[Half Squid]

I am 95% sure I will be selling my condo and waiting it out till the housing market drops again. But I need to sell the Condo while the market is still hot. The Condo's where I live are selling for crazy $ and I am ready to cash in for a nice Profit!!!! I already have a place to live for as long as I need till I buy my house. The place is nice and a lot bigger than where I live now! Cheaper too!

So I need advice on where to advertise, how to sell, what I need or have to do on my own to make this fly without paying some realter 10-20%. Fuck that...

don't ask what I bought it for because I am not sharing that info. But I will be making out extremly well after hearing what the last place sold for. This place that sold was never fixed up like mine was less than two years ago.

Details:
Very central location, route 9 Framingham, 20 minutes from Boston. It's a 740 Sq ft condo on the top floor (Third) with only one neighbor next door, and one below. minutes from 495/ Mass Pike, 128, 1 bdr, 1 bath, kitchenette, two balconies, two sliding glass doors, two A/C's, ceiling fan in the Bdrm and Living room, fridge, stove, & Dishwasher included. New carpets, nice clean paint, real wood baseboard, cable TV/Internet ready. Clear view of the court yard and flower garden. I could possibly include my wall unit entertainment unit seeing it was customized for the wall it's on ? $ Talks!

Cheap Condo Fee's.. Laundry facility on site. No other ammenaties included with condo fee's except water ( Not heated ) pest control, yard maint, garbage, plowing etc....

Last 1 bedroom was crap and sold for over $150 within 3 weeks!!! My place is in SUPER shape.... I am going to research to see what exactly it sold for. I Know a 2 bdrm just sold for $172K two weeks ago. I think I'll start @ $170 and see what happens. Always start high right?

[Jaynnus]

I Sold My House

If you do a search for Framingham, I came up with 3 1-bed condo's on the market now.

[RandyO]

realtor I think only charge 6 or 7 % (10% for raw land) , there are some that charge a flat fee, it's really worth it not to hassle with perspective unqualified buyers

[bigred875]

Originally posted by RandyO
realtor I think only charge 6 or 7 % (10% for raw land) , there are some that charge a flat fee, it's really worth it not to hassle with perspective unqualified buyers

a good realtor is worth every penny

[LuvDog]

It's not always wise to "always start high"

You may actually deter a lot of potential buyers who do not like to haggle.

Check out realtor.com and isoldmyhouse.com to see what comparable properties are listed for.

Price yours accordingly if you want to generate a lot of traffic.

It's better to at least get them in the door and then possibly get a bidding war versus scaring them off before they even consider your place.

Realtors are good and bad... they generate a lot of potential sales because buyers tend to use them.

The bad of course is the commission... when it's time for us to sell, I will definitely use my realtor.

Your place is in a convenient location.... no doubt about that.

It may become even more appealing once they complete whatever they're doing to that restaurant and the old motel down the street.

As for waiting for the housing market to bust here... well, I don't think it's going to bottom out like they are predicting for the rest of the country. Too much demand and not enough land.

[Cam_In_IL]

Boston is one of the most over-inflated housing markets in the country. I definitely wouldn't be buying anything in the RI/MA/NH area now (near Boston). You're going to see a market correction soon. I don't think the prices will fall, but you won't be seeing that double-digit appreciation in the future.

Condos will get hit first. And I wouldn't be surprised if some of them drop in value.

Be careful. And whatever you do, avoid those ARM and interest only loans. That ship sailed a long time ago, and some people are gonna get fucked soon.

Good luck selling your place!

[TheIglu]

Start selling it on Craigslist right away. That place has TONS of condo's for sale.

[Stoneman]

You can EASILY get a realtor down to 3% without much haggling. I've sold my own townhouse before and I'll NEVER do it again. If you can get a realtor down to even 5%, it's worth EVERY FUGGIN' PENNY. As I said, I'd NEVER do it again!

[Manny]

I'm in the middle on this one. I bought without a realtor about a year ago, but I had a very good lawyer who handled all the paperwork that a realtor normally would, but charged me a flat fee, and included these items.

I have not heard great things about isoldmyhouse.com. I know of a few places in Brookline that should have sold (listed on isoldmyhouse) but didnt b/c a lot of buyers don't use it, and realtors dont want to show private clients a private listing.

Also, not that the market isn't still warm, but late september/early october usually isn't a sellers market, and if you over price and it sits on the market for 6 weeks you end up with a property that ppl say "its been on the market forever, there must be a problem with it"

I believe that the standard fee for an MA sale is 6%, split between the buyer and the seller. This means that if you sell your place to a person who has a broker already, and they are under contract with that broker, somone is going to have to pay that person.

[Half Squid]

I think I am going to throw this by my Uncle, he is a brooker and used to own his own real Estate Co in Worcester. I'll see if he wants to sell/advertise and show it for me for for $. It's a little bit out of his way, but he just might do it for me!

I will at least get his advice on the whole situation and see what he thinks..

thanks for the responces guys. I can imagine the pain in the ass it would to try to sell on my own. My Step father did it years ago on his own. He is an Lawyer so I guess he knew what to do? To bad he sold at the wrong time and lost his shirt! Hahahaaaaa....

[skiierx]

Give me a ring if your uncle does not want to come out this way. I know plenty of brokers in your area that would be willing to help you sell for less then 5% (it is tax deductable too).

Jamie

[Sidewinder]

what do you think Christine does for a living!!! Geesh! 5% I know her company does around 4%.

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by skiierx
(it is tax deductable too).

Realtor fees may be added to the cost basis of the home when figuring out the capital gain, but since Mike has lived there for over two years, as of 1997 he would not have to pay taxes on the first $250,000 profit from the sale of his home. So unless you're selling your house for greater than $250,000 more than you paid for it, the deduction of realtor fees from the capital gain is not going to affect your taxes.

[Stoneman]

Originally posted by Honclfibr
Realtor fees may be added to the cost basis of the home when figuring out the capital gain, but since Mike has lived there for over two years, as of 1997 he would not have to pay taxes on the first $250,000 profit from the sale of his home. So unless you're selling your house for greater than $250,000 more than you paid for it, the deduction of realtor fees from the capital gain is not going to affect your taxes.

A lot more simpler than that: If he buys another house with ANY of the proceeds from his sale (assuming it's the only real estate he owns), capital gains tax need not apply. It's a non issue...

[sahd03]

Hire a realtor. When we sold our first house, we were planning on doing it ourselves. The housing market had just started to REALLY go crazy in the Albany area and we did the same thing you're doing - cashing in while we could.

Well, long story short, after 2 days we had gotten over SEVENTY phone calls. Some were cranks, some were serious, some were reaching, some were realtors saying "I can sell that in a week". It was impossible for us to know who was who and even returning phone calls was taking hours each day. Then, anyone who wanted to look, we had to cram them all in at night because we couldn't/wouldn't take time off from work...

But here's the thing. The realtor we worked with takes 7% off the top, usually. Because ours was originally "For Sale By Owner" and we then contacted him, he dropped commission to 4.5%, which was his standard practice. We hired him and in 4 weeks, we had a signed contract, we were out in 6. Oh, and we still made about $35k on the house. Stick a for sale by owner sign in the window for a few days and THEN call a realtor, you'll probably save yourself a few percentage points on the commission.

Hire a realtor. Make sure it's a good one, though, or you won't get much bang for your commission bucks.

[Stoneman]

Originally posted by sahd03
Stick a for sale by owner sign in the window for a few days and THEN call a realtor, you'll probably save yourself a few percentage points on the commission.

I contend you won't hafta call a realtor if you do that. They'll be knocking down your door if property's hot in your area. We FISBO'd our townhouse in Manch a few years back and besides being a TOTAL pain in the ass, we had a number of realtors offering their services down to 3%...

Basically Mike, how much is your time and/or sanity worth? Everything Sarah mentioned, we went through when we did it. We stuck it out though and sold it ourselves. It just wasn't worth it. I'd NEVER do it again. I'd even be willing to give as much as 5% to NOT hafta deal with what you gotta deal with when going FISBO...

[Nazo]

Mike I'll talk to ya this weekend.
I run a realestate office and I'm a licensed realtor.
I can also offer you a minimum realtor fee and just factor it into the selling price....therefore not costing you anything out of pocket. I can search though MLS and see what the market is getting for your place. I deal mostly in Boston and I'm not too familiar with the market outside of Boston right now.

[Half Squid]

Originally posted by Nazo
Mike I'll talk to ya this weekend.
I run a realestate office and I'm a licensed realtor.
I can also offer you a minimum realtor fee and just factor it into the selling price....therefore not costing you anything out of pocket. I can search though MLS and see what the market is getting for your place. I deal mostly in Boston and I'm not too familiar with the market outside of Boston right now.

Nice, thats right you did tell me that didn't you!
My place is located right on route 9 in Framingham. It's listed as Hunters Village Condominiums or 1186 Worcester road Zip is 01702.

We' shall definately talk!
Thanks Nazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.