Your internet service has brought us more prospects (including agents) in the last three weeks than we had in a whole year listing our house with a realty company! My best friend sold their house in a week after using your service. Wish we had found you a year ago!

We closed the sale of our house on Battery Lane in Mtn. Brook March 16. Our thanks to you for such a thorough job (we had many praises from viewers regarding your work...they were really surprised at the very low cost for such extensive work)

We will gladly continue to highly recommend your service.

Burns and Dianne Johns

Just wanted to drop you a note. We sold our home just five (5) days after listing is on your site. The purchaser drove by, saw the sign, checked out the internet site, scheduled an appointment and made us a great offer.

We're closing on February 27th, under 30 days from the day we put the house on the market.

Thanks for your help.

David Stidham

Jan L. Larmore

Dear Patrick, 

We really feel we got a great response from the Internet service you provided.   More than half of the people responded to the web site - not my newspaper ad.   But also, when I put it in the paper - I would put the visual tour # and it helped people see for themselves without coming into the house.

It was a great selling tool for us!

We got over 100 hits every week - pretty amazing!

Thanks again,

Mary and Hank Patterson

I sold my townhouse/condo (listing 205) after only two months on FORSALE-BYOWNER.com. AND my net profit from the sale was exactly what I'd hoped to get out of it!

In those two months of exposure on FORSALE-BYOWNER.com, I had almost 600 hits on the website and personally showed the condo to seventeen prospective buyers. Fifteen of the seventeen I showed it to had initially seen the house on Pat's website. The other two had seen the directional signs Pat provides as part of the service. Meanwhile, the house across the street from me is still for sale. Another friend of mine has had her home listed with one of the area's top real estate agents for seven months and has only just now sold after drastically dropping the price. FORSALE-BYOWNER.com works!!!

What I did right:

I got the place in good shape before I listed it on FORSALE-BYOWNER.com. I replaced the very worn carpet and had the interior almost completely repainted in light neutral colors. Some people advised me that this was a waste of money - prospective buyers would want to pick their own colors for paint and carpet. However, I am convinced that the "freshness" and move-in-ready look this expense gave the condo contributed to my getting a price that was higher than what some of the other condos in the neighborhood had recently sold for.

I listened to what Pat McCaghren told me and took his advice. Although the condo was empty, Pat took great photographs that really showed off the floor space inside and the setting outside. The townhouse does not have a traditional floor plan, and it really helped that prospective buyers could take a virtual tour before actually seeing the place. I'm sure this helped eliminate many trips for me just to show the condo to a "casual looker".

I read the book Pat provides as part of FORSALE-BYOWNER.com, How to Sell Your Own Home: The Homeowner's Guide to Selling Property by Owner by William F. Supple, Jr. I took the suggestions about creating a checklist for questions to ask prospective buyers and tips on how to show your home yourself. Based on the advice in the book, I put together a 4 page information packet based on information that I had listed on the FORSALE-BYOWNER.com website, plus floor plans and other tidbits. I gave this to each prospective buyer. I watched them refer to it as we looked through the condo and they asked me questions.

What I wish I'd done differently:

I should have had a professional real estate appraisal before I set the price. Instead, I decided how much money I wanted to get out of the sale based on watching newspaper ads for similar property in the area, then I listed it on FORSALE-BYOWNER.com at about 10% higher than my "walk-away" price.

My buyer was working with a real estate agent who required 3% commission. I accounted for this as we negotiated the price, and the price we agreed on would have covered his commission and still met my goals. However, for the purposes of the buyer's mortgage, the house appraised below the price we agreed upon, so we had to negotiate again. I ended up hiring an appraiser. Having a professional appraisal in hand during the negotiating process would have avoided much anxiety, both for me and for the buyer.

I received far more exposure from FORSALE-BYOWNER.com than I did from the first real estate agent I worked with or from the ads I placed in the newspaper. For people who want to sell their property quickly, FORSALE-BYOWNER.com is the way to go!!

Dear Pat, 

I just had to write to tell you how successful we were with the sale of our house on your web site, ForSale-ByOwner.com.  After listing with you we had a call within 2 weeks from an out-of-town buyer in Michigan who was very interested in our home after seeing it on your WEB site. They were already familiar with our neighborhood and after viewing your very professional pictures were extremely excited about seeing our home in person.  Within a matter of 2 weeks we had an excellent contract on our house from them and went to closing shortly thereafter.

Although we have sold many houses throughout the years, both on our own and with a realtor, we have never had such a smooth transaction. The professional service provided by you and your company has been wonderful. We had many calls on our house through your yard sign and through the one ad we ran in the paper.  

Your web site, combined with our flyer and some screening questions over the phone eliminated many "lookers" and not so serious buyers. Therefore we were able to concentrate our energies on serious buyers and work with them.  Because of the price of our home we we able to save about $30,000 in commissions and couldn't be happier. 

Thanks, again, Pat for all your help and experience. You can be sure that the next home we sell will be listed on ForSale-ByOwner.com !!

Tedd and Jeannie Wilson

Prior to listing my home with ForSale-ByOwner.com I had run classified ads in the paper for three weeks and had open houses for three Sundays in a row.  I found that I had a lot of lookers, but no serious buyers who could afford the house. 

After listing on the WEB site, I was able to eliminate the hassle of Sunday open houses. The sign also generated a lot of calls from people driving by the house. 

The people who bought our home were working with a real estate agent, and were unhappy because she had not been able to find them a house with the features they required.  So they decided to get on the Internet and try to find a home. They found our home on FORSALE-BYOWNER.com, and called us.  Thus, the negotiations began. 

I am now telling all my friends that advertising on ForSale-ByOwner.com is the best way to sell their home.  It eliminates the people who cannot afford your home, it allows you to screen your buyers before showing them the house, and it saves you money by eliminating the real estate commission.  It also gives you peace of mind in that you do not have to keep a constant vigil to keep the house spotless since you decide when to show it.

Terry Stiles Harrison

Back in February we listed with a national by-owner Internet listing service, but since they provided no services like flyers, signs, pictures or suggestions, we got no good response for 30 days or so.

Then we saw the ForSale-ByOwner.com web site and had a professional job done, beyond what we have ever seen even with a real estate company.

Within two weeks we had our first contract, then a back-up contract a few weeks later, and now we are finally closing on one of those contracts. The delay was not because of the services, but actually we got to choose which contract we wanted and waited for the best one for us. 

This company does a great job in advertising and with a little help from the buyer, you can sell your house in the same time or less than a real estate company and save thousands!!

Pat and Marsha Davy

Hi Patrick!

I am happy to say that we have sold our house. The final paperwork will go through next Friday and then we will be out of Birmingham and on to New Orleans.  My husband and I cannot thank you enough for your service as well as your hospitality. To our surprise, we didn't have to advertise anywhere else- ForSale-ByOwner.com basically sold our house for us. 

It was also nice not to have people wandering through our home unless they were genuinely interested. Since they could look it up on the Internet, if they weren't serious, they didn't bother stopping by. It was great!

Sincerely,

The Judy's

Dear Patrick,

I just wanted to let you know that we just closed on our home (listing #132) on March 30th, 2000.   It went under contract after just 6 days on your website!  Thank you so much for your advice and professionalism.  We could not be more pleased with the service you provided. Thank you again for all your help. Feel free to give our name and phone number to potential clients for a reference.

Barkley and Stephanie Knight