For Sale By Owner Help: A Listing Package With Reduced Fees

If you are a For Sale By Owner in the State of Washington, and you do not want a traditional 5% or 6% or 7% commission listing with a traditional bricks-and-mortar brokerage, but you want to maximize marketing for your home to the highest qualified buyers who are all using the Internet (so you can get the highest price in the least amount of time), then this is the most powerful way to do that, bar none. I have nothing against any listing agent, but do you need one?

There’s no other service that comes close to what you can do with this For Sale By Owner Package by Chuck Marunde. This offer covers most of the counties as you can see in this map. The dark blue means the NWMLS covers 100% of that county, and light blue means the NWMLS covers the area, but not all Realtors and not all other listings are in the NWMLS. Your listing will be.

Is For Sale By Owner a Good Idea?

This is the equivalent of a For Sale By Owner listing that will be put in the Northwest MLS (NWMLS), which covers all of the west side of the State of Washington. The white counties are not included. What you’re paying for here is much more than just a simple MLS listing that will show up on all real estate agents’ NWMLS data fed public MLS sites, which alone is fantastic since you’ll reach a massive audience of all the potential buyers of all the NWMLS real estate agents, the largest MLS site in Washington. The reality is this: I do more than 99% of all 6% Washington listing agents will do for you, and I do it at a huge discount. I bring far more to the table for you than all those 6% agents as you will see in my full benefits list.

Here’s a 13-point list below of what this $2,500 package buys for you. When you see what you get, and when you realize this is far more than a For Sale By Owner listing posted in the NWMLS by a broker who inputs FSBO’s for a few hundred dollars, you’ll realize there’s no comparison as you’ll see below. Compare this fee to 5% or 6% or 7% of a full commission on your home, and my fee could be 1/10th to 1/30th of what you would pay with a traditional brokerage, depending on your sales price. But before you read these benefits, you might want to watch this video about what it takes to sell a home and how For Sale By Owners leave money on the table, even if they get full price. Learn more about how a for sale by owner works in this video. Many people will be hesitant about buying a FSBO home without a Realtor.

The Ultimate For Sale By Owner Package

1. The advice of a real estate broker with four decades of real estate transaction experience,
2. Including decades as a Realtor,
3. Including 20 years as a real estate lawyer,
4. Author of over 2,200 online articles written for buyers on one of the largest and most powerful real estate blogs in the Northwest,
5. Author of 20 books, including many real estate books written to retirees moving to this region [See all Chuck’s Real Estate Books on Amazon],
6. Publisher of hundreds of videos produced for buyers all over the U.S., including the popular “Buyer Video Series” on the “Living in Sequim” Youtube channel,
7. Number 1 Selling Agent in the Sequim real estate market for 7 consecutive years using the Internet with no traditional advertising [See Proof],
8. And all this experience is on the table for your benefit as a For Sale By Owner. While I will not be acting as your listing broker, nor as your attorney, I have the knowledge and experience to make sure everything is done right.
9. I come to your home and take professional quality digital SLR photographs, which would cost you at least $500 if you hired a professional real estate photographer. If I don’t take the photos, I send a highly qualified professional photographer and pay him myself. This package does not include a 3 dimensional virtual tour. If you want a classy 3D interactive virtual tour, that would be extra. This package does not include a drone video. If you want a drone video because your home has an extraordinary water or beach view, for example, the drone fees are separate because you’ll pay a Registered FAA Drone Pilot.
10. Your listing will be on the best area MLS sites, because it will be included in the NWMLS IDX data feed to all the area real estate agents’ sites. There are over 25,000 agents just in the Seattle market, so your listing will get tremendous online exposure to all of those agents’ buyers and potential buyers. In other words, your listing will show up on thousands of Washington MLS websites.
11. I write an optimized search engine article on my highly ranked SequimBlog.com with a link to the MLS listing, and we get more exposure to highly qualified buyers. To see one out of hundreds of examples of how powerful this real estate blog is in the search engines, do a Google search with the phrase, “Sequim buyers agent” without the quotes and without the apostrophe (which is how buyers type it in the search), and you get these results (which may vary slightly over time): Sequim Buyers Agent Search Results. You’ll see that my sites come up on the first page of Google results in first place, third place, fourth place, fifth place, and at the bottom both Youtube videos are also mine. If you know something about marketing, particularly Internet marketing, you would know that this is extraordinary, and Realtors just don’t have this kind of powerful marketing for their listings. I do. And this is only one phrase of hundreds that buyers search and how they keep finding my online sites, which leads them to me and to your FSBO listing on my site as well as to my article about your home on my blog.
12. My Real Estate Blog, my Youtube Channel, and my Real Estate Books on Amazon, and my MLS site together get hundreds of thousands of potential buyers viewing the listings and articles and videos. Overall, my sites have received millions of unique views over the past years.
13. All of this means you will get more exposure for your home than you can possibly get by simply posting it on Zillow or by paying a Seattle broker to input it in the Northwest MLS, which is not a fraction of what I do for you.
14. You’ll get a free copy of Chuck’s book, The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home. This book is packed with valuable information and is $29.95 on Amazon for the paperback.
15. BONUS: At no additional cost to you, one of the most qualified and experienced Washington mortgage brokers will pre-qualify any potential buyers for your property.

Realize please that sophisticated buyers today are not going to buy a home from a For Sale By Owner without professional representation by a seasoned buyer’s agent. This does not mean you need a listing agent. The higher the price, the more this is true. There will be a buyer’s agent, whether you want one or not, and you will pay a fee to that agent, or the buyer will walk. You might say as many have, “I’m not paying a real estate commission,” but the buyer is not stupid. If they have to pay it, in their mind the commission is added to the purchase price, so you do pay it. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, so don’t second guess me on this. You might as well have a good buyer’s agent and a good marketing package involved in your sale, and that’s why I’m doing this.

No one offers so much for so little money. Why is Chuck Marunde willing to do this? First, Chuck has everything in place and has been successfully marketing to highly qualified buyers moving to Washington for decades. [Learn more about Chuck at Chuck’s Profile 1 or Chuck’s Profile 2 With Video].

Don’t Burn Up Money–Save With Discount Commissions

Second, Chuck charges $2,500.00 up front, which you pay securely online. He will spend an entire day and more collecting your housing information, coming to take photos (or sending a professional real estate photographer to take photos), editing the photos professionally himself, and inputting your listing into the NWMLS, and writing about it on his blog while using SEO (search engine optimization) to connect directly with strong buyers. The balance of what Chuck hopes to earn is a 2.5% commission if and when he brings a buyer. Realize that if another agent brings you a buyer, you will owe that agent 2.5%, but you will not owe me any commission on the listing side as you already paid me a non-fundable $2,500. But if I do bring the buyer and no other agent is involved, I charge you that same 2.5% commission, and I credit you for the $2,500 you already paid me. In this way you pay no more than half a normal commission.

Example: If you sell your home this way, because Chuck brings a qualified buyer or a buyer comes directly to you during the contract, and the sales price is $655,000, a regular 5% commission (2.5% to the listing broker and 2.5% to the selling broker representing the buyer) would be $32,750. If you post your listing on Chuck’s MLS site and Chuck brings a buyer who closes at a price you agree to, in this case the 2.5% commission on $655,000 would only be $16,375, less the $2,500 you paid up front. That’s a savings to you of $16,375. Let’s do one more example at a higher price. If your home sells for $3,200,000, a 5% commission would be $160,000. With my package, your 2.5% commission would be $80,000. That’s an $80,000 savings! Considering all you get here and all Chuck does, this is an extraordinary bargain.

BONUS: There is a big bonus that Chuck brings to the table, and that is all the legal purchase and sale forms and addendums, as well as all the legal disclosures you as a seller must do. In other words, Chuck helps you and the buyer comply with the law and stay out of trouble. The last thing you need is a lawsuit because you didn’t do something you didn’t know you had to. There is no additional charge for all these forms and for Chuck walking you and the buyer through the entire process from offer to closing. In addition, you’ll get updates and the most organized pending status report you’ve ever seen.

To give you an idea of what is involved legally and administratively on any real estate transaction in Washington, here’s an example of a recent one:

This detailed tracking and finely tuned For Sale By Owner Checklist put together by real estate attorney (ret.) Chuck Marunde and Broker and Internet Marketing geek is included.

Are you going to do all this by yourself as a For Sale By Owner? Not likely. It’s taken me a lifetime as a broker and attorney to master all this.

Zillow is Not Your Best Friend. Since a For-Sale-By-Owner cannot list his home himself in the Olympic Listing Service MLS or the larger Northwest MLS that covers almost all listings in Washington, Zillow becomes the default site for listing a For Sale By Owner. Here’s the problem, and there are actually two. First, buyers are not using Zillow to look for For Sale By Owner listings, because that’s not a search term in Zillow listings, at least not in their search drop down box or that is recognized in the standard search field. It turns out Zillow does have For Sale By Owner listings organized, but you actually have to know the URL, and buyers are not so sophisticated. Second, Zillow is set up to sell Zillow advertising to Realtors, and you’ll notice that all For-Sale-By-Owner listings on Zillow push buyers to select one of three Realtors who each pay Zillow to show up next to your For Sale By Owner listing. That’s great, isn’t it? It’s your personal home listing, and Zillow pushes buyers toward Realtors who come knocking at your door. Just great. Realize that Zillow may allow you to list your home on there as a For Sale By Owner, but Zillow is not your best friend. They only do it to collect more money from Realtors. That wasn’t exactly the reason you decided to become a For Sale By Owner, is it? You can still post your home for sale on Zillow for the exposure if you really want to.

Be Wary of Trulia. Trulia does have a search for For Sale By Owner listings that’s not hard to find, but be wary, because Trulia is owned by Zillow, so you’ll see the same three agents with your For Sale By Owner listing on Trulia. You’ll also see Zillow pushing mortgage brokers on your For Sale By Owner listing. I hope you’re beginning to recognize that these services are using your listing to sell subscription services to real estate industry professionals, and they are pushing buyers to hire a buyer’s agent anyway. Trulia is not your friend either.

FSBO Website Listings Are Lousy. You can find a For Sale By Owner website on which homeowners can enter their listings for a fee, but these sites are lousy, don’t do a good job presenting a beautiful home and property, and homeowners do a very poor job of taking photos and writing up the narrative. But there is another very annoying problem with these sites. If you want to reach out to the seller to ask questions, you get a stupid form to complete with only two options: Make an Offer or Schedule a Showing. It doesn’t give you any contact information or name of the owner, so you have to go through a system that dates back about 20 years ago. Dumb. Buyers don’t like these kinds of sites either. If buyers want to find their ideal home, they will use a good public MLS site with hundreds of listings they can filter through, and they will do lots of research on Google.

Sell Your Own Home and Save Giant Real Estate Commissions

Terms and Disclaimer: This FSBO Package is not a listing. If you want your own signage at your home, you are responsible for that, and Chuck does not put a lockbox of any kind on your home. Chuck Marunde does not become your listing broker. This is a package to put your listing in the best and largest MLS in the Washington, and to promote your home with a great presentation as explained in the 13 points. Chuck Marunde will represent the buyer, if no other buyer’s agent is representing the buyer, and if Chuck does represent the buyer, he will do all the paperwork for the buyer. But let’s be clear about representation. You are a For Sale By Owner who has decided to represent yourself and this package is the best way to promote your home in this day of the Internet with advanced technologies that buyers are using on their desktop as well as on their mobile devices. You have chosen not to pay a traditional listing broker, and this method and package does not pay any other buyer’s agent to sell your home. If another buyer’s agent brings a buyer, and you want to work with that buyer, you will owe that other buyer’s agent 2.5%. That would be in addition to your $2,500 for this package. Once you’ve completed the purchase of this package, Chuck will email you a contract that affirms what has been stated here, and which also explains that you will pay a 2.5% fee to Chuck at closing when, and if your homes sells and closes as the result of you or Chuck connecting with a buyer without any other agent being involved. I may bring the buyer directly, or the buyer may find my MLS site or my articles online about your home, or the photos, or the buyer may connect with me through my thousands of articles and hundreds of videos online, and as a result discover your home and buy it. Even if the buyer finds you on Zillow, I will still fulfill my agreement with you by completing all the paperwork and disclosures, and helping you and the buyer get to closing, and you will owe me a 2.5% commission at closing, less the $2,500 you already paid me. This contract has a 6 month time period, and can be renewed by you at no additional fee. If you want the best possible promotion of your home, then purchase this package, and I promise I will do the best job I can possibly do for you, and I know how to do that.

If you’re ready, let’s get your home sold for the highest possible price in the least amount of time. Get off the 6% commission plan and keep tens of thousands of dollars of your own money. Call Chuck Marunde at 360-775-5424.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Real Estate Books
• When is Early Possession Safe for a Home Seller?
• Sequim Real Estate: How do I find a Home in Sequim
• Sequim Real Estate Trilogy for Buyers Moving to Sequim WA
• True Story: Retiree Finds and Buys a Sequim Home