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Buying and Selling Homes

Success! We sold our historic home w/o a realtor.

9 years ago

And I think that one thing saved our sanity, and that was a website. I made a website with the history of our home, photos when we first bought it 30 years ago, and photos of what it looks like now. LOTS of photos, indoors and out. A list of all improvements and renovations. People saw our sign in the yard and immediately wanted a house tour. :( After the first couple of "oh I love historic homes/ I've passed by this house for ___ years and always wondered what it looked like inside/etc." we never made an appointment on first contact. We would describe the house, give the (slightly inflated price), and give the website address. Then we would tell the person to call back for an appointment if they were truly interested in purchasing. After 3 months, 40+ calls, and a dozen appointments (four serious), we got our buyer.

I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, but my husband and I were home all day to show the property at a day's notice and we did know more about the house than any realtor ever could have (this, we think, was very important to the type of person who would want to take on the house and land). It worked well for us, and we feel very lucky.

Just thought I'd mention this, especially since it seems as though the website did a lot to satisfy the curiosity-seekers without actually having them traipsing through our home.

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Comments (10)

User
9 years ago
Congrats on your sale!
lascatx
9 years ago
Congrats on the sale, but mostly I think it's great that you are passsing that history along.
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You are always going to have folks who THINK new is better. It's the way they are wired. A good many of those folks are in the real estate profession. They are looking at things from the point of the bottomline. Not always the best place to measure success from. I'd start by finding a different contractor. When it comes to contractors you generally have two types the one ones who like new because it's fast and easy and it fattens their wallets with a quick turn around and the the ones who are masters and will work with you to save what they can. Generally speaking the latter is more costly but they also have the advantage of being better problem solvers and better at their craft. There seems to be a point of pride they carry which the gut and build guys just don't have. That house has character. It has a good location and if you can afford to fix it up so it maintains that charm then I'd go for it. You fell in love with it as it is. Fixed up and maintained somebody else in the future will love it just as much if not more. My biggest rule in home ownership is go with your gut. If your gut tells you it's better to save it than flatten it them do it.
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The first thing I noticed was the 1% 2% 3% and holy cow - that's crazy low! I just have to assume that's the listing agent's split because I wouldn't bring a buyer to a house if my split was .5% - not worth my time or effort unless we're talking about over $500K. (That said, I might steer a buyer towards the house on their own if it's what they are looking for, but I would remove myself from being involved in the transaction unless the buyer would be willing to pay me adequately.) OP: You're right, this forum often tends towards anti-FSBO, but keep in mind that many of us are RE professionals, and many of us have been around this forum for years and years, bought and sold many many homes (w/ and w/o agents), and basically, we've seen dozens and dozens of folks interested in FSBO who are obviously researching on the internet and run across this forum, sign up, and on the same day (pointing finger at you) and post a bunch of questions hoping to save a few bucks. Because you are new, we don't know if you have any idea what you're getting yourself into (and most don't, unlike you) and for those folks, we tend to advise not going FSBO. Many new members don't ever return to check the responses anyway, so you also won't always get very good answers on the first go-around either, because us older and wiser folks know it's not worth our time and effort to answer to someone who won't even read them. As you've experienced, once you engage, you'll start getting the answers you need. Good luck with your sale!
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Mary Lu, I want to correct a common misunderstanding about having a structure placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Having it "registered" in no way inhibits what you can do to the property in the way of adding, deleting, decorating, changing, etc. the listed buildings. There are NO legal constraints, so you could have listed the house and added the carriage house, etc. Once on the Register you could tear the building down, if you wanted to do so. The main constraint imposed by Nat. Reg. is actually on nearby properties and projects if they involve Federal (and in some places, state) funding. During the review of any proposals that fall into this, their effect on the listed property recieves a higher level of scrutiny. Projects are not automatically rejected because of adjacent Nat. Reg. structures, but modifications might be requested. Many people get confused about the Nat. Reg. requirements because the Interior Department also publishes some very useful guidelines (also sometimes called "standards") for the care and maintenance of historic properties, but these are not legally required mandates. The National Register differs from locally-controlled things like zoned historic districts. These can, and fairly often do, come with restraints, including things like limited choices of colors, windows, height among others. But those are only local things, not the National Register. HTH, L
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My husband and I bought our first house in 2005, a Craftsman that had beautiful potential but had all the character covered up. Living room had baby blue paint with marbled blue carpeting, many layers of paint on the brick fireplace. Dining room had everything painted peach and white including the built ins. Luckily, they didn't completely get rid of the historical elements, just covered them in tons of paint and carpeting. We spent about 10 years restoring the house, doing a lot of the work ourselves. Here is what it looked like when we sold it. https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/526-Brittania-St_Los-Angeles_CA_90033_M11095-00062
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jewelisfabulous
9 years ago
Pictures or it didn't happen! :)
cpartist
9 years ago
Terrific but also realize nowadays to be extra careful. My son is a RE agent and the first thing they are taught is safety with potential "customers". Not everyone is on the up and up and there have been lots of problems in terms of robberies and worse. If you do decide to list on your own, just please be extra careful and vigilant.
nancylouise5me
9 years ago
Congratulations vlk! That is what we plan to do when we sell a few years from now. Our home is an 120+ year old historic home. We will be downsizing for retirement. Have sold and bought homes before. Don't see the need for a realtor. Glad it worked out for you. NancyLouise
chicagoans
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Congrats! I'm glad the website helped weed out the curiosity seekers who never intended to buy. (I'd like to see the website too! I guess that makes me a curiosity seeker.)
JRK
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks, everyone. We're in the craziness of packing now (closing in 17 days) but I am constantly thinking about how sad I will be to leave. I quit my job to spend "a couple of years" working on the renovation and that was in 1987! It's my baby, and although I look forward to a new, less maintenance, house I will miss this one an awful lot.

Cpartist, my husband and I told everyone who asked to look at the house that we would only show 2 people through at a time and they all understood. I guess that we were lucky, we weren't suspicious at all of anyone who came through-- they all seemed to be nice, "normal" people. :)

The new owners asked that we inactivate the website after they signed the sales agreement, and we did, but here are a couple of photos.

The front of the house:

The back with gardens (pond is off to the left):

Living room:

Dining room:

Bath:

Master bedroom:

We actually had someone come through who told me that she always hated wallpaper, but loved ours. :)

I took apart every single window and restored it, taught myself how to wallpaper and faux finish (the stained-looking woodwork is actually painted), and did a million other jobs. We also hired to replace the roof, rewire, replumb... oh, what am I going to do with myself in a new house?!?! ;)
cpartist
9 years ago
Your home is beautiful and I can see why it sold quickly. You'll find new projects to give the new home character and you'll have time to enjoy yourselves, try new hobbies, etc.
nancylouise5me
9 years ago
Your house is wonderful vlk. It definitely shows pride of ownership and love. I can understand why you are sad to leave it. But, on to new adventures! NancyLouise
c9pilot
9 years ago
That house is beautiful! It must be so hard to say goodbye. But congrats on your sale!

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