Tuesday September 21, 2010
Every house has a story.
That story can sell the house and nobody tells it better than the owner.
“Tell It and Sell It,” a new section of ForSaleByOwner.com, helps sellers turn stories into sales.
In today’s slow real estate market, it takes imagination to get buyers’ attention. And once you’ve got their attention, home sellers need to know how to engage buyers with the key selling points of their properties. Tell It and Sell It equips homeowners with case studies, checklists, tips, tactics and resources for telling and selling houses with unique stories, including:
• “Green” houses with energy-efficient features
• Live-work spaces perfect for home-based businesses
• Sears houses that represent a bungalow-sized bit of Americana
• Vacation homes with features like piers and family-friendly amenities
• “Not so big” houses that reflect today’s preferences for modest space, well designed
What’s the story behind the one-bedroom, energy-independent house a mile from the beaten path and 45 minutes from tiny Bisbee, Arizona? Susan Taylor built the house a decade ago when she moved to the area to help care for her aging parents. She sunk her savings into the house – quite literally, when it came to drilling 1,000 feet below the mesquite to hit the water table. Craving independence, she designed the house to be energy self-supporting. It’s completely solar-powered, unconnected to the power grid.
Now, Taylor wants to travel. Through ForSaleByOwner.com, she sold the little casita to a like-minded couple. Even as they add to its 400-square feet, they intend to keep it energy self-supporting. In November, when the casita becomes theirs, they will start writing the next chapter of its story.
“You are the best teller of your house’s story,” said Joanne Cleaver, senior content producer of ForSaleByOwner.com. “Nobody is more invested in the history, features and unique functions of your house than you. A unique story intrigues buyers, and that sets your house apart from the competition.”
ForSaleByOwner.com is the perfect venue for showcasing houses that don’t fit in the cookie-cutter mold of standard real estate listings, told by agents who repeat the same tired tactics when trying to sell every listing. At ForSaleByOwner.com, sellers get plenty of space for describing their houses and can upload lots of photos to tell their stories with pictures.
About ForSaleByOwner.com
ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation’s leading “by owner” real estate website. Since 1999, ForSaleByOwner.com has saved home sellers more than one billion dollars by coaching and equipping them with information, tools and services that enable them to buy and sell houses directly.
By selling directly, homeowners can recoup more of their home equity by controlling transaction fees. The company offers a wide range of listing packages at varying prices that provide advertising, information, tools and resources to empower people to sell their homes themselves.
A homeowner selling a $300,000 home through a real estate agent would be charged a 6% commission and pay approximately $18,000, plus additional fees. ForSaleByOwner.com was acquired in 2006 by Tribune Interactive and is based in Chicago.
Email your story to socialprofiles@forsalebyowner.com
