For Sale by Owner Questions Lakeside

If you sold your home on your own, how did you advertise it so the foreigners would find your home?

If you bought a home from a For Sale by Owner how did you find the house that was advertised?

What I am looking for is how do you advertise your home on your own so the foreigners find it?

Thanks

We advertised our home on a number of FSBO sites. One of the better ones that generated numerous inquiries was: http://www.virtualfsbo.com/country.asp?country=Mexico
While I also touted the home on a number of forums, it was a frustrating and irritating experience brought on by posters voicing opinions about location, untrue assertions about water problems, comments about air quality, etc.

Since we were living NOB, we were extremely lucky to have neighbors willing to show the home and answer questions about life in our particular development. Once we made a deal, we had one of the top notarios in Guadalajara handle the transaction to the satisfaction of both ourselves and our buyer. I put together an extensive candid writeup on the home and also a portfolio of over 70 photos of both the house and the development which I could email to interested parties.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Anyone else?

I have a few friends who tried to sell their house themselves. They even used an inexpensive company to just do advertising for a minimal fee. None of my friends were successful and ended up using a real estate agent and then the homes were sold. None of my friends did any advertising themselves though and if someone were willing to put up signs an hold open houses plus keep it on the chat groups that allow real estate it might be different.

You need to be on MLS to sell your house. It is where the public looks at houses for the most part. This generally comes with the agency and you can't generally buy it on your own. Always exceptional situation or exceptional properties but for the most part no MLS no sold house. NOB you can buy Alacarte from low cost  realty companies instead of being paid when sold they sell each service one by one. You can buy just MLS listing and you do the rest.  Not sure the same model is available down  here. You might check and see.

Z

Most foreign newcomers are not comfortable dealing directly with an owner, who is another foreigner and more expecially, a Mexican owner; and look to bond with a real estate person for security, even though the real estate person is "working" for the seller.
Marketing to people that have already owned property here, that is not so much a problem, but it does limit your market.

"You need to be on MLS to sell your house."

Talk about being brainwashed! Sure I would much rather purchase a home through a real estate agent who has no obligation (not even moral obligation) to disclose what may be wrong with a given property. That same agent may consider their work to be 80% complete when they list the property on the MLS and possibly run a few ads. Just sit back and wait for that buyer to fall through the door with a briefcase full of cash and put forth a minimal amount of effort. If no one falls through the door, then it is time to tell the seller that the original price was too high and it needs a price reduction. And all is good.

The same year that we sold our Mexico home, we also sold a home on the Oregon Coast. In both cases, we had listed with an agent (who listed on MLS), neither of which generated a single offer. In both cases, we strongly suggested that our interested parties have a home inspection done. We also provided a writeup on the homes which not only pointed out the pluses but also the minuses. I would be willing to bet that in both cases we disclosed far more than any agent would have been willing to include. On both homes, our asking price was exactly what we felt we had to have and they both sold for our asking price when both agents had told us we needed to lower the prices. In the case of the Oregon Coast home, we accepted an offer within two weeks after our listing expired.

Does it take more time, effort and patience to sell by owner? Certainly! But there is a real sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when things are all said and done.

CheenaGringo wrote:"You need to be on MLS to sell your house."

Talk about being brainwashed!  Sure I would much rather purchase a home through a real estate agent who has no obligation (not even moral obligation) to disclose what may be wrong with a given property.  That same agent may consider their work to be 80% complete when they list the property on the MLS and possibly run a few ads.  Just sit back and wait for that buyer to fall through the door with a briefcase full of cash and put forth a minimal amount of effort.  If no one falls through the door, then it is time to tell the seller that the original price was too high and it needs a price reduction.  And all is good.

The same year that we sold our Mexico home, we also sold a home on the Oregon Coast.  In both cases, we had listed with an agent (who listed on MLS), neither of which generated a single offer. In both cases, we strongly suggested that our interested parties have a home inspection done.  We also provided a writeup on the homes which not only pointed out the pluses but also the minuses.  I would be willing to bet that in both cases we disclosed far more than any agent would have been willing to include.  On both homes, our asking price was exactly what we felt we had to have and they both sold for our asking price when both agents had told us we needed to lower the prices. In the case of the Oregon Coast home, we accepted an offer within two weeks after our listing expired.

Does it take more time, effort and patience to sell by owner?  Certainly!  But there is a real sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when things are all said and done.

fer sure fer sure! we also sold our NOB home by ourselves with one of them self serve package companies. any time we used a rea they fekked up big time. rea are order takers -they don't know how to sell by and large.
having said that lulu at hernandez found us this casa and she was terrific. she actually lissened to what we wanted and we bought after being here a week. phoned us in canada on vonage fer about 6 months before we got here

Just because you folks did it without MLS doesn't mean others can. Sorry but statistically you are wrong.  Not being on MLS is a big marketing mistake.  Being on MLS has nothing to do with real estate agents. You don't need them I agree if you are willing to do the research and work. Also I will point out there are buyers agents who represent you not the owner of the house being sold.  The vast majority of folks who try to sell there house without help do a poor job of marketing and pricing.  MLS is the best marketing dollar you can spend because the public has access to it and it is where they go to look at houses. It is a no brainer.

Z

FSBO can be risky.  Our neighbors attempted same.....prospective buyers contacted them and set up appointment.  When they arrived, the prospective buyers tied them up and stole everything of value.  Another good reason to use a realtor.

Yeah, at least the realtors don't tie you up when they rob you.......jaja.

CanuckBob wrote:Yeah, at least the realtors don't tie you up when they rob you.......jaja.

   

Have you considered the opportunities which may exist for potential burglars to case a home during open houses held by hungry real estate agents?

Zed...
The only "buyer's agent" I can recall, in the GIL, was Sid Grosvenor...
maybe there were others.

CheenaGringo wrote:Have you considered the opportunities which may exist for potential burglars to case a home during open houses held by hungry real estate agents?

Believe me, this has happened more than once...a lot more.  A long time ago, a real estate agent was even complicit.

Trust nobody.