Long term planning of selling your home?

[EddieWalker]

If I was thinking of selling, and it could be this year, next year, or five years from now, I would start asking my personal friends who they used and if they where happy with them. Then I would look up those realtors to get an idea of how busy they are. The goal would be to find out who is selling a lot of homes in your area. This would all be done in your free time, and without any rush to call anybody. You just want to start building a list of names.

Pretty soon, you'll see who the big sellers are. They will have a team, they will be advertising, and they will have the better websites with the best pictures and videos.

Figure out who the best five are, or more, and give them each a call. Tell them that you want to sell your house, that you don't have a realtor, but that you are looking to hire one when you are ready to list it, and you wanted to know if they had time to come by and look at your house to give you and idea of what you need to do to make it sell faster and for the most money.

Realtors do this almost every day. If not, they REALLY WANT to do this every day. This is how they get people to sign contractors with them to sell their homes. Be honest with them about wanting to talk to other realtors before you commit. Their might be some pressure to get you to commit right away, but that's where you decide if that person is too pushy, or desperate. Just remember to talk to as many as possible, and NEVER sign anything.

You can tell them that you have a five year plan, but I wouldn't. I would say that you are wanting to sell as soon as you have everything ready to get the best price for your current house, and when you have found the perfect house to move buy. In all honesty, it could be less then five years, or it could be more.

I would be shocked if you called a realtor and they didn't drop everything and run to your house to meet with you.

In my experience, it's the same when buying an HVAC system. Call multiple companies, schedule a meeting with them, and listen to what they have to offer. Thank them for their time, and tell them that you will think about what they said. Then have another meeting with another company to see what they say. In my experience, one of them will stand out as the best choice.

 

[ultrarunner]

Pitfalls and traps exist lying in wait.

Several times I have had to go to city and/or county archives to head off situations.

One property I was selling had an accessory building and a converted attached garage on a 1940 home.

The original owner was a photographer and the accessory building was to develop film and the garage was his studio.

We were in contract and the buyers pulled out and paid a lawyer to write a demand letter for costs/damages for non disclosure about the conversion and out building.

City records did not show either listed online or in person at the counter. The city seemed like I was bothering them.

I went to the Assessors office at the county seat and found a very helpful individual who pulled the paper documents and found the garage with permit as well as outbuilding with permit listed… yet no where to be found digitally.

I went back to the city a little miffed but with permit numbers they cross referenced and determined valid.

The explanation is the conversion happened during WWII and documents during this period are problematic.

So the buyer that threatened legal action now knew all was proper and wanted to go ahead… not going to happen on my watch.

I relisted at a slightly higher price adding the documentation and sold for the higher price…

The original buyers demanded 8k to walk away on a 90k listing.

I sold at 94k and my buyers still live there and very happy.

 

[plowhog]

Pretty soon, you'll see who the big sellers are. They will have a team, they will be advertising, and they will have the better websites with the best pictures and videos.

Real Estate is such an interesting business. Like many businesses, the appeal of volume and success is desirable.

Just be aware there is a downside to hooking up with the "most successful team" in the area. And what might be "appealing" to a lone seller or buyer might not be useful at all in selling your home.

For example, having a flashy website, in my opinion, has no impact on success of selling a home. Zero. It is appealing to a lone buyer or seller who is browsing the internet, but not to a RE professional.

RE professionals use and rely on MLS access, which will include everything (or most everything) on the flashy website plus includes non-public comments and documents that only the paying members can see. Since everything is available through MLS, in virtually every case the RE agent will never even see the other agents website. And a good RE agent will be examining many properties which would preclude chasing down and looking at them one at a time on individual websites. It happens, of course, but it is not the primary channel a RE professional uses.

In my neighborhood in Northern California, a team led by M*** R**** is predominant. Signs everywhere, massive marketing in local print publications, local news website, and more. Lots of references to "closed X million in sales last year!" This person closes an incredible amount of deals and makes an incredible amount of money. But there is also a string of disappointed buyers and sellers who ran into problems during the purchase or escrow, and who never once spoke to or met M*** R****. The figurehead person at the top interacts only with the most high profile clients-- kicking the rest of the leads to other "team members." (I know one of those highly disappointed sellers personally.)

Eddie, you made a very good point of interviewing multiple RE agents and getting to know them before making a decision. That is advice I agree with 100%. It is just personal opinion, but I believe working with a strong "lone wolf" agent on their own, carefully selected, will deliver better service. They could be employed by a local broker-- no problem with that-- but I've seen as the "team" grows larger the service to each client typically declines.

 

[EddieWalker]

I agree that it's easy to get lost in the crowd when hiring a big firm, but I believe there is a reason they sell more houses then the small guy, and it's not because the small guy doesn't want to make a lot of money.

If you take out the word "flashy" from your description of their website, and consider that it's an effective tool if used correctly, it becomes a good tool in selling a home.

Most people are looking online for a place before talking to a listing agent. If there are a lot of good quality pictures of a property, it's more likely that a buyer will contact the agent.

The issue that I have with the "lone wolf" agent is if they only sell a few houses a year. The vast majority of agents are not very good at what they do, and rarely do they make the big money because they never figure it out.

I would be very very nervous about hiring somebody that doesn't sell a lot of houses every year. If they just sell one a month, or less, then it's either a part time job for that person, or they are not very good at it. If I'm selling, I want the most aggressive person that I can find who will push for the top dollar, and use every marketing technique out there to get it done.

 

[Sigarms]

None. Maintain what you have. When the time gets closer to putting it on the market, say one year, see what's popular.

I consider my wife pretty smart.

She's not a big "popular fan" LOL

We could spend up to 80k on a kitchen, but what we want may not be what someone else wants.

We did the main baths upstairs to which we consider nice and neutral, but still a major update.

The issue is looking at the kitchen (and floors and ceiling tiles), it can become more of a personal opinion on what you or they buyer likes.

 

[Sigarms]

Real Estate is such an interesting business. Like many businesses, the appeal of volume and success is desirable.

Just be aware there is a downside to hooking up with the "most successful team" in the area. And what might be "appealing" to a lone seller or buyer might not be useful at all in selling your home.

For example, having a flashy website, in my opinion, has no impact on success of selling a home. Zero. It is appealing to a lone buyer or seller who is browsing the internet, but not to a RE professional.

RE professionals use and rely on MLS access, which will include everything (or most everything) on the flashy website plus includes non-public comments and documents that only the paying members can see. Since everything is available through MLS, in virtually every case the RE agent will never even see the other agents website. And a good RE agent will be examining many properties which would preclude chasing down and looking at them one at a time on individual websites. It happens, of course, but it is not the primary channel a RE professional uses.

In my neighborhood in Northern California, a team led by M*** R**** is predominant. Signs everywhere, massive marketing in local print publications, local news website, and more. Lots of references to "closed X million in sales last year!" This person closes an incredible amount of deals and makes an incredible amount of money. But there is also a string of disappointed buyers and sellers who ran into problems during the purchase or escrow, and who never once spoke to or met M*** R****. The figurehead person at the top interacts only with the most high profile clients-- kicking the rest of the leads to other "team members." (I know one of those highly disappointed sellers personally.)

Eddie, you made a very good point of interviewing multiple RE agents and getting to know them before making a decision. That is advice I agree with 100%. It is just personal opinion, but I believe working with a strong "lone wolf" agent on their own, carefully selected, will deliver better service. They could be employed by a local broker-- no problem with that-- but I've seen as the "team" grows larger the service to each client typically declines.

Honestly, that's exactly why I like the guy who sold us the place.

He did a great job, and the reality is although he made money, it wasn't his "bread and butter" vs commercial.

There is one woman who I see who works with certain houses in our area that seems to have a good success rate. I may call her just to ask her opinion and see where that leads.

Yes, we can wait, but if I haven't mentioned it, I can be **** retentive LMAO.

 

[Sigarms]

In my experience, it's the same when buying an HVAC system. Call multiple companies, schedule a meeting with them, and listen to what they have to offer. Thank them for their time, and tell them that you will think about what they said. Then have another meeting with another company to see what they say. In my experience, one of them will stand out as the best choice.

If you are serious about changing out your HVAC system, I can tell you for a fact that you can look at 5 different quotes, and generally the more detailed one will cost you more money LOL

That's not a bad thing, but some GOOD contractors just don't know how to communicate, particularly on a written proposal.

I don't normally deal with homeowners, but the very few times I do, I get the job because I offer the best advice IMO, even though my quote isn't the lowest.

Going off the appraisers "rule of thumb", we will greatly recoup our money on what we paid for the place, the question becomes how much more and how much more should we invest, if anything.

But yes, even if it's 5 years from now, it would make sense for the opportunity to see a potential customer is worth a couple hours of your "free time" (not really free, question becomes how busy you are doing real work to get to the "free advice" IMO).

One reason why my wife gets upset at me for answering my phone between 0500 and 21:00 (I'm in bed by that time and generally asleep 15 mintues later LOL). That said, the pro is I set my own schedule and and don't work in a office 9-5)

 

[plowhog]

Most people are looking online for a place before talking to a listing agent. If there are a lot of good quality pictures of a property, it's more likely that a buyer will contact the agent.

I would be very very nervous about hiring somebody that doesn't sell a lot of houses every year. If they just sell one a month, or less, then it's either a part time job for that person, or they are not very good at it.

I believe where we differ is whether a team's quantity of home sales can be closely tied to quality of representation. The team approach excels at building quantity of deals-- no disagreement on that.

To handle a growing quantity of deals, more agents get added. But they are not the best agents. The best either are independently successful, or already have their own team. With pressure to get "anyone" that is licensed to handle increasing volumes of deals, that can lead to hiring sub-par agents. A "shining star" agent can typically make much more money on their own-- instead of joining someone else's team and splitting their commission even further. What happens when a team develops weak links?

When I purchased my residence property here in Nevada, it was owned by multiple siblings who inherited it. The property was in a trust. The siblings did not agree about value or even selling. A difficult set of circumstances. Their real estate agent, G**** K***, had 25-30 years experience in RE and had chosen to wind down to only do certain deals, such as past relationships, repeat clients, etc. I would guess she did 6-10 deals per year in the twilight of a successful career.

She was the toughest, most knowledgeable "opponent" I have ever had on the other side of a transaction. Outside of a client's view, some or many RE agents blab confidential information-- even though they should not plus it is an ethics violation. But, getting any tidbits or inside information from her was impossible. Very professional. I now recommend her to others wanting to do deals.

Below is a very good cross-section of buyer habits as published by the National Association of Realtors. Of note is that almost 90% of buyers used a RE agent, but just 7% found that agent after seeing a property online and making an inquiry.

There is no right or wrong here-- plenty of good teams or poor teams, also good individual agents versus poor ones. So making a wise selection is recommended no matter which route you take.

Highlights From the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers

For most home buyers, the purchase of real estate is one of the largest financial transactions they will make.

www.nar.realtor

 

[Sigarms]

To handle a growing quantity of deals, more agents get added. But they are not the best agents. The best either are independently successful, or already have their own team. With pressure to get "anyone" that is licensed to handle increasing volumes of deals, that can lead to hiring sub-par agents. A "shining star" agent can typically make much more money on their own-- instead of joining someone else's team and splitting their commission even further. What happens when a team develops weak links?

I have to laugh, for the last 20 years, I've been explaining to people that the company I work for is no different than McDonalds.

"You know what you're going to get, you just aren't exactly sure how you're going to get it"

The issue is with any business... you have a successful owner who starts the business, but when you grow that business, you have to hire more people. The issue is hiring the same type of people who are likeminded as the owner.

An expression I have always used along with the 20 year Mickie D analogy is "people buy from people, they don't buy from companies".

The hard part is finding the right people when you're buying

 

[EddieWalker]

I had a friend who believed that his mortgage was giving him a bigger tax return, and he would refinance his house every other year to get more back on his taxes. We sat down and did the simple math on what he was paying in interest compared to what he was getting back in taxes, and it wasn't even close. But he refused to believe it and accused me of making up my numbers. Sometimes, people will only believe what they want to believe.

 

[paulsharvey]

We are still working on our old house to get it listed. We are painting all of the interior walls, painting the cabinets, repairing the laminate wood floor (only replacing the damaged planks), and redoing the master bath that had cracked tile. Not trying to upgrade, just make it look clean and move in ready. A large part of the painting is because of the kids...
We do plan to put the absolute cheapest vinyl blinds in, like $11/set from Walmart. I did patch some drywall. We considered replacement cabinet doors/drawer faces, but it was about $900-1200, and the lead time was pretty high (like 60 days).

Our potential buyers will likely be 1 of 2 groups. First time buyer, moving from rental to ownership, and hopefully judging the home based on their current rental. Second buyer would be an investor seeking to rent it out.

 

[Sigarms]

We are still working on our old house to get it listed. We are painting all of the interior walls, painting the cabinets, repairing the laminate wood floor (only replacing the damaged planks), and redoing the master bath that had cracked tile. Not trying to upgrade, just make it look clean and move in ready. A large part of the painting is because of the kids...

Have to laugh. The one house we looked at a month or two ago (first house we looked at since we bought our current home over 20 years ago) was being listed at 420K. 1,900 sq ft with 7 acres, but most of the land really wasn't useable for anything.

Chipped paint on the walls, chipped countertops, and a spare bedroom over the garage that had horrendous carpeting that was stained all over the place as well as having an odd smell.

Apparently the people were still living there, and my wife noted with all the beds they had a LOT of kids, but still...You would think they would be doing exactly what your doing in getting their house ready to sell.

Having been "foster parents" for our local human society will the countless dogs we've had in our home along with our own boys and dad downstairs, our house will definitely need a coat of paint everywhere along with some other things that need to be addressed.

Perhaps it's just me, but when I saw the shape of the inside of this house we looked at, it just seemed like the people didn't care (I'm just talking about not having chips in the paint all over the inside of the house, chips in the countertops along with kind of a rank carpet). I was actually surprised a realtor let it go that way for a showing.

Just looked, house is still on the market, now at 390k. Ironically enough apparent someone was buying it and it fell through of no fault of the seller.

 

[wilso]

We’ve been considering selling our home and have been reading up on different services. I came across 72SOLD reviews and I should say they are mixed. Some people rave about the quick sales, while others mention hidden fees. I’d love to hear more experiences before making any decisions.

 

[paulsharvey]

We’ve been considering selling our home and have been reading up on different services. Some people rave about the quick sales, while others mention hidden fees.

I think what market your in is a big factor on stuff like "staging". I know in some areas, sellers will rent an entire furniture and TV package, and transfer the rental to the new owner. others, an empty blank slate is better

 

[Sigarms]

You know your old when you're familiar with a spam post

 

[Sigarms]

We’ve been considering selling our home and have been reading up on different services. I came across 72SOLD reviews and I should say they are mixed. Some people rave about the quick sales, while others mention hidden fees. I’d love to hear more experiences before making any decisions.

Right now, we own two homes, moving into one and then selling this home.

After it all plays out, I'll let you know how it plays out LOL

Currently it hasn't been fun is all I can say.

 

[paulsharvey]

Right now, we own two homes, moving into one and then selling this home.

After it all plays out, I'll let you know how it plays out LOL

Currently it hasn't been fun is all I can say.

We did the same. One down side, we got maybe a bit lack in getting things done in the old house, and getting it on the market. I think we moved in Sept 2024, and had the old house on the market in April 2025? Thats probably $3,600 we lost in holding costs. At the same time, we avoided doing much at the new house cause we were kinda in a holding pattern till the old one was ready, listed, and sold.

 

[Sigarms]

We did the same. One down side, we got maybe a bit lack in getting things done in the old house, and getting it on the market. I think we moved in Sept 2024, and had the old house on the market in April 2025? Thats probably $3,600 we lost in holding costs. At the same time, we avoided doing much at the new house cause we were kinda in a holding pattern till the old one was ready, listed, and sold.

Our issue isn't really the old house now, but the new house we're renovating. Figure we should be moved in by the end of February.

Complete new wiring and electrical along with new plumbing and HVAC, along with some major gutting. That's not including the earth work we're having being done for the basement access. New gas line was hooked up Monday by the gas company.

On a plus note, the trailer on the property is finally gone (depending on the year of the trailer at least in NC, removing a trailer is interesting). Believe me, due to the interior, it was not worth keeping LOL

I revived my zombie thread from last year due to that spammer without even realizing it. Needless to say, my wife had a change of plans in my "long term" goal to move

I get the fact that when selling a house you need not to go hog wild over redoing it, the issue with us is the price point. Some things need to be done to our current home due to the price point in the market.

 

[Torvy]

Our realtor was adamant that we repaint the whole interior in beige-ish tones and all of that type of stuff. We passed on that. Just painted areas that really needed it.

We focused more on cleaning, tidying, de-cluttering(storing things at new place), etc.

It sold later than it may have, but eventually, the right family bought the place for very close to asking price.

The hassle was my daughter and I having to bounce every time there was a showing.

I like the idea of a 3rd party buying the place and 'flipping' it by doing all of the painting and preparations once you're out...except they all want too big of a cut to make it worth doing.

 

[Sigarms]

Our realtor was adamant that we repaint the whole interior in beige-ish tones and all of that type of stuff. We passed on that. Just painted areas that really needed it.

We focused more on cleaning, tidying, de-cluttering(storing things at new place), etc.

It sold later than it may have, but eventually, the right family bought the place for very close to asking price.

The hassle was my daughter and I having to bounce every time there was a showing.

I like the idea of a 3rd party buying the place and 'flipping' it by doing all of the painting and preparations once you're out...except they all want too big of a cut to make it worth doing.

1 - Painting interior walls a more neutral color

2 - Replacing carpet in basement with LVP flooring

3 - Update kitchen with a finished ceiling (currently it's a drop ceiling very odd) and updated appliances along with some fresh counter tops (not expensive, but our current kitchen we're definitely used to LOL).

We had the house appraised, and the topic was per the price point what should be done, and we really can't argue with those changes.

What's going to be interesting is how we sell the whole property. Currently the home sits on 6 acres, but there is an additional 32 acres that is really your backyard. Current suggestion which makes sense is sell separately, but offer it as a package deal with a total 38 acres.

My neighbor asked about buying some land as it borders his property, and the realtor that found us my wife's home (lol) told me basically I was giving it away at 5K an acre. She also brought up another point that in our county, land can only be subdivided X amount of times. From my experience out back, it you'd have to build at top of the hill, and I wouldn't look at the land for building anything, but it's great for hunting.

Below to give you a better idea of the layout. Everything in within the red is the additional land. Funny, you can see where I mow for shooting LOL

I honestly don't know if this is a selling point, but when we do get snow, we really have the best sledding hill in around town which is right behind the house LOL