Creating A Plan
FSBOs in So Cal.com is not a Real Estate brokerage. We do not offer any verbal advice on how to represent or price your home, nor are we legal experts in Real Estate. We are giving you a free marketing kit, in exchange for mutually giving us the chance to prequalify your homebuyers for a home loan prior to making an offer on your home, thus Realtor advice can not be given.
Before you start coming up with an idea of a listing price for you home, there are several things you have to do first. You must form a team of advisors and services around you to for education purposes and sell your home.
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Find a local Real Estate Attorney. Obtain a blank real estate contract. Read over every word of it prior to making an appointment with the attorney. Use a colored highlighter to mark the areas you have questions on. You will have plenty of questions after reading the purchase contract. After highlighting the contract content, make an appointment with the attorney and advise them that you are going FSBO and need to go over the purchase contract. Once you have an appointment, make notes, or even ask the attorney if you can tape record the conversation so that you don't miss anything important. Keep in mind, once you know what each paragraph of the purchase contract means, and where you have to initial, you may be making a return visit to the attorney once you've secured a buyer. The attorney will go over the offer to make sure there aren't any pitfalls in the prospective buyers offer. Real Estate attorneys usually charge around $300.00 per hour so use your time wisely. You can find Real Estate attorneys in the yellow pages. Make sure they are willing to educate you on the purchase contract prior to purchase before you make an appointment. You don't have to use a Real Estate Attorney, it is only a suggestion, but well worth the expense. If you need a blank real estate contract to print, click here.
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Select an escrow officer and title company to use. Escrow is an independant third party that is needed to complete the real estate purchase process. Most larger escrow companies are affiliated with title companies ie.. Fidelity Title and Escrow. For more information on the escrow procedure click here.
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Find a Lender to Prequalify Your Buyers. FSBOs in So Cal.com is a free service, but we actually are in the real estate lending business. To obtain our free marketing kit, we ask that you give us an exclusive on prequalifying your prospective homebuyers for a loan to purchase your home. Some buyers are already prequalified, but many are not. It is an industry standard that homebuyers obtain a home loan before they go shopping for a home. The loan is an approved dollar amount given to the homebuyer to go shop for a home. Once an offer is made and is accepted by the seller, than the lender will order an appraisal and further underwrite the loan for final approval. It is imperitive that you ask the prospective buyer for a loan commitment not a prequalification. A prequalification only means that a loan officer/consultant has run their credit. A loan commitment means that a lender underwriter has viewed the buyers credit report, income, and assets. The commitment carries greater weight. For more information on prequalifying for a home loan click here.
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Be prepared to obtain Real Estate forms other than the sales contract. There are times when additional purchase disclosures may be needed. Generally the escrow officer you selected may have these forms. If not, you can obtain them via software programs, available at office supply stores, or on-line websites. Your Real Estate Attorney and Escrow Officer can be of help, if additional disclosures may be needed. A copy of the Calfornia Purchase Contract and Joint Escrow Instructions is on our website. The contract on the website is not designed to be the contract that you use to accept an offer. The contract is generally a triplacate that has 3 pieces of carbon paper. The contract is included, so that you can print it and take to a Real Estate attorney for review. Click here to print the contract.
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Obtain a Seller's Home Warranty: The warranty is an insurance policy that covers major appliances, plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning systems while your home is up for sale. Home Warrantys usually have $50-75 deductible and will fix any of the above items if they break down. They cost $300-400 and last for one year and are renewable. Once your home is sold, Home Warrantys can be converted to the buyer, where they can use what's left of your year's coverage. It's common in California to buy the homebuyer a Buyers Home Warranty at your expense, but not required. If you advise the homebuyer, that you already have a Sellers Home Warranty in place, it might make them feel more at ease knowing that you've taken that extra precaution, especially if your home is of the older type. The Sellers Home Warranty and a Buyers Home Warranty have the same coverage. If you buy it while the house is for sale, it's a Sellers Home Warranty. If you don't buy one while the home is for sale, but buy one for the homebuyer which takes affect once escrow closes, than it's a Buyers Home Warranty. You are merely doing the the buyer a favor by purchasing it earlier and having it in place than at closing time. The Yellow Pages have Home Warranty companies listed, call and compare rates.
Once you have the above services ready to go, you will be ready to be in full marketing mode and FSBOs in So Cal.com will be there to help!
