February 21, 2025 • 27 mins
Saving money on a commission may sound like a great idea but many sellers who go For Sale By Owner end up getting less for than home. We discuss this along with other concerns like safety and managing the real estate process that every potential home seller should consider before putting a sign in their yard.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the REMAX Real Estate Insights show
where you get real talk by real agents. Walk to
you by REMACS of Southeastern Michigan. Welcome to our Remax
Real Estate Insights podcast. We're here to share with you
news and tips about all things real estate in a
way that's easy to understand and fun to listen to,
and that we hope helps you make some great decisions
(00:22):
for yourself. My name is Janete Schneider. I'm the president
of REMAS of Southeastern Michigan. I am also your host
on this podcast, and in today's episode, we're diving into
a topic that some potential home sellers may consider at
one time or another, and that is selling your home
on your own. Typically that's known as for sale by
(00:43):
owner in the industry. We may also refer to that
as being a fizbo I get it. The idea of
maybe saving money, you know, can be tempting, But what
if I told you that many fisbosellers actually end up
losing more money than they say. And let's talk about safety.
When you list your home on your own, you may
(01:04):
be inviting complete strangers into your place without any knowledge
of if they're a serious buyer or not. So today
we're going to talk about some of the hidden costs,
maybe some of the risk and what every potential for
sale by owner seller should know before making that decision.
And I've got an expert to help talk about this
with me today. Joining me is Mark Connon. He is
(01:24):
with Remax First. I've known Mark for many years. It's
great to have you on the show today. Mark, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So I've been starting this new year with kind of
a new thing. I've been asking every guest to open
up the show what it is that got you into
real estate? How did you land in real estate as
a career.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, it's really strange because I ran a union for
twelve years at a school district and was in meetings
in Lansing and they kept cutting our wages and cutting
our wages. So then I had a broker approach me
and thought I had personality for it. And I've always
wanted to help people, that's all I want to do.
So I found out that this was the best industry
(02:04):
where I can be the most honest to help people
in every way, tell them what I think about the house.
And it's been very great to learn different ways to
help people in so many different circum circumstances of their life.
And it's just been such a blessing to be able
to help so many people in so many ways.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So as one door closed, so to speak, another one
open for you. Absolutely, Yeah, how many years have you
been doing this?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
This will be my thirteenth year.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Okay, lucky thirteen. H lucky thirteen. So we're talking about
this topic today about those that may want to sell
their home on their own, and kind of a little
back end sight to our folks that are listening, we're
tackling this because recently you were given a referral that,
you know, somebody that had been trying to sell on
their own had decided that they were going to reach
out and get some professional assistance, and the meeting went
(02:49):
a little sideways. It was it was a little interesting.
We were talking about it and we said, hey, this
might be a great topic for us to talk about.
So from your perspective, what is the peal for people
to go for sale by owners? You know, what do
you think they're hoping to accomplish? When you drive past
somebody that has a sign in the r that says
for sale by owner kind of what are your thoughts
on that.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, first thing you think of right away is they
probably need some help. That's what I think of right away,
because they're going to try to do it themselves. But
what they're normally thinking, they're going to save money on
the commissions. They're going to save money, make more money
than not have to pay as many fees. But unfortunately
that's definitely not the case. Right now. The for sale
by owner is down to six percent, which is the
(03:29):
lowest it's.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Ever been, like six percent of homes on the Marketer
for sale.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
By owner yep, And then a good portion of those
don't sell. If they sell it all, usually they're just
kind of testing the waters and they overprice it and
then they negotiate down to where they actually lose money.
And if they had a realtor helping them the whole time,
they would have been able to save more money and
more money in their pockets. So it usually doesn't work
(03:52):
out to their benefit in the market with the low
inventory and all that, So it makes sense to try it,
but normally with all the other things that we know
from negotiating, it definitely would help a whole lot more
to have the realtor help you with our expertise.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, no, and I think you actually have touched on
a a variety of really good points there. The market
has favored sellers for the last number of years because
we don't have enough inventory for all the buyers that
are out there. So this would on the surface seem
to be a market where there could be somebody saying, well,
you know what, I know, there's a lot of buyers
out there. There's not many homes. I might want to
try this on my own. But you're saying it's like
(04:27):
the lowest number of for sale buy owners you know
that you've seen. So there's not a lot of people
choosing it. There obviously are some, and we know there'd
be some listening that are considering it. You know that's interesting.
But you said pricing, and I think that's the big thing.
The hook I think for a lot of potential for
sale by owners is oh, I'll save money on that
commission I would have to pay somebody like Mark. But
(04:48):
in your experience, you're saying where they get it all
wrong isn't on the commission. It's on pricing their home
and their ability to negotiate that they end up giving
away more right right.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
For sure, And a lot of times they're in a
situation where they're more nervous and need to sell. So
by that desperation, the buyers try to out negotiate the
for sale buy owners, where we as professionals, we would
know how to negotiate that better and we're more equipped
to have the negotiation without the emotional part of it,
where the sellers are just in an immediate need and
(05:21):
theyre just can't wait, so they end up taking a
lot less and then in the long run they usually
do not make out very well on that unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
No. I mean, and I think, yeah, statistics, you'll ferret
that out. I mean, if you take a look at that,
And the other thing I think that you hit on
is the emotional side of it, because a home is
an investment, but we live in that investment, so it
becomes an extension of us, everything from the way we
choose to decorate it to the way we choose to
if I am looking at selling it on my own,
(05:50):
the way I'm choosing to price it. It's all very personal.
And so if you have a potential buyer come in
and you know, maybe they don't care for the decorating scheme.
You know, they want to change things, and then they
come at you all you know, your house is an
updated I need to do some renovations. And now as
a seller, you're starting to take that a little personally.
That impacts your ability to negotiate fairly, I would imagine, definitely.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
And then if you do upgrade your kitchen or your
bathroom or something like that to your liking and they
don't like it, now that's actually going to go against
you because that's not the style they would want where
you're so emotionally attached to it. You think it's the
greatest and which is awesome, that's your home. Of course
you should feel that way, but they might actually hold
that against you. Or you have an inground pool or
(06:33):
something that you just love that they don't, So now
it's even more against you. So you just need to
negotiating strategies to overcome all that without the emotional attachment
when you are negotiating well, I.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Mean, and we talked about the emotional aspect of negotiating,
but let's just talk about negotiating as a topic on
its own. I'm of a believer that most people, unless
you just have an innate salesmanship to you don't necessarily
like negotiating, and I think in large part that is
one of the things that most buyers and sellers are
hoping their agent will do for them, is negotiate because
(07:04):
most of us aren't good at it and don't really
want to do this. But yeah, this is what somebody
like you accel.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
At, right absolutely, And a lot of times people are
selling for reasons they're even more emotional, but they want
to you know, as far as your property goes, you
have a price that you think it is where you
want to have, you know, evaluated properly with all the
comparables out there, so we can negotiate different things. If
the sellers not able to have enough for the closing costs,
(07:32):
we're able to compensate that with the sale price and
negotiate different things. So there's just a lot of different
repairs and stuff like that where we can just you know,
negotiate things out without you just going out there and
spending all the money. I try to make sure that
the sellers spend as little as possible in the process
and end up put the most money in their pocket
at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Now, one of the things that again, you know, potential
sellers I think look to an agent for and having
just bought and sold a house a year ago, I
mean I'm a pret pretty recent person of having gone
through this personally is relying on an agent to, you know,
kind of give some guidance on what do you need
to do or what you might want to consider doing,
be putting before putting your home on the market, because
(08:14):
you don't need to do everything. Like you said, you
said you try to have your sellers spend the least
amount of money possible. In kind of hearkening back to
the conversation we had with this referral that where the
gentleman had done some work and if I'd not and
you can correct me if I'm wrong, I believe some
of your comments were he had kind of dabbled in
doing a little bit, but like he didn't just finish
one room. It's like he did a little bit in
this room, a little bit in that room, but it
(08:34):
didn't equal to, hey, this is a renovated kitchen, and
so it was kind of he spent money but didn't
spend it wisely, right, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And definitely with this certain referral, we're referring to he
took a lot of pride in a lot of the
repairs he did, but as the buyers are coming through,
they're definitely not feeling the same quality and price to
substantiate what he well, of course he put his heart
and soul into it. He put higher end things done,
(09:04):
but it wasn't done completely to where everyone's liking were.
So it definitely definitely shows that everyone's taste is different
in every situation. So you want to do as little
as you can getting it ready, make sure it's you know,
have the agent come out, take a look at it
and give you a couple of pointers. But most times
(09:25):
I definitely wouldn't recommend you remodel the kitchen because you're
not going to get it back, or a bathroom or
all that. Normally, you're not going to spend all that money.
If you're going to live in it, go ahead and
do all that stuff. But if you're going to sell it,
let's just prep it, get it in the best condition
we can, and get it sold for you as quick
as possible for the most money man.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And that just echoes to a large degree. I mean,
you know, clean is king spending more time to have
it clean and show really well. That way is probably
a much better use of time. And I know when
we were looking to put ours on the market about
a year ago, you know, we had done you know
a lot of things that I kind of felt we
were you know a little bit of painting and touch
up and stuff like that. And then there was a
couple of questions that we had, you know, over carpet,
(10:01):
do we rip it out, do we put something fresh?
And like, no, pay to clean it because you don't
even know the next people are going to keep the carpet.
You know, they might want to rip it up and
you know, put something else, and so don't spend the
money clean it. Make sure it looks good. But yeah,
don't spend more than you than you than you have
to the other. Another aspect of what a real estate
agent brings to the table is marketing of a home.
(10:22):
And if you're going for sale by owner, you're really
relying I guess on for the most part, word of mouth,
the sign you may put in your yard, but not
every property is on the main street that a lot
of cars are going to see. And so you know,
being able to market a home to the widest possible
audience becomes a real benefit of using a real estate agent.
Can you talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, absolutely, And most times they might stick it on
one website, just put a sign in their yard where
we put put our yard side on, it's going to
be more recognizable than a for sale by owner sign.
We also have all our networks, so we're going to
put in the MLS. It's going to broadcast to all
of the different sites, relader, dot com and all that stuff.
We're going to go out there to all the different sites.
(11:04):
We have our own networks of agents, so we're going
to reach out to all our agent friends and all
their brokerages. So we're really getting the word out there
in a lot of different ways. Social media also, we're
going to put it on our social media sites. So
there's lots of different ways we're going to have advertising
as far as that goes.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And I think, I mean, I'm always a big proponent
is you want to be fishing in the biggest possible pond,
you know. I mean, so when you have a house
that's on the market, you want as many potential buyer
eyeballs to see that as as humanly possible. And I
think an agent, there's just no comparison to with what
an agent can offer, you know, on that, Like you said,
with the MLS, the multiple listing service, you know, now
every agent in the market knows that houses you know
(11:42):
is for sale, and by extension, they can make sure
their buyers see it. You know. Marketing is another big
thing that agents can bring to the table. Let's talk
a little bit, and this probably doesn't get maybe referenced enough,
but there are some safety issues, or at least from
my perspective, if you're putting the house on the market,
get yourself and you get a random person that calls,
(12:03):
you know, off of your sign they're calling likely your
cell phone number, and they want to come see the house,
I mean as a for sale by owner. Chances are
you're going to say yes and you're going to schedule
that now ninety nine times out of one hundred, that's
going to be perfectly fine. But there's really nobody verifying
unless you're going to ask some questions. Have you been preapproved?
Have you been to the bank? You know, do I
(12:24):
know that you're a real buyer. Can you talk a
little bit about some of the safety issues there?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, definitely, you have no idea who's coming in your
house or if you have your own open house, you
just never know, so you want to make sure you're
working with an agent. They're going to contact the buyer
and get information. As far as that goes, they'll go
to make sure they're pre approved, make sure they're actually
a serious buyer, because you don't know if they are.
If people are just walking through, they could be looking
(12:50):
at your house and thinking of some of your property,
you know, and they want to come over there and
do some damage to it or whatever. It's just a
lot of safety things as far as echoes and the
people coming in you don't know, so you want to
have as many conversations you can with them before and
not just open the door to anybody. We have a
lot of different ways as realtors to vet people, and
(13:11):
we can kind of look and see if there's any
kind of safety features we can pull from their phone
number or something like that. We can do some research
to make sure it's a safe person, if there's any
kind of background issues as far as that goes before
we even meet them. We want to meet them at
the office and have a conversation with them, make sure
they're qualified buyers before we even bring them in your house,
(13:32):
where or say, by owners aren't going to have that
capability and they're just hoping to get the right buyer
in there. But you just never know it's not worth
taking the risks.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
No, I mean, and I think like in today's market,
like you said, meeting with buyers ahead of time, and
in today's world, you know, signing as an agent is
going to be signing you know, a buy representation agreement
with them. So there's now been dialogue and a conversation
and a meeting and they probably have showed that they've
been pre approved. It doesn't mean that something can't happen,
but it certainly minimizes that risk. You know, when you're
having a formal process and you're having meetings before showing
(14:04):
a property, you know, hopefully you've, like you said, kind
of weeded out people that may not be serious, so
that the only people coming into your home, you know,
are those that are truly perspective perspective buyers and have
the means an ability to potentially buy your home is
as well. So let's assume for the sake of argument,
that somebody has gone for sale by owner and it
(14:24):
has worked they have gotten somebody that is willing to
buy the house, and you know that they may think
that's the hard part, you know, getting to that to
that point, and I say, that's really where the work begins,
because now you've got to get a deal worked out
into the closing table, and there's a lot of things
that can happen between somebody, you know, verbally agreeing and
putting something in writing and getting and getting a deal
(14:45):
to the closing table. Can you just shed a little
bit of light on what a realtor does in that
timeframe from the point of contract to the point of
closing table, like some of the things that you're managing
to make sure this gets this gets done.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, we're constantly communicating with the inspector setting up the inspection,
make sure they have that a home inspection done. We're
keeping track of the other realtor on the other side
there if you have another one. You want to make
sure that they're handling their business, making sure everything's getting
scheduled properly, talking to the mortgage lender all the time
(15:19):
to make sure everything's going good on that process. Then
they go to the appraisal process. Make sure you get
that coordinated and then whatever that comes out with I mean,
you may have something wrong with the inspection or the appraisal,
So you're constantly negotiating repairs or how you're going to
handle different situations. If there's a shortcoming on the appraisal
(15:39):
or if there is like a said, a repair or
something that needs to take place, you wanted to always
discuss that. So you're constantly the whole way through, and
the title companies make sure that you got to clean
your title that you're working with, and you'll do all
the research on that follow up with it. So it's
every day you're following up with somebody to make sure
that everything's going smooth and everyone's on the same page. Agent,
(16:00):
we want to make sure everyone's informed so everyone knows
what's going on through the whole process.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I mean what you were talking about is you know
that's enough if the deal is smooth, right, I mean,
because you've got inspections, you've got appraisals, you've got you know,
lending approval that has to be done in you know,
scheduling of the closing and proof of funds, and you
know all these different things that are going on, and
that's if a deal is going smooth. And then if
there is something like you said, that comes up, you know,
during an inspection, well, now this is a new negotiation
in many cases, you know, or if something comes up
(16:26):
in the appraisal, or if it comes up in underwriting,
in the in the loan process. There's a lot of
different things. I mean, there's a lot of deals that
obviously make it to the closing table, but not without
you know, somebody quarterbacking it on the back end and
a good agent, because I think there's a lot of
people that if they go for sale by owner, this
is really, to me where the heavy work begins. And
if you've got a job, you know, this managing this
(16:48):
process becomes a part time job. And if you've already
got a job that you're getting paid to do, it
can be a lot to manage. You know, both of these.
There's a lot of time and effort that goes into that,
and just something else to throw into the to the mix.
One of the things you mentioned before was pricing. That
a lot of times for sale by owners either they
get maybe a little optimistic in their pricing and they
shoot a little bit high. I think it's easy. You know,
(17:11):
there's a lot of different online portals that'll let you
type in an address and give you their version of
what they think a house is worth. How do you
approach pricing a house? I mean, you know, what advice
would you give to somebody if they're for sale by
owner and they says, you know what, mark this isn't working,
they call you in to help them, you know kind
of how would you address that with them?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, the first thing I'll do is meet with them,
check out their property and see what condition everything's in.
Maybe there's some red flags I see. I have a
mechanical background, so I'm able to give you a little
bit of a pre inspection when I go through everything
foundation wise, a little bit more than some agents. And
then I go through it. If there's an issue here,
you might fix this crack or you got some kind
(17:51):
of mold or something like that. You never know, especially
in the attics when you're not going in there very often.
So there's a lot of different things. We kind of
go through, take a look at things that my be deterrents,
so we reevaluate that, look at the comparable properties, what
they've sold for recently. Then we kind of evaluate that
I sa cour sale by owners normally sell for quite
a bit less thirty percent less when they sell than
(18:14):
what we do when we list it on the MLS,
which is a huge savings as far as that goes.
So you definitely want to make sure you're priced right.
And a lot of times when you're negotiating for yourself,
you're more willing to give repair es, grows or something
like that money towards well, maybe they don't like the
carpet and stuff like that, where we'll negotiate differently and
we're not, like I said, I'm trying to never give
(18:37):
up any of your money as far as that goes.
And we want to save as much money as we
can in the seller's pocket. So that's a big thing
that we want to make sure you priced right, and
we're not just so willing to give away money just
to get it done. I know sometimes we're in a
state of more desperate than we want to be, but
we want to have someone knowledgeable that has our back
to be able to handle that, so we don't have
(19:00):
you know, everything stopping us as far as that goes
from maximizing.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, I think you said something that was really important
in there. You're saying that typically a for sale by owner,
you know, on average, gets thirty percent less than a
comparable home you know that would have been listed and
sold and handled by a realtor. So for those that
are thinking, well, I'm going to save some money on
the commission, Okay, maybe you do, but boy, if I'm
giving up thirty percent of the home, you know, potential price,
that's that wasn't worth the savings. You know that whatever
(19:27):
savings perceived or otherwise that I may have gotten, if
I'm losing thirty percent, you know, at the end of
the day, that's all real money. As they as they
tend to.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Say, definitely, And then seventy five percent of the for
sale by owners still end up paying the commission, so
their whole thought process the whole time, and then you
still end up paying it. And now you're probably going
to get less if you if you don't go that route.
So there's just a lot of variables to it. It's
it definitely makes sense to try it when the market's
a seller's market, but most times you better off just
(19:57):
going that route and having a realtor that's professional. It
does it all the time. A lot of times we hear,
you know, I've sold you know, three houses, you know,
so I have some experience, and I say, okay, well
I sell you know, five to ten houses a month.
So it's a little bit different than just selling you know,
three in the lifetime. So we do have more knowledge
and more experience.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Well, and I'm always a big believer is I can
go on to web md and I can look up
symptoms and self diagnose too, but I'm not probably going
to do the surgery that may be required. I mean,
knowledge is powerful. I think it's great that there's so much,
you know, information available for us as consumers, whether it's
on the real estate and legal and medical. I mean,
there's just so much out there. But knowing what the
ternship professional, I think is the key is nothing. There's
(20:39):
nothing wrong with being educated, but there's professionals for definitely
for a reason. As we're kind of winding things down
and just you know, curious, as we sit here and record,
it is February, so it is still you know, winter
in Michigan, but we're past the super Bowl and for
a lot of people that starts to be the while
winners behind us, we're looking forward to spring. As you
sit here today, kind of how do you you see
(21:01):
the market going into spring this year, do you think
we're going to see a few more listenings year? Do
you think it's going to be as tight as it's
been the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I think we're pretty much going to stay the same.
From what it seems like. There's got to be a
break at some point, But every time we're assuming it's
going to happen, we're still about the same. Lower inventory.
You know, the interest rates aren't moving, not much as
happening as far as that goes. But it is that
time now that people are getting more and more of
the itch to put their house up the for sale,
and they'll probably do that more. I think we might
(21:31):
get a little bit more got to start helping things
out because the buyers have had low inventory for so long.
Something's got to give at some point. But right now
it's still looking like it's still low inventory and not
a whole lot's popping up right now.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, And I agree with you with interest rates. I
think there was some expectation at the end of last year,
at the end of twenty twenty four. You know that
not necessarily the first half of this year, but the
second half of the year, you know that maybe rates
would you know, come down to the lower sixes. And
I've seen a lot of people, you know, kind of
re forecasting and saying, well, based on what we're seeing now,
they might be the high sixes the first half of
the year, maybe down to six and a half, you know,
(22:05):
by the end of the year. So I think that
speaks perfectly to what you were just saying there. But
I also know that in any market, people continue to
get married, start families, you know, go through divorce, you know,
somebody passes goes into assisted living. Their life still happens regardless.
And so if you're listening and you're thinking this may
(22:27):
be the year for you to sell your home, we
certainly encourage you to reach out to a local Remax agent,
somebody like Mark Connon here who we have in here today.
And Mark, if we have anybody listening that may want
to reach out, maybe they do want your expertise. Where's
a good way for them to contact you.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Well, they call me MotorCity Mark all around because I
go all over Michigan and my phone number would be
five eight six eight seven three zero two to two
to two. Be happy to help any way I can
answer any questions, and my email address would be common
Cells C O N N O N S E L
(23:05):
L S at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Right, and so as you said, MotorCity Mark, that is
not how I introduced you. But I do know that
is that is you know how that and so I
just you know, just do you have any parameters on
how far you'll go? I mean or the State of
Michigan or Metro Detroit or.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, I've definitely done the state of Michigan. I just
closed on one recently in Marquette, which is in the
up there, So if you haven't been up there, that's
a good eight hours from Detroit and been all over
Battle Creek, you know, Grand Rapids, I've sold all over.
So I'm going up and doing some showings in the
Thumb area about Poor Austin tomorrow. So a little bit
(23:43):
everywhere anywhere someone needs my help, that's where I'm looking
to help.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Well, was there anything that we didn't cover today that
you wanted to share with listeners before we before we
rap Was there anything on your mind that we didn't
get a chance to talk to yet?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, the only thing was that we were talking about
before was the most recent of my sales of for
sale by owner is the one condo that I sold
recently that's been a friend of mine for a long time.
She wanted to sell it by herself. Someone told her
that was a good idea, so she tried that and
she had it listed and she wasn't getting the activity
(24:18):
they were had a buyer come through and had a
lot of empty promises, and she was getting frustrated. So
she called me up and she says, Okay, I'm sorry
I went that route. It didn't work the way I wanted,
so can you come and help me out? Reevaluating everything,
she was quite low on her price, evening a lot
of times it's higher, but she was low because she
(24:40):
was just anxious to get it done. So I got
everything together, like I've been talking on this podcast with you,
we were able to get it sold for fifteen thousand
more than what she was listing it at. So that
was a huge help for her and covered all of
my costs plus and a lot less headache for her.
(25:01):
Try to make it as easy as possible for her.
So yeah, she was very grateful that we were able
to do that, and it did it in quite a
fast time for her trying so hard and not getting
very far with her efforts, so not saying it, you know,
like I said, it was a bad idea. We had
already talked about getting it listed before then she said,
someone talked her into going that route and it didn't work.
(25:22):
But I'm very happy to be able to help her
and get her in a situation she really wanted to
be in.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
On one hand, you have to give kudos to her
for being willing to come to you kind of hat
in hand, as they say, say, you know what, you
told me not to do this, but I did it,
and I'm realizing it didn't work out. I mean, I
guess it's grateful that she did. You know, she was
able to kind of eat that humble pie and come
back to you.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, she wasn't happy about that part of it, but
the end result getting it done and getting get Yeah,
she was definitely very happy about that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So that's kind of a nice story to end it,
you know, to end it on is you know, this
is exactly what we're talking about. In a real life
scenario where somebody tried it on their own, you know,
they they thought maybe they were doing themselves a favor
by pricing it a little low. You may be trying
to attract a lot of interest, but that can work
against you in that people think there's something wrong with
it if it's under market compared to other things or
so yeah in walks Mark and it's like, well, you
(26:15):
know you've got it priced wrong. Let's try this and
you know, real money coming back to her. So well, Mark,
one more time, Where can people reach you if they'd
like to reach out?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yep, MotorCity Mark, give me a call, happy to help
with all your questions five eight six eight seven three
zero two two two. You find me on Facebook, MotorCity
Mark and my email address is co O N N
O n se Lls at gmail dot com. Slogan's Cononsells everywhere,
(26:46):
So conon Sells is the email.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
All right, Well, Mark, thank you so much for being
here today. We appreciate your making the time to join us.
Thank you so much, and to our listeners obviously, thanks
to you. Whether you're a loyal listener or new to
our podcast. We're certainly glad that you joined us, and
we will be back with another episode. The next topic
is going to be put a key ring on it.
We're going to be talking about unmarried couples who are
(27:10):
committing to a house before they legally commit to each other,
and the reasons why and how you can protect yourself
so we look forward to chatting with you soon. We
hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe, write
a review, or rate the show as it helps us
reach more people. You can also follow us on Facebook
and Instagram.
You are listening to the REMAX Real Estate Insights show
where you get real talk by real agents. Walk to
you by REMACS of Southeastern Michigan. Welcome to our Remax
Real Estate Insights podcast. We're here to share with you
news and tips about all things real estate in a
way that's easy to understand and fun to listen to,
and that we hope helps you make some great decisions
(00:22):
for yourself. My name is Janete Schneider. I'm the president
of REMAS of Southeastern Michigan. I am also your host
on this podcast, and in today's episode, we're diving into
a topic that some potential home sellers may consider at
one time or another, and that is selling your home
on your own. Typically that's known as for sale by
(00:43):
owner in the industry. We may also refer to that
as being a fizbo I get it. The idea of
maybe saving money, you know, can be tempting, But what
if I told you that many fisbosellers actually end up
losing more money than they say. And let's talk about safety.
When you list your home on your own, you may
(01:04):
be inviting complete strangers into your place without any knowledge
of if they're a serious buyer or not. So today
we're going to talk about some of the hidden costs,
maybe some of the risk and what every potential for
sale by owner seller should know before making that decision.
And I've got an expert to help talk about this
with me today. Joining me is Mark Connon. He is
(01:24):
with Remax First. I've known Mark for many years. It's
great to have you on the show today. Mark, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So I've been starting this new year with kind of
a new thing. I've been asking every guest to open
up the show what it is that got you into
real estate? How did you land in real estate as
a career.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, it's really strange because I ran a union for
twelve years at a school district and was in meetings
in Lansing and they kept cutting our wages and cutting
our wages. So then I had a broker approach me
and thought I had personality for it. And I've always
wanted to help people, that's all I want to do.
So I found out that this was the best industry
(02:04):
where I can be the most honest to help people
in every way, tell them what I think about the house.
And it's been very great to learn different ways to
help people in so many different circum circumstances of their life.
And it's just been such a blessing to be able
to help so many people in so many ways.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So as one door closed, so to speak, another one
open for you. Absolutely, Yeah, how many years have you
been doing this?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
This will be my thirteenth year.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Okay, lucky thirteen. H lucky thirteen. So we're talking about
this topic today about those that may want to sell
their home on their own, and kind of a little
back end sight to our folks that are listening, we're
tackling this because recently you were given a referral that,
you know, somebody that had been trying to sell on
their own had decided that they were going to reach
out and get some professional assistance, and the meeting went
(02:49):
a little sideways. It was it was a little interesting.
We were talking about it and we said, hey, this
might be a great topic for us to talk about.
So from your perspective, what is the peal for people
to go for sale by owners? You know, what do
you think they're hoping to accomplish? When you drive past
somebody that has a sign in the r that says
for sale by owner kind of what are your thoughts
on that.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, first thing you think of right away is they
probably need some help. That's what I think of right away,
because they're going to try to do it themselves. But
what they're normally thinking, they're going to save money on
the commissions. They're going to save money, make more money
than not have to pay as many fees. But unfortunately
that's definitely not the case. Right now. The for sale
by owner is down to six percent, which is the
(03:29):
lowest it's.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Ever been, like six percent of homes on the Marketer
for sale.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
By owner yep, And then a good portion of those
don't sell. If they sell it all, usually they're just
kind of testing the waters and they overprice it and
then they negotiate down to where they actually lose money.
And if they had a realtor helping them the whole time,
they would have been able to save more money and
more money in their pockets. So it usually doesn't work
(03:52):
out to their benefit in the market with the low
inventory and all that, So it makes sense to try it,
but normally with all the other things that we know
from negotiating, it definitely would help a whole lot more
to have the realtor help you with our expertise.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, no, and I think you actually have touched on
a a variety of really good points there. The market
has favored sellers for the last number of years because
we don't have enough inventory for all the buyers that
are out there. So this would on the surface seem
to be a market where there could be somebody saying, well,
you know what, I know, there's a lot of buyers
out there. There's not many homes. I might want to
try this on my own. But you're saying it's like
(04:27):
the lowest number of for sale buy owners you know
that you've seen. So there's not a lot of people
choosing it. There obviously are some, and we know there'd
be some listening that are considering it. You know that's interesting.
But you said pricing, and I think that's the big thing.
The hook I think for a lot of potential for
sale by owners is oh, I'll save money on that
commission I would have to pay somebody like Mark. But
(04:48):
in your experience, you're saying where they get it all
wrong isn't on the commission. It's on pricing their home
and their ability to negotiate that they end up giving
away more right right.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
For sure, And a lot of times they're in a
situation where they're more nervous and need to sell. So
by that desperation, the buyers try to out negotiate the
for sale buy owners, where we as professionals, we would
know how to negotiate that better and we're more equipped
to have the negotiation without the emotional part of it,
where the sellers are just in an immediate need and
(05:21):
theyre just can't wait, so they end up taking a
lot less and then in the long run they usually
do not make out very well on that unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
No. I mean, and I think, yeah, statistics, you'll ferret
that out. I mean, if you take a look at that,
And the other thing I think that you hit on
is the emotional side of it, because a home is
an investment, but we live in that investment, so it
becomes an extension of us, everything from the way we
choose to decorate it to the way we choose to
if I am looking at selling it on my own,
(05:50):
the way I'm choosing to price it. It's all very personal.
And so if you have a potential buyer come in
and you know, maybe they don't care for the decorating scheme.
You know, they want to change things, and then they
come at you all you know, your house is an
updated I need to do some renovations. And now as
a seller, you're starting to take that a little personally.
That impacts your ability to negotiate fairly, I would imagine, definitely.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
And then if you do upgrade your kitchen or your
bathroom or something like that to your liking and they
don't like it, now that's actually going to go against
you because that's not the style they would want where
you're so emotionally attached to it. You think it's the
greatest and which is awesome, that's your home. Of course
you should feel that way, but they might actually hold
that against you. Or you have an inground pool or
(06:33):
something that you just love that they don't, So now
it's even more against you. So you just need to
negotiating strategies to overcome all that without the emotional attachment
when you are negotiating well, I.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Mean, and we talked about the emotional aspect of negotiating,
but let's just talk about negotiating as a topic on
its own. I'm of a believer that most people, unless
you just have an innate salesmanship to you don't necessarily
like negotiating, and I think in large part that is
one of the things that most buyers and sellers are
hoping their agent will do for them, is negotiate because
(07:04):
most of us aren't good at it and don't really
want to do this. But yeah, this is what somebody
like you accel.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
At, right absolutely, And a lot of times people are
selling for reasons they're even more emotional, but they want
to you know, as far as your property goes, you
have a price that you think it is where you
want to have, you know, evaluated properly with all the
comparables out there, so we can negotiate different things. If
the sellers not able to have enough for the closing costs,
(07:32):
we're able to compensate that with the sale price and
negotiate different things. So there's just a lot of different
repairs and stuff like that where we can just you know,
negotiate things out without you just going out there and
spending all the money. I try to make sure that
the sellers spend as little as possible in the process
and end up put the most money in their pocket
at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Now, one of the things that again, you know, potential
sellers I think look to an agent for and having
just bought and sold a house a year ago, I
mean I'm a pret pretty recent person of having gone
through this personally is relying on an agent to, you know,
kind of give some guidance on what do you need
to do or what you might want to consider doing,
be putting before putting your home on the market, because
(08:14):
you don't need to do everything. Like you said, you
said you try to have your sellers spend the least
amount of money possible. In kind of hearkening back to
the conversation we had with this referral that where the
gentleman had done some work and if I'd not and
you can correct me if I'm wrong, I believe some
of your comments were he had kind of dabbled in
doing a little bit, but like he didn't just finish
one room. It's like he did a little bit in
this room, a little bit in that room, but it
(08:34):
didn't equal to, hey, this is a renovated kitchen, and
so it was kind of he spent money but didn't
spend it wisely, right, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And definitely with this certain referral, we're referring to he
took a lot of pride in a lot of the
repairs he did, but as the buyers are coming through,
they're definitely not feeling the same quality and price to
substantiate what he well, of course he put his heart
and soul into it. He put higher end things done,
(09:04):
but it wasn't done completely to where everyone's liking were.
So it definitely definitely shows that everyone's taste is different
in every situation. So you want to do as little
as you can getting it ready, make sure it's you know,
have the agent come out, take a look at it
and give you a couple of pointers. But most times
(09:25):
I definitely wouldn't recommend you remodel the kitchen because you're
not going to get it back, or a bathroom or
all that. Normally, you're not going to spend all that money.
If you're going to live in it, go ahead and
do all that stuff. But if you're going to sell it,
let's just prep it, get it in the best condition
we can, and get it sold for you as quick
as possible for the most money man.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And that just echoes to a large degree. I mean,
you know, clean is king spending more time to have
it clean and show really well. That way is probably
a much better use of time. And I know when
we were looking to put ours on the market about
a year ago, you know, we had done you know
a lot of things that I kind of felt we
were you know a little bit of painting and touch
up and stuff like that. And then there was a
couple of questions that we had, you know, over carpet,
(10:01):
do we rip it out, do we put something fresh?
And like, no, pay to clean it because you don't
even know the next people are going to keep the carpet.
You know, they might want to rip it up and
you know, put something else, and so don't spend the
money clean it. Make sure it looks good. But yeah,
don't spend more than you than you than you have
to the other. Another aspect of what a real estate
agent brings to the table is marketing of a home.
(10:22):
And if you're going for sale by owner, you're really
relying I guess on for the most part, word of mouth,
the sign you may put in your yard, but not
every property is on the main street that a lot
of cars are going to see. And so you know,
being able to market a home to the widest possible
audience becomes a real benefit of using a real estate agent.
Can you talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, absolutely, And most times they might stick it on
one website, just put a sign in their yard where
we put put our yard side on, it's going to
be more recognizable than a for sale by owner sign.
We also have all our networks, so we're going to
put in the MLS. It's going to broadcast to all
of the different sites, relader, dot com and all that stuff.
We're going to go out there to all the different sites.
(11:04):
We have our own networks of agents, so we're going
to reach out to all our agent friends and all
their brokerages. So we're really getting the word out there
in a lot of different ways. Social media also, we're
going to put it on our social media sites. So
there's lots of different ways we're going to have advertising
as far as that goes.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And I think, I mean, I'm always a big proponent
is you want to be fishing in the biggest possible pond,
you know. I mean, so when you have a house
that's on the market, you want as many potential buyer
eyeballs to see that as as humanly possible. And I
think an agent, there's just no comparison to with what
an agent can offer, you know, on that, Like you said,
with the MLS, the multiple listing service, you know, now
every agent in the market knows that houses you know
(11:42):
is for sale, and by extension, they can make sure
their buyers see it. You know. Marketing is another big
thing that agents can bring to the table. Let's talk
a little bit, and this probably doesn't get maybe referenced enough,
but there are some safety issues, or at least from
my perspective, if you're putting the house on the market,
get yourself and you get a random person that calls,
(12:03):
you know, off of your sign they're calling likely your
cell phone number, and they want to come see the house,
I mean as a for sale by owner. Chances are
you're going to say yes and you're going to schedule
that now ninety nine times out of one hundred, that's
going to be perfectly fine. But there's really nobody verifying
unless you're going to ask some questions. Have you been preapproved?
Have you been to the bank? You know, do I
(12:24):
know that you're a real buyer. Can you talk a
little bit about some of the safety issues there?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, definitely, you have no idea who's coming in your
house or if you have your own open house, you
just never know, so you want to make sure you're
working with an agent. They're going to contact the buyer
and get information. As far as that goes, they'll go
to make sure they're pre approved, make sure they're actually
a serious buyer, because you don't know if they are.
If people are just walking through, they could be looking
(12:50):
at your house and thinking of some of your property,
you know, and they want to come over there and
do some damage to it or whatever. It's just a
lot of safety things as far as echoes and the
people coming in you don't know, so you want to
have as many conversations you can with them before and
not just open the door to anybody. We have a
lot of different ways as realtors to vet people, and
(13:11):
we can kind of look and see if there's any
kind of safety features we can pull from their phone
number or something like that. We can do some research
to make sure it's a safe person, if there's any
kind of background issues as far as that goes before
we even meet them. We want to meet them at
the office and have a conversation with them, make sure
they're qualified buyers before we even bring them in your house,
(13:32):
where or say, by owners aren't going to have that
capability and they're just hoping to get the right buyer
in there. But you just never know it's not worth
taking the risks.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
No, I mean, and I think like in today's market,
like you said, meeting with buyers ahead of time, and
in today's world, you know, signing as an agent is
going to be signing you know, a buy representation agreement
with them. So there's now been dialogue and a conversation
and a meeting and they probably have showed that they've
been pre approved. It doesn't mean that something can't happen,
but it certainly minimizes that risk. You know, when you're
having a formal process and you're having meetings before showing
(14:04):
a property, you know, hopefully you've, like you said, kind
of weeded out people that may not be serious, so
that the only people coming into your home, you know,
are those that are truly perspective perspective buyers and have
the means an ability to potentially buy your home is
as well. So let's assume for the sake of argument,
that somebody has gone for sale by owner and it
(14:24):
has worked they have gotten somebody that is willing to
buy the house, and you know that they may think
that's the hard part, you know, getting to that to
that point, and I say, that's really where the work begins,
because now you've got to get a deal worked out
into the closing table, and there's a lot of things
that can happen between somebody, you know, verbally agreeing and
putting something in writing and getting and getting a deal
(14:45):
to the closing table. Can you just shed a little
bit of light on what a realtor does in that
timeframe from the point of contract to the point of
closing table, like some of the things that you're managing
to make sure this gets this gets done.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, we're constantly communicating with the inspector setting up the inspection,
make sure they have that a home inspection done. We're
keeping track of the other realtor on the other side
there if you have another one. You want to make
sure that they're handling their business, making sure everything's getting
scheduled properly, talking to the mortgage lender all the time
(15:19):
to make sure everything's going good on that process. Then
they go to the appraisal process. Make sure you get
that coordinated and then whatever that comes out with I mean,
you may have something wrong with the inspection or the appraisal,
So you're constantly negotiating repairs or how you're going to
handle different situations. If there's a shortcoming on the appraisal
(15:39):
or if there is like a said, a repair or
something that needs to take place, you wanted to always
discuss that. So you're constantly the whole way through, and
the title companies make sure that you got to clean
your title that you're working with, and you'll do all
the research on that follow up with it. So it's
every day you're following up with somebody to make sure
that everything's going smooth and everyone's on the same page. Agent,
(16:00):
we want to make sure everyone's informed so everyone knows
what's going on through the whole process.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I mean what you were talking about is you know
that's enough if the deal is smooth, right, I mean,
because you've got inspections, you've got appraisals, you've got you know,
lending approval that has to be done in you know,
scheduling of the closing and proof of funds, and you
know all these different things that are going on, and
that's if a deal is going smooth. And then if
there is something like you said, that comes up, you know,
during an inspection, well, now this is a new negotiation
in many cases, you know, or if something comes up
(16:26):
in the appraisal, or if it comes up in underwriting,
in the in the loan process. There's a lot of
different things. I mean, there's a lot of deals that
obviously make it to the closing table, but not without
you know, somebody quarterbacking it on the back end and
a good agent, because I think there's a lot of
people that if they go for sale by owner, this
is really, to me where the heavy work begins. And
if you've got a job, you know, this managing this
(16:48):
process becomes a part time job. And if you've already
got a job that you're getting paid to do, it
can be a lot to manage. You know, both of these.
There's a lot of time and effort that goes into that,
and just something else to throw into the to the mix.
One of the things you mentioned before was pricing. That
a lot of times for sale by owners either they
get maybe a little optimistic in their pricing and they
shoot a little bit high. I think it's easy. You know,
(17:11):
there's a lot of different online portals that'll let you
type in an address and give you their version of
what they think a house is worth. How do you
approach pricing a house? I mean, you know, what advice
would you give to somebody if they're for sale by
owner and they says, you know what, mark this isn't working,
they call you in to help them, you know kind
of how would you address that with them?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, the first thing I'll do is meet with them,
check out their property and see what condition everything's in.
Maybe there's some red flags I see. I have a
mechanical background, so I'm able to give you a little
bit of a pre inspection when I go through everything
foundation wise, a little bit more than some agents. And
then I go through it. If there's an issue here,
you might fix this crack or you got some kind
(17:51):
of mold or something like that. You never know, especially
in the attics when you're not going in there very often.
So there's a lot of different things. We kind of
go through, take a look at things that my be deterrents,
so we reevaluate that, look at the comparable properties, what
they've sold for recently. Then we kind of evaluate that
I sa cour sale by owners normally sell for quite
a bit less thirty percent less when they sell than
(18:14):
what we do when we list it on the MLS,
which is a huge savings as far as that goes.
So you definitely want to make sure you're priced right.
And a lot of times when you're negotiating for yourself,
you're more willing to give repair es, grows or something
like that money towards well, maybe they don't like the
carpet and stuff like that, where we'll negotiate differently and
we're not, like I said, I'm trying to never give
(18:37):
up any of your money as far as that goes.
And we want to save as much money as we
can in the seller's pocket. So that's a big thing
that we want to make sure you priced right, and
we're not just so willing to give away money just
to get it done. I know sometimes we're in a
state of more desperate than we want to be, but
we want to have someone knowledgeable that has our back
to be able to handle that, so we don't have
(19:00):
you know, everything stopping us as far as that goes
from maximizing.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, I think you said something that was really important
in there. You're saying that typically a for sale by owner,
you know, on average, gets thirty percent less than a
comparable home you know that would have been listed and
sold and handled by a realtor. So for those that
are thinking, well, I'm going to save some money on
the commission, Okay, maybe you do, but boy, if I'm
giving up thirty percent of the home, you know, potential price,
that's that wasn't worth the savings. You know that whatever
(19:27):
savings perceived or otherwise that I may have gotten, if
I'm losing thirty percent, you know, at the end of
the day, that's all real money. As they as they
tend to.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Say, definitely, And then seventy five percent of the for
sale by owners still end up paying the commission, so
their whole thought process the whole time, and then you
still end up paying it. And now you're probably going
to get less if you if you don't go that route.
So there's just a lot of variables to it. It's
it definitely makes sense to try it when the market's
a seller's market, but most times you better off just
(19:57):
going that route and having a realtor that's professional. It
does it all the time. A lot of times we hear,
you know, I've sold you know, three houses, you know,
so I have some experience, and I say, okay, well
I sell you know, five to ten houses a month.
So it's a little bit different than just selling you know,
three in the lifetime. So we do have more knowledge
and more experience.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Well, and I'm always a big believer is I can
go on to web md and I can look up
symptoms and self diagnose too, but I'm not probably going
to do the surgery that may be required. I mean,
knowledge is powerful. I think it's great that there's so much,
you know, information available for us as consumers, whether it's
on the real estate and legal and medical. I mean,
there's just so much out there. But knowing what the
ternship professional, I think is the key is nothing. There's
(20:39):
nothing wrong with being educated, but there's professionals for definitely
for a reason. As we're kind of winding things down
and just you know, curious, as we sit here and record,
it is February, so it is still you know, winter
in Michigan, but we're past the super Bowl and for
a lot of people that starts to be the while
winners behind us, we're looking forward to spring. As you
sit here today, kind of how do you you see
(21:01):
the market going into spring this year, do you think
we're going to see a few more listenings year? Do
you think it's going to be as tight as it's
been the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I think we're pretty much going to stay the same.
From what it seems like. There's got to be a
break at some point, But every time we're assuming it's
going to happen, we're still about the same. Lower inventory.
You know, the interest rates aren't moving, not much as
happening as far as that goes. But it is that
time now that people are getting more and more of
the itch to put their house up the for sale,
and they'll probably do that more. I think we might
(21:31):
get a little bit more got to start helping things
out because the buyers have had low inventory for so long.
Something's got to give at some point. But right now
it's still looking like it's still low inventory and not
a whole lot's popping up right now.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, And I agree with you with interest rates. I
think there was some expectation at the end of last year,
at the end of twenty twenty four. You know that
not necessarily the first half of this year, but the
second half of the year, you know that maybe rates
would you know, come down to the lower sixes. And
I've seen a lot of people, you know, kind of
re forecasting and saying, well, based on what we're seeing now,
they might be the high sixes the first half of
the year, maybe down to six and a half, you know,
(22:05):
by the end of the year. So I think that
speaks perfectly to what you were just saying there. But
I also know that in any market, people continue to
get married, start families, you know, go through divorce, you know,
somebody passes goes into assisted living. Their life still happens regardless.
And so if you're listening and you're thinking this may
(22:27):
be the year for you to sell your home, we
certainly encourage you to reach out to a local Remax agent,
somebody like Mark Connon here who we have in here today.
And Mark, if we have anybody listening that may want
to reach out, maybe they do want your expertise. Where's
a good way for them to contact you.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Well, they call me MotorCity Mark all around because I
go all over Michigan and my phone number would be
five eight six eight seven three zero two to two
to two. Be happy to help any way I can
answer any questions, and my email address would be common
Cells C O N N O N S E L
(23:05):
L S at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Right, and so as you said, MotorCity Mark, that is
not how I introduced you. But I do know that
is that is you know how that and so I
just you know, just do you have any parameters on
how far you'll go? I mean or the State of
Michigan or Metro Detroit or.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, I've definitely done the state of Michigan. I just
closed on one recently in Marquette, which is in the
up there, So if you haven't been up there, that's
a good eight hours from Detroit and been all over
Battle Creek, you know, Grand Rapids, I've sold all over.
So I'm going up and doing some showings in the
Thumb area about Poor Austin tomorrow. So a little bit
(23:43):
everywhere anywhere someone needs my help, that's where I'm looking
to help.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Well, was there anything that we didn't cover today that
you wanted to share with listeners before we before we
rap Was there anything on your mind that we didn't
get a chance to talk to yet?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, the only thing was that we were talking about
before was the most recent of my sales of for
sale by owner is the one condo that I sold
recently that's been a friend of mine for a long time.
She wanted to sell it by herself. Someone told her
that was a good idea, so she tried that and
she had it listed and she wasn't getting the activity
(24:18):
they were had a buyer come through and had a
lot of empty promises, and she was getting frustrated. So
she called me up and she says, Okay, I'm sorry
I went that route. It didn't work the way I wanted,
so can you come and help me out? Reevaluating everything,
she was quite low on her price, evening a lot
of times it's higher, but she was low because she
(24:40):
was just anxious to get it done. So I got
everything together, like I've been talking on this podcast with you,
we were able to get it sold for fifteen thousand
more than what she was listing it at. So that
was a huge help for her and covered all of
my costs plus and a lot less headache for her.
(25:01):
Try to make it as easy as possible for her.
So yeah, she was very grateful that we were able
to do that, and it did it in quite a
fast time for her trying so hard and not getting
very far with her efforts, so not saying it, you know,
like I said, it was a bad idea. We had
already talked about getting it listed before then she said,
someone talked her into going that route and it didn't work.
(25:22):
But I'm very happy to be able to help her
and get her in a situation she really wanted to
be in.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
On one hand, you have to give kudos to her
for being willing to come to you kind of hat
in hand, as they say, say, you know what, you
told me not to do this, but I did it,
and I'm realizing it didn't work out. I mean, I
guess it's grateful that she did. You know, she was
able to kind of eat that humble pie and come
back to you.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, she wasn't happy about that part of it, but
the end result getting it done and getting get Yeah,
she was definitely very happy about that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So that's kind of a nice story to end it,
you know, to end it on is you know, this
is exactly what we're talking about. In a real life
scenario where somebody tried it on their own, you know,
they they thought maybe they were doing themselves a favor
by pricing it a little low. You may be trying
to attract a lot of interest, but that can work
against you in that people think there's something wrong with
it if it's under market compared to other things or
so yeah in walks Mark and it's like, well, you
(26:15):
know you've got it priced wrong. Let's try this and
you know, real money coming back to her. So well, Mark,
one more time, Where can people reach you if they'd
like to reach out?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yep, MotorCity Mark, give me a call, happy to help
with all your questions five eight six eight seven three
zero two two two. You find me on Facebook, MotorCity
Mark and my email address is co O N N
O n se Lls at gmail dot com. Slogan's Cononsells everywhere,
(26:46):
So conon Sells is the email.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
All right, Well, Mark, thank you so much for being
here today. We appreciate your making the time to join us.
Thank you so much, and to our listeners obviously, thanks
to you. Whether you're a loyal listener or new to
our podcast. We're certainly glad that you joined us, and
we will be back with another episode. The next topic
is going to be put a key ring on it.
We're going to be talking about unmarried couples who are
(27:10):
committing to a house before they legally commit to each other,
and the reasons why and how you can protect yourself
so we look forward to chatting with you soon. We
hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe, write
a review, or rate the show as it helps us
reach more people. You can also follow us on Facebook
and Instagram.
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