Anyone ever tried to sell a house with Comfree?

[Sylvanfan]

Or something similar?

I want to sell my house in St.Albert and move. Just debating if it's worth the risk to try it with a service like Comfree or something similar? I'm not sure what real estate commissions are St.Albert, but in Sylvan Lake they were 6% on the first 100k and 3% on the balance. With the recent spike in house prices that would see me pay someone $15,000 to sell my house for $400k. Now thats a pretty big chunk of change considering thats tax free money. Comfree I believe costs around $700 to list and keep the place listed for like 90 days or something like that.

Right now I have a couple of other houses in the area for sale, both are severely overpriced in my opinion, and one is a Comfree house. I'm in no major rush to sell, so If I have to wait 90 days to get a sale I can do that. My mother in law is a former realtor (as was my father) so she can always give showing advice and help with paperwork etc...

I also watch real estate prices quite closely, and have a fair amount of information to use when it comes to setting a price such as average selling price per square foot, how much recent houses have sold for, and what other houses around are listed for.

Has anyone else tried a service like this? My biggest worry would be that you'll get a lot of people who aren't really serious buyers trying to scoop discounts wasting my time and annoying me coming through, as opposed to the more qualified serious buyers that realtors would bring.

I should add that I wouldn't mind paying a realtor...but really I think offering like 8k to sell the house would be fair on my part. I don't need it advertised on T.V. or in papers or at the mall. If a buyer is serious they'll tell a realtor what they want and the realtor can get the info off MLS. Afterall my house is probalby going to be one of the lowest priced houses in my neighbourhood, and that itself will make it attractive. My next door neighbour sold his house in 20 hours mostly because his place was the least expensive one around.

[automaton 3]

Comfree can work well for sophisticated sellers who have a good idea of the fair market value of their house and who aren't afraid to show their house and negotiate the deal. Sounds to me like you're in that category.

Make sure to get your lawyer involved early to avoid potential headaches and pitfalls.

[JBR]

We sold our house with WeList.com.

It was very inexpensive and we sold the house within 3 weeks of listing it on the site.

[Ace]

Sold a place with welist as well, 3 weeks and lots of interest later it was sold, showing the place on the drop of a dime to interested people can be annoying, but hey it's $15k.

You really do not need a real estate agent, they have rules that have to be followed, and as a FSBO you can sell it however you want, let people bid/offer however you want, and in a real estate transaction all the work is at closing which is done with the lawyer. The hardest part will be to close the deal with potential buyers, if you have some sales skills you'll be fine.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Ace

Sold a place with welist as well, 3 weeks and lots of interest later it was sold, showing the place on the drop of a dime to interested people can be annoying, but hey it's $15k.

Yeah, it will require a bit of an inconvenience should I choose to go that way. But I found in the past that realtors would always call and want to show the place in like half an hour when I've listed with them. So really not that different. Just forces me to keep the house somewhat tidy all the time. The fact that I work from home is also good because I don't have to worry about running home from work to open the house. I'm here anyways all the time.

[Flickered Flame]

Syl, We sold the condo through Comfree and we had no headaches. We got great service and advice, and we made a pile of money.

[ken0042]

I'm not sure what the market is like in St. Albert, but when it's hot the non-commision sites do work.

However when there's a lull in the market- like the one we are coming out of in Calgary, they can cause more hassle then they are worth. My neighbours were on Welist for 6 months; as of 2 months ago they had only 2 showings. Last week they went with a realtor, and within 6 days they have a "conditionally sold" sign out.

Also, as somebody who recently bought as a first time home buyer; I wouldn't have done it without a realtor. You may need to decide if your house is the time a 1st time buyer might buy, and make up your mind if you want to risk losing that business.

[killer_carlson]

The problem I've seen people run into with Comfree is that they get greedy.

Get a realtor to give you a free appraisal. There are apparently a few thousand realtors in Edmonton and virtually every one will give you a free appraisal. Tell them straight up that you are going to use Comfree and try it out. If it doesn't work, then you will be interested in their service. They will try and tell you that they already have buyers lined up and can get you into a bidding war with their "contacts" but that is balderdash. Stick to your guns and say that you're going to try it out for a month or two.

Once you get the appraisal, take out what the realtor commission is and keep that number in your head (call it the NET PRICE). List your house for what the realtor appraised and then see what happens. If you get an offer above the NET PRICE then you are ahead and made money using Comfree.

Where I see people get stupid is that they take the appraised amount, tack on 10% because they think they are smarter than this "dumb" realtor, and then look like real dorks because they have priced their house out of the market and it sits there for the next three months. Realtors are salesmen, but they do know their market (for the most part). You can trust them for the appraisal price.

One other thing to be careful of is that I've seen people muck with the tender process with Comfree. They get one offer and then tell the next ten people through the door that they have an offer at $250,000, so yours had better be higher. This is wrong and you'd be ****ed if someone tried to do that to you. I'd also have no problem recommending to a client to have their offer expire within 24 hours of it being tendered to stop this sort of crap. Also, if you do get several offers at the same price all at once, DO NOT COUNTER EVERY OFFER. You risk selling your house 7 different times and try explaining that to a judge. Thus far I haven't heard of anyone holding a COMFREE owner accountable on that one, but in an escalating property market I can see it happening one day soon.

Read your instructions from COMFREE. Read your contract and understand it. If you aren't sure then go talk to a lawyer. You're saving several thousand in realtor commissions so it would be worth spending a couple hundred with a real estate lawyer before hand if you have any questions about what to do or what not to do. There are some decent ones in St. Albert that you can find in the phone book or by checking with the Law Society of Alberta website.

If that doesn't work then PM me and I'll give you some names. I don't check into the site that often but I'll get back to you in a week or so.

[Deelow]

The house I was just living in sold through "The Property Guys". If you are in a hot market that's the way to go. I think it cost them between $500-$1000 on a $250,000 house. The service was great too. There were actually realtors calling them and saying things like "Your house will never sell", "you made a bad choice". It probably took a week longer to sell the house but it worth it big time.

[Sylvanfan]

Well the key to a Comfree sale like KC mentions is that you want to price your house so that it's still attractive to comfree buyers (I can't decide if these are schrewd people trying to skirt paying commission and looking for deals....or people who just don't know better and feel they don't need a realtor). But you do want to make back some of the money you'd normally pay for commission. In the area where I live there have been 3 places on my street go up for sale in the last year with a realtor and the longest time that anyone of those was on the market was 12 days until the Sold sign showed up (so that means they probably had an accepted sale within 5-7 days as they don't put the sold sign on until everythings finalized). Theres also been places in the cul-de-sac opposite of mine with similar things where nothing is on the market for two weeks before it sells. Theres also a town house complex behind me that's been moving places pretty quick two, and a couple of those have moved with Comfree. Right now there are two places within a stone throw from my house and like I mentioned above both are severely overpriced for what the market bears today in my opinion and are simply people trying to make an exhorbitant profit (hence why the one place has been on the market for 50 days despite claiming the vendor is a motivated seller).

If I was to list with a realtor today I'm fairly confident the place would be sold within a couple of weeks. But I don't need to move in two weeks, I can wait 4-5 months if that's what it takes. I also think that come May-June is likely when the market will see more action than is currently there. If I wanted the place sold in 2 weeks no doubt I'd pick a realtor. But I have the ability to pick and choose and thats why I'm thinking of trying to save myself a few dollars.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I'm not sure what the market is like in St. Albert, but when it's hot the non-commision sites do work.

However when there's a lull in the market- like the one we are coming out of in Calgary, they can cause more hassle then they are worth. My neighbours were on Welist for 6 months; as of 2 months ago they had only 2 showings. Last week they went with a realtor, and within 6 days they have a "conditionally sold" sign out.

Also, as somebody who recently bought as a first time home buyer; I wouldn't have done it without a realtor. You may need to decide if your house is the time a 1st time buyer might buy, and make up your mind if you want to risk losing that business.

We're coming out of the lull?? All the evidence says otherwise.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by AFireInside

We're coming out of the lull?? All the evidence says otherwise.

you realize this thread is 20 months old?

[pepper24]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I'm not sure what the market is like in St. Albert, but when it's hot the non-commision sites do work.

However when there's a lull in the market- like the one we are coming out of in Calgary, they can cause more hassle then they are worth. My neighbours were on Welist for 6 months; as of 2 months ago they had only 2 showings. Last week they went with a realtor, and within 6 days they have a "conditionally sold" sign out.

Also, as somebody who recently bought as a first time home buyer; I wouldn't have done it without a realtor. You may need to decide if your house is the time a 1st time buyer might buy, and make up your mind if you want to risk losing that business.

Those are basically my points. I sold my first home on welist.com in a hot market and it sold over the weekend above listing price with multiple offers. None of the offers were by first time buyers but rather savvy investors. The issue that I hear in a slow market is that home buyers try to cut the price to meet in the middle as they know you aren't paying any commission.

My last home I sold this past fall, where I went with a realtor as the market was cooling down and I knew people that had sat on their home for months with welist.com then eventually had to go with a realtor. I ended up selling in 2 weeks with a realtor and don't regret the decision.

[pepper24]

Originally Posted by Dan02

you realize this thread is 20 months old?

Ha, I also assumed this was recent.

Back in Jan 2007 when this thread was started I would have gone with welist.com or Comfree. It was still a sellers market. Now I would stick with a realtor.

[ken0042]

Just so people don't jump too hard on AFireInside, this thread was bumped back to the top by a spammer. I deleted their post, but obviously AFI posted after starting to read the thread.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Just so people don't jump too hard on AFireInside, this thread was bumped back to the top by a spammer. I deleted their post, but obviously AFI posted after starting to read the thread.

Haha... I was wondering how he could have gone back pages and pages and mistakenly think the thread was current. It all makes sense now.

But to add to the topic... I know a few people who were trying to sell with welist or comfree. They were getting tired of no one buying or biting on it after sitting for 3 months. So they went to a realtor and it was sold in 2 days... for $10,000 less than asking. Meanwhile during those 3 months it sat on comfree, the market value dropped $30,000. Would have gotten them more money to go to a realtor in the first place, but of course that doesn't apply if you actually know how to price a house.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Just so people don't jump too hard on AFireInside, this thread was bumped back to the top by a spammer. I deleted their post, but obviously AFI posted after starting to read the thread.

HAHA I'm an idiot...
Sorry about that... I didn't even look at the date! I was wondering what was going on!

[Bagor]

Bumped just to add ...... sorry if I may offend but ....

Realtors IMO are a waste of space and more importantly money.

Originally Posted by Ace

showing the place on the drop of a dime to interested people can be annoying, but hey it's $15k.

You really do not need a real estate agent, they have rules that have to be followed, and as a FSBO you can sell it however you want, let people bid/offer however you want, and in a real estate transaction all the work is at closing which is done with the lawyer. The hardest part will be to close the deal with potential buyers, if you have some sales skills you'll be fine.

Couldn't agree more.

Originally Posted by ken0042

However when there's a lull in the market- like the one we are coming out of in Calgary, they can cause more hassle then they are worth. My neighbours were on Welist for 6 months; as of 2 months ago they had only 2 showings. Last week they went with a realtor, and within 6 days they have a "conditionally sold" sign out.

Also, as somebody who recently bought as a first time home buyer; I wouldn't have done it without a realtor. You may need to decide if your house is the time a 1st time buyer might buy, and make up your mind if you want to risk losing that business.

If you're buying then totally agree with a realtor, use them and their BS for all its worth. If selling, Never.

I've sold a few places and invited agents in @ 2.5%. They'll bring the clients in.

The day someone opens the website Isoldmyhomefor.ca is the day Canadian realtors are short on business.

Just throwing it out there. Good business opportunity for one of the IT people. Not a big job and I'd pay to visit the site.