[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.