HOME SELLING SUCCESS Save money and time using proven ‘flat fee’ and ‘by owner’ strategies Table Of Contents Chapter One: How Professional Tools Power Flat Fee MLS Success 1. Why Home Equity is Hard to Earn and Easy to Lose 2. Pay Yourself $366.47 an Hour to Sell Your Own House 3. How Listing Commissions Erode Your Equity 4. It’s Not “For Sale By Owner” – That’s Why It Works 5. Success Rates That Prove the Case Chapter Two: Tools that Rule – Secret Weapons and Silver Bullets 1. Three Winning Pricing Strategies 2. How to Find Comparable Sales 3. The Multiple Listing Service: The ‘Secret Weapon’ That Sells Houses Almost Automat- ically Chapter Three: Stepping Stones to Sold: Selling Stages and Steps 1. Countdown to Sold: The Ultimate Home-Sale Prep Timeline 2. List, Market, and Show 3. Close the Sale Chapter Four: Tools for a Fast, Profitable Sale – Timelines and Checklists 1. How to Write a Winning Listing 2. Spiff and Polish: Make Your Home Camera-Ready and Show-worthy 3. Can That ‘Buyer’ Afford Your House 4. Special Circumstances Guides 5. Glossary of Real Estate Terms 6. Frequently Asked Questions Chapter One: Why Home Equity Is Hard To Earn And Easy To Lose Just outside St. Louis, Jesse Goodfellow runs a home renovation and resale com- pany. Over the course of a typical year, he buys, fixes up and resells about 25 houses. Since 2012, this is how he has made a living: investing sweat equity as he and his partners size up likely properties, correcting problems with plumbing, wiring and structure; upgrading kitchens; and selling move-in-ready houses to families. Good- fellow uses USRealty.com to sell these houses, in order to maximize his profits. Every dollar that Goodfellow spends directly affects the profit he makes.The chance to keep $4,000 to $6,000 more per property isn’t just a paper gain. It’s enough for Goodfellow to leverage for more home purchases, for greater income for his family, and for savings. That’s why selling through USRealty.com, the country’s only national home listing service, makes so much sense. It’s very little additional work that delivers a signifi- cant cash bonus, says Goodfellow. The ‘”secret sauce,” he says, is listing the houses on the local multiple listing ser- vice. The MLS is the database owned and used by local agents. Each MLS around the country is constantly updated with new property listings. Nationally, popu- lar real estate supersites like Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia funnel MLS listings. Without the MLS, buyers’ agents don’t know what’s for sale or how to contact those sellers. USRealty.com is a licensed brokerage with membership in 110 regional MLS sys- tems and a network of agents that covers the rest of the country. “We get the houses on the MLS and as soon as they’re there, we’re getting con- tracts,” says Goodfellow, who has relied on USRealty.com for two years to sell his properties. “We’ve saved thousands this way.” Buyers’ agents find his houses on the MLS alongside those listed by full-commission agents. And buyers’ agents get their full, traditional commission when they buy a house listed with USRealty.com, while sellers pay a fee of about $296 (depending on the state) and a little more when closing. That’s far less than the usual three percent of the sale price that local listing agents charge. That difference delivers enough cash to more than offset the effort of completing the listing and showing the house himself, says Goodfellow. And buyers’ agents are accustomed to helping with the closing process. “They’re getting three percent,” he points out. “There’s something in it for them, too.” There’s a new way to sell your house. This new sales channel is not ‘for sale by owner.’ It’s not the same old “flat fee MLS.” It’s new. It’s different. It’s better. This book includes everything you need to know about how to use the same online selling tools and techniques that real estate agents use to get professional results – and in the process, how you can pay yourself the fee that would otherwise drain your equity into the listing agent’s pocket. WHY HOME EQUITY IS HARD TO EARN AND EASY TO LOSE Home equity is slow to build… which is why it’s so painful to see three percent of the sale price lost to the listing agent’s commission. Math explains why that’s actually worse than it sounds: three percent of the sale price is an even bigger percentage of your equity, if you have a mortgage, as most people do. (Keep reading for a step-by-step example of how commissions take a bigger bite than you might realize.) American families have a lot of financial goals: pay for living expenses, child care, and health care; save for retirement; save for college; and perhaps try to have some fun along the way with an occasional vacation. Homeownership should support those goals, not set you back with high commissions when it’s time to move on to a different house that better fits your needs. Meanwhile, other trends undermine the rationale for using a full-service realty agent. In the past, home sellers felt they needed a go-between to negotiate the sale with prospective buyers. But now, many people are comfortable renting rooms directly from other homeown- ers (through Airbnb and Homeaway, for instance); hiring auto owners for rides (through Uber, for instance) and buying goods directly from other individuals (through eBay and Etsy, for instance). Likewise, people buying homes are comfortable negotiating deals di- rectly with sellers. Most consumers are also adept at managing financial accounts and transactions online, for banking, travel and investments. All these trends come together in home sales, which is why the old way of selling houses – using an expensive agent whose main value is getting the house listed with online sites so that it can be found by buyers – just isn’t worth it any more. You can apply everything you already know about online transactions, including buying and selling directly with other people, to selling your house. Selling through ‘list for free, flat fee” MLS services, like USRealty.com, gives you more con- trol over the sales process and how much that process costs. Selling through a flat fee MLS service takes a little more time and a little more effort. But if you have a house to sell, you’ve already participated in the home-buying process, so you have a good idea what is involved. Selling through a flat fee MLS service means you don’t see hard-earned equity wasted on a listing agent’s commission. And selling with USRealty.com, the country’s only national real estate brokerage, means you get licensed agents who represent you in the closing process, and who coach you as you use the ‘secret weapon’ that all professional agents count on to sell houses. PAY YOURSELF $366.47 AN HOUR TO SELL YOUR OWN HOUSE Based on the 2016 national median sale price, USRealty.com customers are paying them- selves $366.47 an hour to sell their own houses. That’s based on the $6,230 in commissions that homeowners are paying themselves in- stead of paying a listing agent. Each day, chances are improving that the USRealty.com model will deliver this kind of sav- ings for home sellers across the country. The National Association of Realtors reports that there are 3.6% fewer houses for sale now than there were a year ago. Nationally, the typical house sells in just 39 days. Here’s how the math breaks down: The median sale price of an existing home in April 2016, according to the National Associ- ation of Realtors, was $232,500. The traditional 6% commission on that sale price comes to $13,950. Half of that—$6,975— goes to the listing broker and agent. That’s where USRealty.com introduces meaningful savings. USRealty.com estimates that a listing agent spends about 17 hours selling a home, on tasks that do not require the direct input of the homeowner: • 1 hour analyzing market trends and comparable sales to arrive at an asking price • 8 hours showing the house to 8 potential buyers • 3 hours hosting an open house • 5 hours in local marketing Of course, homeowners spend countless hours preparing to sell on tasks in collaboration with agents (agreeing on selling price, completing the listing sheet, reviewing the property) and on tasks they can only do on their own (assembling paperwork, cleaning, decluttering, freshening the property, and so on). Those hours are required of homeowners regardless of whether or not the owner lists with an agent or sells DIY through USRealty.com. Agents also spend money to prepare a home for sale. USRealty.com estimates out-of- pocket expenditures that homeowners would cover directly when handling the sale DIY: • $300 for a professional photographer (likely to be spent even with an agent) • $45 for a market analysis • $100 to print sale flyers and listing sheets • $300 for a staging consultation Total out-of-pocket expenses: $745 Assuming that the homeowner would otherwise pay the traditional 3% commission to the buyer’s agent (a fee that includes the listing fee to USRealty.com), and spends $745 on sell- ing support services, today’s seller can save $6,230 by selling through USRealty.com. That works out to $366.47 an hour. HOW LISTING COMMISSIONS ERODE YOUR EQUITY In 2016, the median home price was $230,000, which is 10% higher than the year before.