Selling a home privately

[Barnes]

I am putting my condo on the market but first we would like to show it to a few people we already have lined up before we list it.

What do I need to prepare for? What if they come see it and try to give us an offer? I have no idea what to do and what I need to have prepared. I've sold a car privatly but never a home.

Any advice?

[Flames in 07]

Get advice from a lawyer interms of how to transact, ie contract etc.

To be honest it is worth getting one of those discount brokers to facilitate the transaction. Without a standard MLS contract the terms of the sale could be vague. For all you know the buyer will come back 6 months later looking for you to fix some defect.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Get advice from a lawyer interms of how to transact, ie contract etc.

Except, the kind of advice he wants, is the kind of expertise a realtor has. I generally recommend people use realtors - ex. Nabber.

[Sylvanfan]

Actually just know what you want for price, what will and won't be included in the price...ie appliances, blinds, curtain rods etc. If you accept an offer make sure you have a lawyer on your end to handle the transaction and the person buying from you does too. You can go to most regestries offices and get the neccessarry forms. Get a holding deposit from the interested party for until the point in time in which their financing is 100% approved. Of course for $700 or whatever it is...might not be a bad idea to pay welist or comfree as they have all the forums you need and will help you out with that stuff.

Another thing to keep in mind is that after you list a property with the MLS service you are still potentially responsible to pay the listing broker your full commission for 90 days afterwards if the buyer first contacted a listing agent to view your property while it was listed through the MLS service. I just had a situation like this occur literally an hour ago where someone knocked on my door and asked if I would still consider selling my property even though my listing expired last Friday. Thankfully they were honest enough to disclose to me that they had first seen the house while it was listed on the MLS system. So really after you list with MLS...I wouldn't be selling a house for at least 90 days afterwards privately because the people buying off you might not be being totally honest. That or you contact the agent you listed through and negotiate a price throught them.

[Sylvanfan]

One other thing that you can do is have it written in the contract to exclude specific people whom you contracted and showed your home to prior to listing the place in the MLS system (or so says my mother in law who is a former realtor). But you would need to be very specific as to who the party's are and have the listing realtor agree to those terms when signing the listing contract. But you would be within your rights to have that included in the contract. That way you could show it to your "leads" but still be able to get your place listed in the system. That way you wouldn't have to wait for someone to make their mind up for two weeks or not while you can't really do any thing.

[T@T]

I'm sure everyone knows a realtor one way or the other, do as i did,put up a sign,find a buyer and give your realtor buddy $500.00 cash to do the paperwork...slick