Founder of ForSaleByOwner Company Hires Realtor to sell his home.

Now that's a kick. Here's a man who earned quite a bit of money as the CEO of a company that promotes  and makes a lot of money from FSBO's (For Sale By Owners),  how easy it is do yourself, and when it came time to sell his own house, what did he do?

He hired a Realtor.

The company he founded, by the way is ForSaleByOwner.com

You know what happened? The Realtor felt that the seller's asking price was the wrong strategy, and urged the founder and former CEO to raise the price by a whopping $150,000. There were multiple offers, and then.. it sold! So not only was this particular owner underpricing his home,  he will net MORE out of the sale after the real estate  commission is paid. If you want to know, his home sold for  $2.15 million and it was in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

This just seems so incredibly comical that someone in that position would go against his own grain, and it should speak volumes to the many sellers with no real knowledge of selling real estate as to what they should do when it comes time to sell their home.

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The Top Five Mistakes that Sellers make- The Fairfield County CT Version

Here it is. It offer my own version of the Top Five Mistakes that Sellers Make.  You may have seen a littany of articles on those "top five mistakes". Go ahead if you want, and look at all of the articles on this subject-  there are quite a lot, I can assure you. As a matter of fact, I typed in "top five mistakes that sellers make" in Google and it returned about 415,000,000 results in just 0.32 seconds.

With that, I offer you my original Top Five, which may not necessarily agree with the other Top Five Lists, but I can pretty much guarantee you that all of these are appropriate for our area,  and actually..... anywhere you want to sell your home. Here they are, in order of importance.

1. Hire the Right Realtor
2. Hire the Right Realtor
3, 4 and 5. Hire the Right Realtor!

All of the reasons that your home doesn't sell is because the wrong Realtor is representing you, period- end of story.

Hiring the wrong Realtor is the worst thing that you could possibly do. All four hundred some-odd million of these lists could have stopped right there, because all of the other items that are on those lists  are agent related.

The bottom line is that it rests with your Realtor, so your top five priorities in selling your home should truly be focused on just one thing. That is, Hire the Right Realtor.  There is  only one answer to the number of "mistakes"  that I saw, and continue to see in the marketplace. Here  are some of them, and as you can see, the common denominator has to be your agent.
 
1. Overpricing Your Home- wouldn't your Realtor tell you the right price?
2. Not staging your home? Doesn't your Realtor assist you with this as part of their service?
3. Under-marketing or OVER-marketing your home including misrepresenting your home's features, condition or square footage? Your Realtor is the professional he/she should know exactly how to market your home. Shame on your Realtor for this one, period.
4. Sticking around during Showings, and/or not making your home readily accessible for showings? Hasn't your Realtor advised you how this can adversely affect your home sale?
5. Picking the wrong buyer- Shouldn't your Realtor be helping you on this?

Keep it simple and get it sold. Hire the Right Realtor.  These people did.

......and the right Realtor? That's me! :)

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Why You Should Think Twice About Using Your Friend as your Realtor

Most people have a friend or two that is in the real estate business. When it comes time to buy a house or sell your home, or both- your first inclination may be to "use" your friend that's a Realtor.

Not always that good of an idea.  There are over 21,000 Realtors in Connecticut alone, and there are a lot of real estate agents  to choose from. Is your friend an experienced and accomplished full-time Realtor? Unless your friend  truly knows how to market your home and negotiate a sale,  then you are just setting yourself up for trouble, and by that, I mean your bottom line net sales price, AND your friendship. It's time to think twice about it.

Your real estate transaction is a very personal one, and some very private information that you may not want your friend to know may come out.

It's nobody's business in your personal sphere of friends as to  how much money you have in the bank, what your finances are, and what your credit score. You may be judged and not even be aware of it. I know, it's a horrible thing to say. I'm not saying that all agents that are friends with you would disclose your private information to your mutual friends, I'm just saying it can happen. It's an uncomfortable situation that is just waiting to happen, and is easily avoidable.

What would happen if something went wrong or wasn't going well with your home purchase or sale? Would you be strong enough to say something to your friend/Realtor? Is it possible that you could end up getting in an argument and losing the friendship? Suppose that your friend the Realtor botched a sale, and you lost a lot of money because of it. Not good.  Also, easily avoidable.

Okay, so you feel obligated to work with your friend. After all, he/she really is a very good friend. Are you 100 percent certain that they can do the best job for you? Or is this out of loyalty to your friendship?  

Now, I'll ask you the big question...

If you didn't list your home or buy your new home with your friend, would that person be mad at you? Would your friendship be strained at all?  If the answer is yes, your friend will be very mad, then the harsh reality is that that's not really a friend, is it? If you are not sure of the answer, or have any hesitation at all regarding what the answer to that question may be, then the answer really becomes quite clear. A true friend ALWAYS wants what is best for you, and it should NEVER hinge on whether they make any money off of you, or get your business if they truly don't deserve it.

If and when I encounter a client with a friend or relative in the business that they feel immense loyalty to, I offer them the best of both worlds. That is, great representation by me,  and I will give your licensed friend a referral fee on your home sale or purchase. That way you still remain loyal to your friend,  they don't have to do anything at all and get paid without having to work for it,  AND you get the best marketing, negotiation skillset and representation that's available to you.

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How much of a downpayment do you need in order to buy a home in CT?

You may have heard that you need a 20 percent downpayment, a 10 percent deposit,  five percent down, or even less to buy a home. It really all depends on a  number of factors besides your credit-  including your income, your liquidity (or cash on hand), your debt ratio, and what price range that you are looking in.

Years ago, the accepted standard for a downpayment was 20 percent. Prices were also much lower then, and that twenty percent downpayment was a lot easier to attain. We call that percentage a  conventional downpayment nowadays.  At some point a ten percent deposit was acceptable, as long as you paid the bank Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).  PMI is essentially insurance to cover the bank  in case of a default. When you reach 20% equity and can prove it, you can usually get the PMI removed. For you professionals out there, yes- I am simplifying it for the masses. If and when you have a question about PMI, it's best to contact your mortgage broker or the bank that holds your loan for their policies.

Around twenty or so years ago,  five percent down became an acceptable downpayment, and much more common than one might think. It has been  fairly common ever since. You can also get a government backed loan with as little as 3.5 percent downpayment (FHA). The PMI is necessary for these loans as well, although some loan providers also allow you to opt to pay a one time PMI  fee, instead of monthly, or a combination of the two.

Now that we have the percentages down, you also have to qualify for the loan amount that you are looking for.  Of course, I can give you an estimate, but it really is best to meet  with a mortgage broker  who can guide you in the right direction with the loan amount and type of loan that's best for you. We  post current financing rates here every Friday  and you can check our blog for rates, and you may wish to Contact a Mortgage Broker to get clarity on your particular situation. We happen to like Jennifer Buchanan, among others. See her contact info at the bottom of Every Friday's Financing Update.

If you really think about it, and you were thinking about just renting a home, you may want to consider buying.  In order to rent anywhere, you generally need three months rent to move in. (That's one months rent, and two months security) That number is usually very close, and in some instances MORE than a 3.5 percent deposit. We can always negotiate closing costs, so you may very well be able to buy when you only thought you could rent. Give it some thought.

The rates are historically low, and prices are very good right now. You would be getting in on the ground floor!

If you are thinking about buying and want to browse the MLS, you can do so with unlimited access right here on our site, or if you are ready to look right now, we can get started right away. We 'll get you the best deal whenever you're ready.

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The Best Connecticut MLS Home Search. FREE - No Registration Required!

Our New Free MLS Search is Here!  We made it a point in our quest to find the easiest and best MLS Search engine that we possibly could, and the tough part was getting a good product and also making sure that  there was no registration required. That's high pressure sales tactics, we don't like that- and we don't work that way.

And we found what we were looking for! We have full home searches available for all property types- Single Family Homes, Condominiums, Multi-Family Homes, Land and Rentals. We even have a separate Open House Search that includes all scheduled properties by every real estate company, so you don't have to register on various sites to find Open Houses either.

You can create your own account if you like, however there absolutely is no registration required on TheCTrealtyBlog.com in order to view listings. We searched for months to find just the right interface to bring you the MLS in an easy to use format, and we're convinced that we have the answer. By the way, we are the first and ONLY Realtors in the entire state of Connecticut to bring you this exclusive brand of MLS search.

We hope you enjoy it, we would love your feedback, and if you find a property on our site that you would like to see or get more information on, just email us and we'll get right back to you, just like we always do!

....and just as an aside, We still offer Listingbook Accounts if you want them. Sign up for Listingbook is under the "Buyers" Tab.

Please give us your feedback!

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