Tracking Prospective FSBO home buyers

As soon as you list your home for sale "by owner," you can expect to start getting some inquires and traffic.

You may also get local real estate agents inquiring. They may claim to have home buyers looking for a home in your area. Generally the real estate agent is looking for one of two things, they either want to entice you to list your home for sale with them or they may be determining if you will “co-operate” with a selling agent. By asking about “co-operating” with a seller agent they are determining weather or not you are willing to pay a commission if they sell your home. To protect their interests they may request a short term listing (24 – 48 hrs). This is usually represents half of a regular commission, so if your market regularly pay 6 percent, they're asking for a commitment of 3 percent. I would suggest agreeing since it can provide better exposure for your home sale and facilitate a quicker sale and you'll still be saving half the commission.

You should also generate some serious inquires that come directly to you. They may have seen your lawn sign, or your advertisements, or your listing on the Internet (FreeFSBO.com). They've called, set up an appointment to view your home, and now they're here.

GET HOME BUYERS TO SIGN IN

One of the most frequent mistakes made by individuals selling their home “by owner”, is to overlook the "sign in" register. It's very important that you get everyone (realtors included) who comes to view your house to sign in. You should have a professional notebook or register near the front door so that as people come in, they can list their names, addresses, and phone numbers and, very importantly, the date. It is more effective to request they sign the registry upon entry. If you wait until they are getting ready to leave they will rarely take the time to bother.

The number one reason for the “sign in” or “registry” is so that you can follow up with them. Home buyers rarely purchase on their first visit. It is important to be able to follow up to determine if they have questions. Some people just need that little push to come back and make an offer. Call them up, ask them if they have any questions, and start a conversation. If the prospective client asks a question that you don’t have an answer to use it as an opportunity to follow up. It could lead to a sale. But, you can't do it if you don't know who came by and if you don't have their phone number. Be sure to call or distribute professional flyers to your neighbors, too. While they may not be interested themselves, they may have friends or relative that are. You can also compose a list of agents from your register, in case you decide to list later on.

EXCLUDING HOME BUYERS

A second reason to sign people in is that if you do later list or co-broke with an agent, you can use the names from your register to exclude buyers. You can agree you'll pay the agent a commission for buyers he or she brings by. But, if the buyers first saw the home while you were selling "by owner," they're your buyers, you'll deal with them directly, and no commission is due. This is why it's important to get as much information on the buyers as possible, including the date they saw your home.

FSBO TIP

Keep your sign-in register until you sell your home and it closes or for at least six months if it doesn't sell. It can be a great resource that you can refer to, sometimes contacting potential buyers back at 1 or 2 month intervals to see if they've changed their minds and would like to reconsider and view your home again.

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