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M$10 February 27, 2009 04:29 PM

How can I do a CASH sale of my beautiful 2 bdrm home in the mountainous beauty of Colorado Springs for 155k (the price I paid for it)?

I want to buy a quaint farm home in the countryside to raise chickens, grow veggies and settle down with my elderly parents. Lookin' for a small Christian town with a little country church. My home won the Parade of Homes; I'm lookin' for a simple, basic farm house ideal for simple people.
Any ideas?
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February 28, 2009 12:32 PM
Hello Catsmeow!

CASH sales are commonly referred to as For Sale By Owner or FSBO in the Real Estate industry. FSBO is a growing trend in Real Estate and is becoming a viable and profitable way to sell your home. Here are some considerations.

Here are my thoughts, tips, ideas and loaned experience in the Cash Sale market:

1)
It sounds like you have a very good grasp of the "identiy" of your home. You know that you're looking for someone who is interested in a B&B style home and have already started to imagine what the potential buyer looks like.

This is a GREAT (really great) start to this process.

2)
It is possible to negotiate with Real Estate Brokers in your area. Since you're looking for a new home, they will make money on that purchase if they help you. It's possible in today's market that you could find a discount or hungry Broker in your area that will accept a significant pay-cut (selling for free) and promote your home to other real estate agents.

Consider at least inviting local Realtors to pitch their services to you. They will all meet with you for free to discuss the sale of your home. If nothing else, making a good number of pre-listing meetings in this way lets Realtors know that your home is on the market.

3)
Stage your home for sale.

This doesn't necessarily mean hiring an expensive staging professional. However, de-cluttering, depersonalizing and finishing home repairs can make a huge difference to attracting a buyer and the sale price.

This is a great time to rent a storage unit. The cost of many storage units include a cube van that you can use to move items in and out. Fill the unit with anything that even mildly clutters your home. It is better to have an almost empty home then a nicely decorated home. Remove or replace personal photographs, consider repainting, complete minor repairs, etc. Generally, from now on when people enter your home, you want them to envision themselves living in your home.

4)
The easiest way to attract buyers to a cash / fsbo sale is in your local community. Reach out to your friends, email list, colleagues, etc. Tell them that you're going to sell your house and that you wanted to give them the first opportunity to consider a purchase.

Hold your own wine-and-cheese open house. Invite all of your friends, family, acquaintances, people you meet at the grocery store, etc. At the party, ask for their feedback about your home. What features do they like and what do they think of your list price? Take everything with a grain of salt, but listen.

5)
Contact a local professional architectural photographer. It will cost you about $100 to have photos professionally taken.

Photos are the #1 way that houses are marketed to prospective buyers. Even if you consider yourself a good photographer, it is surprisingly difficult to take photographs that highlight the features of your home.

6)
Compose a clear written description of your home. Focus on the real tangible features. Things like large windows, fireplaces, and location amenities are all examples that you could highlight. In your written description be sure to convey the warm, B&B style that your ideal buyer will be attracted to.

7)
Submit the details (photos, description, amenities, etc) to as many FSBO websites as possible. This will take a bit of time.... but it could pay off in a quick sale or even multiple offers!

These FSBO websites are the most popular and will provide the most exposure:

http://www.fsbo.com/
http://www.forsalebyowner.com/
http://www.owners.com/
http://www.homesbyowner.com/nationalhome.asp
http://www.zillow.com/homes/fsbo/

There are a ton of other options. Find them here:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=FSBO

8)
Create a simple flyer with a few photos, your address, description, price, etc. Post that flyer in local grocery stores, parks, school bulletin boards, etc.

CONCLUSION

I've outlined the start of the CASH sale (for sale by owner) process here. After you attract a buyer, you'll need to negotiate a deal, complete a home inspection and complete a legal purchase agreement. An inexpensive lawyer is the best way to get these things done. For around $1000 - $1500 a Real Estate Lawyer (yellowpages) can easily guide you through these things.

I sincerely hope that this has helped you. Best of luck with the farm house!
Asker's Rating:
• I liked the answer. I've owned 6 houses in my lifetime and never had a mortgage....always paid cash only. I don't believe in being a "servant to the lender"....and drowning in debt.....I have almost always just picked a title company and worked things out through them, saving myself $$$. Thx!


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February 27, 2009 06:02 PM
Since I have not seen or inspected your home, I am not at liberty to say your home is still worth the price you paid for it. It may even be worth more than you paid for it a year ago, as it all depends on the market, where you live, and the supply and demand. Basically, the economy in general today makes it a tough market, yet there is always someone in need of a home. It's all about just finding that one buyer who absolutely would like to live in your home. Since I do not even know when you purchased the home, it would be hard to say as well. You should talk to a licensed real estate agent and get an appraisal on the home first, then have the real estate agent represent you.

There are websites out there that pay cash for homes. You can list it on Craigslist, Oodle, Google Base, Listasaurus, and so forth.

Once you find a buyer, you can have them provide you a cashiers' check or a certified check, which is as good as cash, as it will certainly clear. A wire transfer can also be used. The buyer can save quite a bit of closing costs when you are paying cash for a home.
Source(s):
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_buy_a_home_with_cash


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February 27, 2009 06:03 PM
Try home swap!
A swap would work with both sides agreeing on a price and cutting checks to each other. But the owners can avoid the chance of getting stuck with two mortgages as well as real estate commissions.
Start with Craigslist in different cities!

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February 27, 2009 06:15 PM
Wait two years, then sell.

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February 27, 2009 07:37 PM
That's not how to sell a home for cash. While it's good advice for someone who can wait, I don't get the feeling that this person can wait/wants to wait that long.

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February 27, 2009 07:22 PM
find some drug dealers who need to laundry their money... ?

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February 27, 2009 07:37 PM
This is a M$10 question, and this is the best you've got? Come on... let's help this person out! :-)

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February 27, 2009 07:35 PM
Hi catsmeow,

My first question is: do you need the cash right away? If so, then read on. If not, just list it for $160-165, and see who bites... then offer them a $5-10K discount and see if that sweetens the deal and gets them hooked.

So, you need the cash right away? What you're going to want to do is find an investor who buys houses for cash in your area. Do this by placing an ad in the paper with trigger words like Motivated Seller, Need Cash, Must Sell, etc. These are red flags for investors--they don't want to know how Charming or Beautiful it is--they just want to know you're motivated. Why? Because. People who are motivated are often willing to take much less than the market price. And that's why these investors make money, and have cash to spend on houses.

Once you place an ad and get some calls from these guys (or gals, but I'll refer to the group as guys since that's who most of these people are), get the ball rolling and show them the house. If they like what they see, they'll interview you to find out why you're selling, etc. Work with them. Make them an offer they can't refuse. They're going to play the high-low game, so start out a bit higher than you want to sell it for, and meet in the middle.

These guys have formulas and the good (smart) investors won't pay more than 75 cents on the dollar for a house... so if you want to get $155K for your house, it better be worth at least $206K. If your loan-to-value (LTV) is at 75% or less, you have a fair chance at getting cash fast, at the price you want. If it's anything more, say 80% or above, investors probably won't look at you these days--but it all depends on one thing: your specific market.

How's your local real estate market? Here in my state of California, it's being absolutely destroyed. I'm not familiar with Colorado's market, but that's something to consider, too, if you go this route. The worse the market, the lower LTV you will probably need in order to get your $155K target price. If the investor's able, he might try to create some equity by buying your 2nd mortgage (if you have one) at a discount and creating equity. But that's a whole 'nother post in itself that I won't go into here. Just know that equity can be created if the investor buys the 2nd loan at a discount. Equity can be created by investors buying the 1st at a discount, but that's a little more rare by virtue of the fact that they're in 1st position and first to be paid.

If the investor chooses to extend an offer to purchase, it depends on the investor but the whole deal will probably close in 2-5 days and you'll have cash in hand so you can buy your new place. These guys typically use either their own money, or the have investors of their own, whom they borrow money from or partner with to do deals. They also have relationships with real estate agents, mortgage brokers, etc. so everything generally flows smoothly and quickly because they transact deals on a regular basis.

OK, what else? Oh yes. Newspaper might not yield enough investors. In that case, you'll want to seek them out a different way. Go to your county clerk/recorder's office and search the index for something called an Assignment Deed of Trust. Look for instances where the bank has sold its loan to a private individual--a private investor. Grantor or Assignor will be the Bank, and the Grantee or Assignee will be the person, AKA Joe Bloe. This means that the bank has sold its loan to Joe Bloe, a private investor. He probably has a relationship with someone at the bank and buys notes from time to time as an investment. (I.e., he buys the note at 50% off, meaning he paid $50 but the note's really worth $100).

These guys are often off the radar, very low profile, and have some extra cash lying around looking to be put to work. Get the contact information for these guys either through the Assignment Deed of Trust document itself, or the phone book, or even talking to the clerk/recorder front office people, who often see these investors on a regular basis, then either call or send a letter to them asking if they'd be interested in buying your house at a discount.

The key to remember is that, if you're looking for fast cash, investors don't care how beautiful the house is. Exact opposite. They're looking for average or beat up houses that they can fix up (i.e., add value to) and sell for a profit. Or, they're looking for rental income. In either case, they're only going to buy it if the price is right, and like I said above, that price is generally 75% LTV, or 75 cents on the dollar. Any higher than that, and your chances of getting cash (i.e., a quick sale) go down significantly.

Hope that helps,

Mike

P.S. Good luck.
Source(s):
Experience


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