[5-DayForum] Dissapointed in Minneapolis

Tue Aug 14 10:33:41 EDT 2007

I see what you guys are saying. It makes sense. Most of those that come through the home will not be qualified, can't afford it, want to steal it, etc. The few serious buyers don't know who they are though. They just see potential competition walking through "their" home. 

  Is more better? I think so in some ways. The starting price can get people's attention. 

  It got mine on a few sales locally in the past. I saw a sign for a nice 3 bed 2 bath home for $67,600 and I couldn't believe it. This is before I read the book. I was qualified and I did look. 

  I didn't understand the bidding thing then and didn't put my name down. To me it didn't make sense. Why would I put down one cent?  Because I didn't understand well enough, I was afraid it was some con or scam that I had not heard of. I simply walked away scratching my head. The seller's didn't do a very good job of teaching me and had no handouts that explained it.

  As more and more people do this, perhaps it will become a standard selling method and everyone will understand it. Perhaps it will even have it's own classification in the newspaper and couples looking to buy a home will automatically look there and buy their home a few days after they decide they want one.

jfaas at aol.com wrote:
    Drew,

  I have been reading with great interest your thoughts and comments.  In looking for weeks at the "forum" I also feel if you make the starting price too low you will get a lot of calls, but they will be the ones looking for the deal beyond belief, can not qualify for the actual price of what you would like to sell the house, or people with nothing to do.  I know that this is more of a quantity thing, but something tells me I would rather have quality.

  I really want to use this method as I have a great house (investment property) shows like a new home, new everything, and has been on the market for 6 months and no offers.  And yes it is priced below the market value.

But I have yet to be convinced this method is successful as I have read more "non" success stories the successful stories.

thank you again

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Nelson <anels943 at hotmail.com>
To: 5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com
Sent: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 8:55 am
Subject: Re: [5-DayForum] Dissapointed in Minneapolis

      I appreciate the insight, but I think many of you are assuming I was simply telling everyone the only acceptable offer would be over $250K.  That was not the case.  I made it VERY CLEAR that while we had our own thoughts as to the value of the home, we were going to let the process determine the value, and sell to the high bidder, fully expecting that we had three potential real buyers.  I can't count the times I said "it doesn't matter what we think the value of our home is...the true fair market value is what the buyers tell us through the bidding process".  I believe our problem was that we just did not have the three real buyers, we only had the one.  With no one to bid against her, she simply outbid the low-ballers within a couple of rounds and that was that.  She actually indicated that she felt the value of the home was somewhere between $250K-$260K, and that she was prepared to bid up to $250K.
  Anyone who picked the book up (one of the suggestions is to leave the book out and ENCOURAGE buyers to check it out) and read the back cover, knew what we valued the house at...didn't take a genious to make the leap from the asking price to what we were hopeing to achieve with the sale.  Good thing is that the ultimate high bidder understands what is going on, and she understood that the house could not go for what she bid...she is supposed to get back to be today and let me know where finances are at for her, re: being able to give us the purchase price whe need.  
  The problem I see with this system is that we simply could not accept a bid below a certain amount.  I feel that if the starting price was closer to that amount (like when Bill sold his first home, using this method) we would have attracted fewer bidders, but they would have been more quality, real buyers interested in the home.  
  Either way, it was a learning experience that I ultimately hope pans out with our high bidder bing willing to work with us on things.  
  I wish you all the best, but I think we will look to the more traditional for sale by owner method from now on to save commissions and sell property in the future.  

Take it easy and happy selling!

    Drew Nelson
  5702 46th Ave South
  Minneapolis, MN 55417
  612-990-0813

---------------------------------
  From: "Terry Wigfield" <t.wigfield at verizon.net>
Reply-To: How To Sell Your Home in 5-Days<5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com>
To: "'How To Sell Your Home in 5-Days'"<5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com>
Subject: Re: [5-DayForum] Dissapointed in Minneapolis
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:18:07 -0400

  #AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb ..shape{;}          #AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';}#AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb a:link, span.MsoHyperlink{color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed{color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb p{margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';}#AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb span.EmailStyle18{font-family:Arial;color:navy;}@#AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb page Section1{size:8.5in 11.0in;margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}#AOLMsgPart_1_a555ffef-14a9-45af-b14d-59552aafbbbb div.Section1{page:Section1;}      Drew,

  I have not yet conducted my first 5 day sale but plan to do a 4 day apartment rental this weekend. While my experience is limited, I have however, read virtually every email on this forum for the past six weeks. I have noticed one peculiar tendency. Virtually all the sellers who had good turnout but low volume of bids of poor quality of bids seemed to have one similar trait. Just from what they wrote in their emails, I was given the impression that the seller had no intention of selling unless the bid reached the level they thought it should be. The five day sale works for one reason only; you are able to get all the buyers together at one time. You do that by advertising at a ridiculously low price. There is a psychology to this, kind of like the magic numbers. Human nature gets the best of us and we just have to check it out. So the buyer, seeing the ad at Â½ the price comes to the house to find out what this is all about. Will they really sell for this price? Remember
 the buyer is trying to figure out the seller also. And the first thing they hear is â€œwe think the house is really worth twice that and we believe that is what it will sell for. So now the buyers believe heâ€™s been had, they check it out and leave. 
  While Bill encourages everyone to be totally honest about the house and how the bidding is conducted, you just canâ€™t come out and tell everyone I tricked you to get you over here, but now that youâ€™re here this is the price I want. Iâ€™d leave too.
  Buyers will try everything to get a price out of you. You just canâ€™t do it. If you give out a price you think your home is worth, the buyers are no longer bidding against other buyers, they are now bidding against you. You have just laid out the top dollar price you really want and that you donâ€™t plan on taking less. They feel youâ€™re a huckster and leave.

  When you are asked about the price, I believe the best thing to say is something along the line ofâ€¦ I really donâ€™t know what the house will bring at this time (You donâ€™t).  You were asked why you were selling so low, I would have responded withâ€¦ I believe by bidding Iâ€™ll get the best price for my house (You will)   There are many other things you can say along the same line. They are in the book.

  Let the other bidders tell them they are not going to get the house for Â½ price by their bidsâ€¦not you.

  For this to work the buyer has to be kept thinking they may get the home for a really low price. As the time goes on they start planning on who gets which bedroom, how the living room furniture will fit, they begin to get emotional about the house. They are kept in suspense of what others will bid. With you they knew the price they had to bid. They didnâ€™t get to start dreaming. Now when the price goes above what they hoped to pay, it is because others are willing to pay that price, not because the owner wants this amount. The fact that others are raising the bid gives them confidence to bid on it. After all it is worth the higher bid, others think so. 

  Itâ€™s a shame because everything else went extremely well. Your advertising and response was great. That is the hard part.

  Just my thoughts

  Also, did you mention mortgages as in plural? Did the money for the second mortgage go into the house or did this money go elsewhere? Just because you borrowed against the home when property values were sky high, doesnâ€™t mean the house will now pay for the mortgage and your kids college or whatever you spent it on. If you spent the money on the home, that doesnâ€™t necessarily mean you increased the value the same amount spent. Your house is a commodity just like stock, you may want it to be worth what it was two years ago. You can want all day, but you will not get more than the buyers are willing to pay. Just ask anybody heavily I invested in NASDAQ five or six years ago. If you are moving, you will need to decide if you need to sell or if you can afford to rent until the market comes back. Can you afford to let it sit empty on the market for six months? Iâ€™ll bet if you had done as above you would have gotten significantly higher final bid, but probably not the
 $240000 you seem to believe you must hold out for. There are a lot of home just sitting with owners that have not come to the current market realization. Remember the next house you buy will be significantly less than two years ago. It works both ways.

  Wishing you the best.
    Terry Wigfield

---------------------------------

  From: 5-dayforum-bounces+terry.wigfield=housemaster.com at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com [mailto:5-dayforum-bounces+terry.wigfield=housemaster.com at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Nelson
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 8:28 AM
To: 5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com
Subject: [5-DayForum] Dissapointed in Minneapolis

    Hey all, 

Well, here's my checklist...maybe someone can let me know where we went wrong?
  We had close to 30 responces as of Friday night through craigslist, the two major newspapers, and through the intranet at my wife's work.  Check.  
  Fielded an additional 30 calls and emails throughout the sale during the weekend.  Check.
  My wife and her sister served as greeters and introduced people to the home, while giving them the information sheets and explaining what they were.  Check.
  Recieved RAVE reviews about the home, people absolutely loved it.  Created a "buzz".  Check.
  Had close to 75 people through the house on a fairly consistent basis...very few opportunities for down time.  Check.
  I served as closer and made very sure everyone knew we would be selling to the high bidder.  When asked about why we were selling so low, I told them we weren't selling low, we were starting low, and that we felt the house was worth twice that amount.  I explained the bidding process and how the round robbin would work.  I had the book with me and open to the buyer's section and allowed everyone the opportunity to read through that section and ask questions.  We ended up with 10 bids on the initial bidding sheets, with the top bid being $175K.  Check.
  Everything up to this point indicated to me that we had the three "real buyers" in our house and that they had left bids to be involved in the round robbin.  I started calling...three of the people did not answer their phones.  I double checked numbers and called again...I think I woke one of them up and another called back immediately...neither were interested in proceeding with the round robbin and I left a message for the third.  Another three dropped out, because $175K was too high for them.  An important thing to note here is that the $175K bid was the SECOND bid on the sheet, so all the people that dropped out knew what the high bid was when they put their bid on the initial bidding sheet, so them dropping in the first round was kind of confusing to me.  
  After the first round, we were down to 4, then to three after round two.  Round 3 saw another drop, then 4-6 was just the 2 going back and forth.  The bidder who put the $175K ended up as our high bidder at $183K.  My wife and I owe $245K on our mortgage.  Yeah, our high bid was $60,000 less than what we owe on the house.  We checked things our last week regarding whether or not we were upside down on our house or not and TCF assured us that homes in our neighborhood had not lost value.  
  Heidi (who is looking to do a five day in the Twin Cities in Sept) was nice enough to stop by, so she can vouch for the condition of the home and that we were following the book to the T.  She indicated that the major paper in our area had listed our zip code as one of the "hot" real estate places, so that is one reason why our home values have not dropped in our pocket of the cities, anyway.  
  I accepted a job in Eau Claire, WI, so we do need to come up with a buyer by the first week of September.  We will just put the FSBO sign in the yard, and home that offering it for significantly less than where we were at with a realtor will bring some success. 
  Well, good luck to everyone else out there...I think this can be a good way to sell a home, but considering we followed the book very closely, I think it's safe to say that this process simply does not work in every market for every homeowner, as indicated.  
  Take care,
    Drew Nelson
  5702 46th Ave South
  Minneapolis, MN 55417
  612-990-0813

---------------------------------

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