid a REALTOR. That's haing yer cake and eating it too. I have a letter that was sent to one of my clients that says exactly that. They got a big kick out of it and couldn't wait to give it to me. The local FSBO franchisee says in the letter (all within one paragraph) that they could save the commission and also reduce the price by exactly 5% (they did the math for the sellers based on my list price) to make it easier to sell. I guess it's something millionaires don't fall for.

 

As Ryan has said I've been trying to help him out with advice for quite a while now which I'm happy to do. In fact we're trying to arrange a day of fishing so we can talk about it some more. Y'all might be surprised at how many pm's I get from all over Ontario asking for advice and I do my best to answer them as conscientiously as I can. We REALTORS don't always have to be greedy but that being said, we'd be fools not to defend the reputation and integrity of our business. In most cases it's our only job and what puts the bread on the table after all.

 

There's nothing wrong with trying to sell your own properties, guys. There's enough business out there for successful REALTORS to stay busy. In fact you can almost tell how successsful someone is in the business based on how threatened they are by FSBO's. But don't expect to go to a REALTOR when you've given up on finding your own buyer and expect him/her to work miracles with a price that has to be increased by a few percent, particularly in a smaller market where everybody knows everybody else and exactly what you were originally asking. The problem with this computer/internet age is that everyone is much better informed than a few years ago.

 

The other problem is that when a new listing of any kind hits the market the first few days are the most critical for finding a buyer. Once we get past those few days the existing prospects have all had a look and are likely out of the running as buyers for whatever reasons. When we in the industry finally get a shot at it we've lost the chance to do what we do best with all those folks who checked it out before we were there. Selling is what we do. I trust mechanics to fix my cars, plumbers to fix my pipes, etc etc because they generally know what they're doing and I know I'll get the job done properly and expeditiously the first time.

 

This advice I probably already have, and certainly will again share with Ryan. Jeez. I might have just done myself out of a day of Long Point fishing. I should shut up.

 

JF

 

John, I think everyone will say the same, you're welcome in my boat any day!

[Harrison]

If it makes you feel any better Ryan I just downsized. It stings. But the wife can stay home with the girls now who are 4 and 2. We are much happier now with out all the financial stress with one parent working. I think your making the right choice. Good luck to you.

Phil

 

JohnF has also given me great advice.

Edited July 9, 2010 by Harrison

[Handlebarz]

Very nice looking place Ryan hope it sells fast for you so your that much closer to the boat launch.

 

Good Advice John I think I will be shooting you a PM as we are getting ready to sell and yes if your in the LSC area please look me up as well as all OFC members.

[JohnF]

John, I think everyone will say the same, you're welcome in my boat any day!

 

Thanks Dan. I appreciate that.

 

JF

[JohnF]

[quote name='Harrison' date='09 July 2010 - 07:52 PM' timestamp='1278719533' post='483952'

 

 

JohnF has also given me great advice.

 

Hey. I saw you in your OFC avatar. Yer way too young to be making real estate decisions by yerself.

 

I hope the advice helped.

 

JF

[JohnF]

Very nice looking place Ryan hope it sells fast for you so your

 

Good Advice John I think I will be shooting you a PM as we are getting ready to sell and yes if your in the LSC area please look me up as well as all OFC members.

 

Be happy to help if I can. Bound to be ways to save you at least a little money.

 

 

JF

[solopaddler]

You did a great job on your house Ryan and I doubt you'll have a problem selling.

 

We sold our home privately in May by literally sticking a for sale sign on the front lawn.

 

Obviously that wouldn't in your case, however there are still various means of marketing the house by yourself.

 

My advice to you, if you don't have a gun to your head and can afford to take the time, try selling it yourself.

 

If you want/need it sold asap use a realtor.

 

Cheers and good luck.