by Robert Irwin
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Product Description
Going the "for sale by owner," or FSBO, route can save homeowners an average of $10,000 in real estate commissions.
The numbers are staggering: in 2002, 1.68 million people attempted to sell their homes "by owner," and a whopping 2.25 million are projected to do so in 2005. This will side-step real estate agents, allowing sellers to pocket more profits. Online FSBO options also are accelerating: In 2003, an astonishing 840,000 "FSBOs" used online listing services. For years, the For Sale By Owner Kit has been a must-have resource, filled with essential checklists, sales forms, and sample ads designed to simplify the entire home selling process. Included in this new edition are revisions to chapters on:
* "Staging" a home to maximize its appeal.
* Pricing a home for quick sale.
* Managing all the necessary, but complicated, paperwork.
* Writing an air-tight, carefully worded sales agreement.
* Hiring fee-for-service agents. Several entirely new chapters discuss handling disclosures and inspections fairly and honestly; getting full-service agents to work with you; and, most important, a detailed discussion on online home listings. To maximize the value of The For Sale By Owner Kit, the new edition includes the following services from Owners.com, the largest online FSBO service:
* A Web page on Owners.com that readers can customize for their own property with photos and detailed description.
* A private e-mail box to use for online respondents.
* An answering service that can be used strictly for property inquiries.
* Hit list statistics to see how often the listing has been viewed.
* Buyer preapproval cards from E-Trade Mortgage.
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Average Customer Review:
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 Disappointing, pro-agent book., 2007-11-20
I've sold a couple of my own homes and have read at least half a dozen books about selling your own home, which may explain why I am so critical of this book. While reading the first chapter, I looked at the title again to be certain this was a book for people who want to sell their own homes and not "101 Reasons Why You Need an Agent to Sell Your Home." By the end of the second chapter I was convinced that the author's real purpose is to discourage FISBOs. While occasionally saying essentially, "You can do it!" he uses back-handed compliments and qualified endorsements to make the point that you really need a real estate agent.
His FISBO Sellers Self Test asks "Are you willing to give up every evening and weekend for the next several months?" "Are you willing to let strangers into your home?" "Can you be ready to show your home day or night on a moment's notice?" In reality, you will not have to give up every evening and weekend. Far from it. You will need to do the same fixing up before hand and make the same reasonable accommodations to buyers if you sell through an agent. Selling by owner, you, not a real estate agent, set the date and time for showings, and you do not need to set those showings for your dinner time or 2:00 AM. No buyers are likely to come in the middle of the night and very few will come after dark when they can see less of your home's exterior. As for the "strangers," is an agent going to bring only buyers who are not strangers to you?
"How to Sell Your Own Home, The Homeowner's Guide to Selling Property by Owner" is much more informative and useful. The author runs Picket Fences, a publication and website for FISBOs. His agenda is clearly to convince you that you can sell your own home and to tell you how, not to convince you that you really should hire an agent.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
 More conversational than helpful, 2007-05-31
This book talks you through the process and has some useful information, but spends more time on soft stuff and has very little of the info I needed, such as how to negotiate and points open for negotiation, how to write up the contracts, all the steps between the offer and closing, etc.. But, if you want a pep talk that you can do it, this is the book for you.
If you want a book that's actually useful, try the FSBO Handbook by Piper Nichole. It included stuff I never would have thought to ask about, but definitely needed to know. Written to be useful, not conversational. At each stage of the process, the FSBO Handbook gave me the info I needed.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
BE VERY Carefull with the Free Listing Offer, 2006-01-26
I bought the 4th edition of this book, and this is the 5th Edition. I took advantage of the free Owners.com listing and am now regretting it 18 months later. I signed up with the Owners.com listing service this book recommended. Do not put your email address or phone number in your listing because your listing never goes away. I don't know if owners.com sold my info, or someone else copied it from the website - but the way it looks - I think it is identical to the Owners.com info and my belief is that they are the ones letting my listing be copied. But I've got a google alert for my email address - and every month, some new FSBO website is advertising my ancient listing (sold a year ago) with my personal information as a new FSBO. The companies listing it have no contact info to ask them to stop doing it. I've put in a complaint to the FTC. But I get phone calls from realtors to this day trying to convert my FSBO to a realtor listing. Here are the websites serializing my listing without my permission: http://www.fsbohouselisting.com/ http://www.changemystreet.com/ there are several others - but I didn't save the website. So be careful.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 Valuable Practical Guide for Selling Your Home FSBO, 2006-01-26
I used the valuable, step-by-step, practical information in this book to sell my first house by owner, a rental house at that. Book does a great job explaining the FSBO process from start to finish, with lots of good advice on all decisions involved and troubleshooting problems along the way. I found one of the FSBO companies with a local office to be of great help with the earnest money paperwork, and free advertising on CraigsList brought in both leads that signed to buy the house. (ARG! My first buyer did not work out.)
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
10 out of 10, 2005-02-06
This book really is a kit. It has a coupon for a free online listing and a sign you can use in your yard. I'm selling my own home for the second time and this is a great primer and reminder of how to do it. It tells everything you need. I learned about it from a Robert Bruss column in my newspaper where he gave it a 10 out of 10 and called it the best of the "for sale by owner" books. He's right.
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