Nov 26 2007
1. I have control.
2. I choose the package.
3. I can monitor views/matches for my home.
4. My property appears on Buy Owner’s high-traffic Website.
5. I get professional photographs.
6. The writers create quality descriptions.
7. Buyers call me directly.
8. Referrals for mortgages, titles, attorneys.
9. Nationwide marketing that points people to my ad, in a way I couldn’t.
10. Successful history. (They worked for me before.)
Oct 08 2007
I’ve spent a lot of time here posting about disappointments I’ve had with FSBO companies. Today, I want to tell you about the company that met all my expectations and then some: Buy Owner. A while ago, I posted about the things to look for in a FSBO company: Buy Owner provided every one. I have not a single complaint about their service.
In addition to quality photos and text, I was looking for: attention to professionalism, a website with a large readership, ads that bring buyers to me, available customer service and assistance with getting the right buyers. Again, Buy Owner did all these things, too.
SUPERIOR PHOTOS/DESCRIPTIONS
If you use a good FSBO company, you should be getting assistance with marketing your home–including stunning photographs and great descriptions. Let’s face it, you’re not a photographer. I know I’m not. So why would I trust myself to take the best photographs? Buy Owner sent over professional photographers to take showcase-worthy pictures. The same goes for descriptions. Ok, so maybe I have some writing ability. But not everyone does. Buy Owner had their professional writing staff create my properties description. Not just four lines of text saying “great view”, they wrote a multi-paragraphed indepth description of my property.
VIRTUAL TOURS
The photographers go through these pictures with you, including virtual tours, to make sure you’re happy. Buy Owner also uses professional writers to create clear, feature-filled descriptions of properties. The rep I met with took very detailed notes about every aspect of my property-from the floors in my kitchen to what shopping malls were nearby.
EXCELLENT WEBSITE
Plus, Buy Owner’s website is the best I know of. Their marketing campaign includes national television commercials, frequent billboards and other things to bring millions of people from all over to their site. These visitors look for properties–your property–meaning that the buyers are coming to you. Of course, I still marketed my home, too: that’s the FSBO way. But Buy Owner made everything simpler, easier and better.
ADS THAT BRING BUYERS TO ME
Unlike byowner.com and some other disappointing FSBOs, Buy Owner puts your phone number up with your advertisement. They’re not trying to steal interested parties, getting them to buy a more expensive property like a real estate agent does. They have every reason to make sure you sell YOUR home.
Also, unlike other companies, Buy Owner doesn’t squeeze tons of ads into one spot. Your ad is your ad. You have your own section in the magazine and your own page on the Website. You also won’t see Google ads popping up all over.
AVAILABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE
The people I dealt with at Buy Owner were always helpful and on top of details. If I called with a question or to update something, they got it done right away, helpfully.
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Your ad with Buy Owner contains so much information that it really works to prequalify interested parties. What do I mean? When your advertisement gives tons of quality photos, virtual tours, detailed community information, room dimensions, lengthy descriptions, square footage, features, listed schools in the area and more, the buyer looking at your ad has all the information to know if they’re interested. A simple listing in the newspaper may bring a few calls, but of those few calls, the majority will be calling to find out if they’re interested; not because they’re interested.
TOOLS FOR YOU
Buy Owner has a special section for sellers that gives you statistics on your property’s activity online. It also allows you to print flyers, add photo captions, schedule open houses and more! The seller tools give you control over your advertising.
A really great feature of the seller tools is that you can pause it. Right after I started my ad, I had a family crisis to take care of. I was able to put my advertising on hold until I got back–there’s no time limit at all. When I called Buy Owner to ask them about pausing my ad, they told me I can do it online myself, or they can do it for me. They also said that the property is listed until its sold… so no matter what the real estate market is doing, you’re covered!
STEP BY STEP GUIDANCE
Once I found a buyer for my property, I called Buy Owner. They put me in contact with their transaction team who offered to help write up the contract. As an ex-real estate person, I didn’t really need the help, but hey, why not: One less thing I have to do. They also told me about their title department and how they could assist me with the closing. It was then I realized what they said was true, start to finish, Buy Owner is there to help. I know a lot of people who want to sell their homes FSBO are scared of the contract and title part of the process. Its normal, but you’re not alone. Unlike other services, Buy Owner was there to help, whenever I need them.
From beginning to end, each transaction I had with Buy Owner was smooth and successful. I have no complaints!I highly recommend them, and I always tell my real estate classes this. My students are surprised to hear someone so passionate about a FSBO company, but trust me: this is for real! Don’t take my word for it; try Buy Owner and see for yourself. You too will be saying Thanks, Buy Owner and you’ll be hooked on the FSBO way.
Oct 06 2007
Over at the Real Estate Investing site, this interesting post explains the value of a FSBO, as it’s most simply understood:
“However, many homeowners still find it expensive to sell their property through an agent. And for good reason. Take a $200,000 property. If it is sold through an agent, 6% is $12,000. Thus, many hesitate to part with that amount of money. Nowadays, FSBO (For Sale By Owner) is becoming many of the homeowner’s preferred method of selling their home. This is largely because of the Internet, which continues to grow rapidly.”
Oct 03 2007
Since 1988, Kevin Wood, founder of byowner.com, has been helping homeowners sell their own properties without paying commissions. Today, the site offers many different ways to advertise your home; however, most of them are quite confusing.
There is a fee to post an ad on byowner.com, and with this ad, homeowners can post up to 25 photos (although it seems as if no one actually posts 25 photos… maybe about 10 or so total), and their descriptions of the houses can be 1,000 characters in length. That’s not very long to describe an entire house, especially if it’s a big one. Byowner.com also boasts “NO COMMISIONS EVER.” However, there is a little asterisk with the following sentence attached: “assuming you choose just byowner.com and not the MLS option.” The way this is worded, it sounds as if Byowner.com would offer an MLS option. In reality, they actually spend paragraph after paragraph on another part of the site bashing listing on the local MLS, while promoting Byownermls.com, which is another site where your advertisement is place (free of charge). This is so confusing, is it not? And how would potential buyers know about the buyownermls.com website?
SELLER WOES
Sellers show their own properties and pay for yard signs. Byowner.com also has a plethora of products for sellers to purchase. Some of these include a listing on eBay (costing $199 through byowner.com, when you could do it yourself on eBay for much less), 30-day phone support for $69 (so you have to PAY to speak to a human being regarding YOUR ad that you already paid to place?) and a listing on FSBO.com that costs $79.95 (this site has 5 packages ranging from $69.95 - $499.95, so which package are you getting through byowner.com?). Why pay for an extra ad on eBay, phone support and an extra ad on FSBO.com if you are already paying for a listing on byowner.com that comes with a FREE listing on byownermls.com??
FEATURED PROPERTIES
Once on the main page, there are a few highlighted properties. However, when you click on some of them, some of them are “no longer listed” and some of the property descriptions say “description to follow.” If these properties are so special, why are the ads not completed? And why haven’t new properties been highlighted once the featured properties are sold? How often do they update these? It looks very unprofessional.
BLOG AS FREE ADVERTISING??
Byowner.com has a blog. In this blog, they list properties and their descriptions. Do they do this for every property? How does your property get to be one of the lucky ones on the blog? Is this another FREE advertisement?
BUYER WOES
Byowner.com advertises their hard copy magazine (which is only available in
Also, the advertisements don’t direct you to the seller. As a buyer, you call ByOwner; they refer you to a coach; the coach maybe takes you to the buyer. That destroys the whole point of selling BY OWNER!
TESTIMONIALS
Speaking of testimonials, that page is just weird. Some of the first comments say:
Edide Reso and Donald Clement - Property #20092446 . We sold the house. Thanks byowner! . Please remove from website.
Phyllis James - Property #62798
Did byowner.com forget to take their listings off of the web? And why is Phyllis James’s exact address on the page? If this property sold to someone else, would they really want their new address posted on the Internet for everyone to see?
NO PREQUALIFICATION
Byowner offers no method of prequalifying potential buyers, so you have to wade through any and all calls on your own.
Sep 20 2007
There are a number of FSBO companies out there today, which help sellers with their advertising or other aspects of the process. The ones I’m familiar with are:
ForSalebyOwner.com
Buy Owner
fsbo.com
owners.com
isoldmyhouse.com
byowner.com
There are others, but these are some of the biggest. I’ve worked with each one, and each has strengths and weaknesses. Overall, though, I’ve found one company to be the most helpful… More on that later. Over the next few posts, I am going to highlight the specifics of each company and let you make the decision for yourself. That’s what FSBO is all about: putting you in control.
