[5-DayForum] completed the process

Mon Apr 30 00:28:45 EDT 2007

Scott

    I want to add and subtract from Eric's list. I too did two 5-day sales using George Cappony's services. If done according to the book (which George helped me stay on track) it will work. So first do not do it on a holiday weekend if you want success.

What I do agree with Eric about what worked is 

#1 - Using a website created by George Cappony with the listing insertions into Craigslist every few days was really helpful. The traffic tracking software that you get use of helps you keep track of how many people are interested and from were they are coming from. Most of my traffic came from straight load and not click through's like Craiglist. 

#3 - I ordered the yellow, brake screeching signs from George. You get 40 signs to put around the neighborhood on all the different roads leading to your house. This worked the best because more than 80% of the visitors who came to the open house did so because of the signs. People that were just out looking for property to buy. In other words some of my true bidders (non tire kickers). I would not have gotten those bidders if it wasn't for the signs.

 #5 - Info signs in each room are a big help. It keeps you from having to repeat the same answers to the same questions throughout the day. It also gives you the ability to let each person walk through your house without having someone right there to answer all these questions. 

#6 - Although my homes were vacant, cleaning out the clutter and minimizing the furniture is a must. Also take all your valuables out of the house or lock them in a safe. 

#8 - The more people you can expose to your sale and what you are doing the more people you will have at your open house and the more people you will have bid on your house. I also had fliers printed and I left them every place I could. 

#10 - The inspection report shows credibility to the potential buyers. It shows you are not hiding anything. 

What I do not agree with is 

#2 - Getting charged $3,000 is too much money. You can hire a title company or attorney (depending on the state your in) to handle the whole transaction. It will be a fraction of the costs as what Help-U-Sell charged Eric.

#3 & #1 - The money you save from using a title company or attorney, put towards signs that George sells on his website. I used them in both of mine and 80% of all people who showed up for the open houses did so because they saw the signs throughout the neighborhood. It is a powerful tool if you use the right brake screeching signs. Putting a sign on a telephone pole will not get noticed if it is too small. 

#9 - Your reserve price should be undisclosed. You should never disclose your minimum reserve price. You should never show your poker hand before the river. Let people bid up the price on your property and keep an undisclosed reserve. This way if the reserve is met the bidders will keep bidding it up because they do not know what the reserve is. Disclosing your reserve is like saying this is what I will accept for my house. People who may still bid won't if your minumum reserve is more than what they think the home is worth.  On the other side if the reserve is lower than what they think the house is worth they will think you are real desperate and try to command the bidding process by making a ridiculous high bid that will scare away all other potential bidders. In the end they won't go through with that price, but will offer you your reserve. You will be stuck and you will either have to take it or do the sale again in 3 weeks. Either way you lose. 

#2 - If you do place your add in the paper place it for 8 days and place it in the paper that has the most real estate adds. This will generate a lot more interest. It did for me.

#1 - Flat fee MLS do not do it. You can not legally add a three percent brokers fee to the final price. The final price is what the commission has to be based on. If you try and tack one on the commission you could have problems with governing bodies. Plus I believe you can only advertise a sale price with them not a starting bid price. I tried the flat fee MLS and ran into nothing but headaches. Every realtor went after me with every legal body they could complain too. Don't Do IT it's not worth it. 

Final suggestion is to also get an 800 number voice mail. This will also reduce the number of actual callers you get and free up your time for other things. George Cappony also offers this service. By getting it through George it will be a flat fee instead of buying the number and paying per minute.  

If there is something I missed and you want to ask go ahead and ask.

Tom

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: eric huang 
  To: 5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com 
  Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 1:00 PM
  Subject: Re: [5-DayForum] completed the process

  Scott,
  I sold my San Francisco condo last year using the 5-day method. It was fast, it worked, and everything went smoothly. I'm not good of a "story" teller, but I'll tell you what worked and what didn't: 

  What worked:
  1. Website created by George Cappony's service. Included listing in craigslist.org, updated every 3 days. Also included traffic-tracking software.
  2. Closing agent - I used Help-U-Sell, they charge $3000 to handle the transaction. They also let me borrow A-frame signs 
  3. A-Frame signs to advertise our open-house on the day-of. Decorate the signs with helium balloons.
  4. Walkie-talkies to handle communication between me and my helpers - got lots of compliments on this ("You are so organized!) 
  5. Info-signs in each room (lets people do self-guided tour) about size, carpeting, blinds, etc
  6. Cleaning out all of the clutter. Think "minimalism" as your home-decorating theme. (got lots of compliments about this). Minimize the number of pieces of furniture in each room, get rid of knick-knacks, etc. 
  7. Minimum reserve price made me more confident about putting on the sale, but wasn't really necessary. 
  8. Sending info about your sale to every mailing list I belonged to
  9. Making the reserve so low, people said, "are you crazy?" 
  10. Pre-inspection report

  What didn't work:
  1. putting up signs around the neighborhood before the day of the open-house. Takes a lot of time/energy, but nobody looks for a house by reading signs on telephone poles. 
  2. newspaper ads - it did generate some interest, but I think readership for newspapers is way down. If you are going to do this, buy Sunday to Sunday (8 days)

  What I wish I had done:
  1. advertise with flat-fee MLS - there is no reason to fear/dislike buyers agents. Just say in your materials that people who have a buyers' agent will get a 3% fee tacked on to the final bid price. That way everyone is happy. 

  By the way, with the website, you don't have to stay home to answer the phone before the open house. I just went to work as usual and answered people who left message on my answering machine. I got maybe 10 calls by Friday, but almost 1000 unique IPs on my website by the end of open house (about 600 by Friday night). 

  If you want to know any other details, just ask. 

  Eric

    ---------- Forwarded message ----------
    From: Scott Clawson <scott at scopeitout.us>
    To: <5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com >
    Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 07:43:30 -0700
    Subject: [5-DayForum] I would like to hear from the people that completed the process
    Hi,
    My partner and I are going to conduct this 5-day process in the next 3
    weeks. Unfortunately it has to be on the upcoming holiday weekend but I am
    praying that turns out to be a positive and not a negative. No choice if we
    want to have it in May. We live in Seattle, Wa.  I read all these questions 
    about the people who are going to do the 5-day process but what about those
    who have completed it recently. I would like to hear from you that have been
    through the process and how it went. Did it go like you thought? Did you get 
    the price that you thought? Recently, One person posted that they were in
    the bidding stage and was going to get back but I never did see how it went.
    I would really like to hear the start to finish stories. Are there any out 
    there who are reading these? Thanks.

    Scott/Todd

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