Saturday, August 11, 2007

For Sale By Owner

Dawn and I have been quite busy the last few weeks preparing our house for sale. It actually took less work than I was anticipating...maybe that's because Dawn was doing it all while I was off flying! Yay for "summer vacation." Now that it's all done, the house is sparkling - and suddenly we don't want to leave! Funny how that works...

We're going to do this For Sale By Owner because, frankly, I can't stomach the thought of paying 6% commission on top of the 3% in taxes, seller's closing costs, etc. The odds aren't great: the experts say that only 20% of FSBO's successfully sell. Of course, those experts are also the ones hoping you'll cut them a 6% commission.... The market is pretty saturated around here, too. There are areas where it seems like every third house is up for sale.

The good news is that we have a great place that's only five years old and in excellent condition, in a nice area - so I think that as long as buyers find it, we'll have someone fall in love with it like we did. And that's where you come in, dear readers. If you know anybody in the PDX area who is in the market for a house (or could be for the right house), I'm asking you to send them the flyer below.

Now even if you're not in the market and don't know anybody who is, this is a great opportunity to snoop in my house, so I know you're going to visit the website listed on the flyer. I'll save you the work of typing it into the address bar! http://home.comcast.net/~sdweigel/. Happy stalking!


PS - Ward mentioned that the above flyer has no address. I wasn't going to make it that easy to stalk me. I will, however, mention that the house is in Vancouver, WA, about a 20 minute drive from the employee lot at PDX. The neighborhood is NE Hazel Dell. If you go to the website and click on Neighborhood Information, you'll see a nifty map of the area.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My wife and I visit Portland and other places in Oregon frequently, and we've considered moving to the area, but we're not looking right now.

A suggestion for the flyer would be to either include the address or at least to have a description of where the house is. Since the post mentions Portland, I spent a few minutes puzzling over the flyer thinking "that's odd, the 205 isn't that close to the I-5 anywhere in Portland, is it?" I finally pulled up Google maps and realized you're in Vancouver WA, and then I remembered seeing that mentioned before in your blog.

The last time we were in Portland, we stayed in Vancouver one night, and it's nice... almost as nice as the "real" Vancouver where we live now! :)

Good luck!

Sam Weigel said...

Heh, this is an edited version of the flyer sans address. I wasn't going to make it that easy for internet stalkers! But you're right, I should at least mention where in Vancouver it is...

Luke said...

I think I need to move out to your neck of the woods -- you can barely buy a studio for that here, much less a whole house (and a gorgeous one at that)!

Good luck!

Unknown said...

Ouch, those taxes and dues! I think I'll stay here in good old, cheap, boring, arid desert Boise.

Yes, the very best of luck!

Aviatrix said...

Very nice. You'd get half a million for it in the other Vancouver.

Hamish said...

Wow -- nice. You could probably pick up a small parking space for $228K around here in the Bay Area :-).

Anonymous said...

Ohhh, makes me cry.

A fantastic house, better than anything I have lived in, and for half to a third of the price it would fetch in my out of the way part of the world..

*sob*

Isreal Ayele said...

So how was the whole 'house for sale' experience? Did you get to sell your house right on time? Are you living in a house that is totally perfect for you right now? Selling your house full of wonderful memories can make you sad at times. But making memories in your new house can be a fun experience!

Tom Pham said...

Of course it is always a dilemma figuring out if you should use a Real Estate agent to sell your house. Especially nowadays when you can publish your house for sale all over the Net for millions to see.