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Home Owners and Sellers,
Like many people, you may have considered selling your home on your own, without using a real estate agent.
Certainly there are benefits to hiring a professional to market and help you sell your home, although it is quite possible to find a buyer entirely on your own. At Home Team AdvantEdge Co., we are dedicated to representing only one client in a transaction. When you wish to sell on your own, without the representation of a professional real estate specialist, we offer a variety of services to "for sale by owner" individuals that can greatly enhance your ability to sell your property without having to "hire" a real estate agent.
There are obviously many reasons why most home sellers enlist the help of a real estate professional. One study by the National Association of Realtors, for example, indicated that nearly 90% of "for sale by owner" properties will actually be listed with a real estate company within two weeks of being on the market. Most home owners have little knowledge of effective home marketing, current housing dynamics, comparative market analyses and selling strategies.
We offer a variety of free services to "for sale by owner" sellers with the hope of being able to contact even more home buyers in the process. We also offer flat fee services for your real estate and marketing needs.
Our goal is to help you sell your property on your own so that we can get in contact with potential home buyers who may be interested in a home other than your own. We want potential home buyers to know about our buyer representation services and we want our current clients to be aware of all the For Sale By Owner properties out there! We also feel that if we are fair and up front with you initially and you decide to list your home with a professional, that you will give us an opportunity to impress you.
Please read our Agency Disclosure Form.
What FREE assistance do we provide?
1 STAGING SERVICE
Having been to thousands of homes and working with hundreds of buyers, we have a distinct perspective on what home buyers look for and what they will be impressed with. The staging service included a complimentary written report at the end of the session. You will have an analyses of the outside (curb appeal) of your home, as well as every room and the basement. You will have suggestions on what to fix, what to remove or add, and what to improve to attract potential buyers. Our staging services have been heralded at the best free service we provide to home owners. Put our knowledge and experience to work for you.
2 HOME TEAM ADVANTEDGE “FOR SALE BY OWNER” SIGN
When putting one’s home on the market, many home owners neglect the first impression of buyer when they purchase a “for sale by owner” sign from a local hard ware store, or worse, make the sign themselves. Since the owner will be asking tens of thousands of dollars for the house, it only makes sense that the “For Sale” sign looks as professional as possible. The sign will serve two purposes: It will be a deterrent for traditional listing agents to contact you and the sign will be the first thing a buyer notices. Make sure that the initial glance looks like you mean business.
3 FSBO RIDER
Your professional sign will have several customizable areas. This will allow you to advertise your home not through an agent, but as a home owner. This rider will drive traffic to www.fsboadvantedge.com which will give the home buyer more information about your home as well as your contact information. This rider is professionally done easy to install and will be an excellent information source for the prospective buyer.
4 OPEN HOUSE RIDER
One of the best ways for a home owner to sell his/her home is through an Open House. Many home buyers drive around town searching for homes that are available to look at without an appointment. The “OPEN HOUSE” rider is in bold red letters, professionally created and easily put up and removed. The rider will allow you to have an easy way to advertise availability of your home during a short period of time.
5 BROCHURE BOX FOR THE SIGN
One of the biggest hesitations of buyer dealing with sellers and real estate agents is making contact without knowing if the home would fit their needs. The simplest way to get the buyer to contact you for a showing is by letting them get the information on their own. A brochure box that is attached to the “For Sale”sign will be a non obtrusive way for buyers to gather information. There are two sizes for the brochure box. One will fit 8x10 flyers and the other will fit Jumbo post cards.
6 “BEATY SHEET”- 8x10 FLYERS
This information will be provided by our mortgage affiliate. The flyer will contain a picture of the house and information pertaining to the house. It will include number of rooms, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, house square footage and other amenities the home owner wants to list.
7 “FSBO LINKS”
As a seller you will want to advertise you home in as many sources of information as possible. We will provide you with a comprehensive list of web sites that advertise “for sale by owner” properties. It is up to you to make arrangements for advertisement with these web sites.
8 HOME SELLING BOOK
We have a library of helpful books when buying or selling your home. We will be happy to lend our books to you so that you can get more education about the process of selling your home. We would like the books returned why you are done so that others may have the benefit of this free service.
9 OPEN HOUSE ADVERTISEMENT
Newspaper ads are the best advertising for your open house. You will receive three day advertisement for your open house in the local newspaper (Worcester Telegram and Gazette and/or Boston Globe). The add will be up to five lines in length and will appear in the Real Estate section on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the week of your open house. The advertisement will also appear in the Open house directory on Sunday. This free service is sponsored by our mortgage affiliate when you choose to utilize our free Open house services.
10 MORTGAGE FLIERS
It is very helpful for buyer to know what their monthly obligation will be when looking at your home. You will receive a breakdown of different financing options which will have monthly payment options with different down payments. Some programs may include, but not limited to, zero down payment, 5% down payment, 10% down with a soft second mortgage to avoid PMI. All information will be based on the sellers’ asking price.
11 OPEN HOUSE
One of our most popular services is the Open House program. It is typically held on Sunday afternoon and hosted with our mortgage affiliate. The mortgage broker will be there to show your home and pre-qualify prospective buyers on site. This will allow any interested party ability to make an offer with confidence. You will be assured that the buyers coming to your home are financially able to purchase. Free pre-approval and Free-credit report will be available to all potential buyers through this open house program. You will receive “open house” direction signs, “Open House” sign, and two hour staffing with a professional mortgage originator.
12 SIGN IN SHEET
Don’t loose track of you potential buyers. We provide a professional sign in sheet that contains valuable information on the buyer. Have all of your customers sign in so that you can follow up at your leisure after the showing. We offer to do this time consuming task to find out what the buyers thought of your home. This will give you information you should be aware of when selling your home.
13 HOME BUYING CD-ROM
Education is key when buying your home. The ideal home purchaser will be well knowledgeable about the process of buying real estate. Providing information on the home buying process will reduce “buyer’s remorse”. Sellers loose valuable marketing time when faced with a home buyer who doesn't’t want to continue with the process of buying the home. We offer free CD-Rom to sellers for their open house.
14 “HOME AND TOWN REPORT”
The seller will be given a report in a binder to use as information on the home and the town during the open house and showings. This report will contain beauty sheet and financial breakdown of the payments based on the asking price. It will also have important phone numbers and facts about the town, school report and list of places of worship and private schools as well as points of interest. This complimentary information package is provided to you by our mortgage affiliate.
15 90 WAYS TO SELL HOME FASTER
Receive 90 different ideas and suggestions to sell you home faster and for the optimum price absolutely free. This informative booklet will supply you with knowledge based on years of experience from real estate professionals who know what works to sell your home.
16 RECOMMENDED PROFESIONAL LIST
Home Team AdvantEdge will share a compiled list of professionals that done great jobs for their past clients and affiliates. After the home inspection the buyer might ask you to take care of home issues. If you choose to address these items, you will need a recommendation for professionals in different fields. We will provide you with our top picks.
17 LEAD PAINT DESCLOSURE FORM
One of the important disclosure documents is a lead paint disclosure form. Massachusetts state law requires this form to be filled out by seller and buyer to the best of their knowledge. As part of our free service, we can provide you with this form to keep for your showings, open houses and as an addendum with your offer to purchase agreement.
18 SELLER DESCLOSURE OF PROPERTY FORM
When selling your home, you can reduce liability and curtail renegotiation after the home inspection by letting prospective buyers know in advance of issues of concern that pertain to your home. We can provide you with a legal and easy to read form for you to fill out for your prospective buyers. You can make it available during home showings and open houses and even utilize the form as an addendum in the offer to purchase contract.
19 UTILITY WORK SHEET
Save time answering the buyers questions and doing multiple researches. Fill out this easy to follow worksheet and make it available during showings and open houses. Keep it by your phone so that you have answers to buyers questions. Items included are your utility providers and costs.
20 ELECTRONIC INTERIOR DIMENSIONING
We will measure each room of your home with an electronic device and provide you with a written account of the size of each room. You can use this information to get new flooring, add valuable information on your Beauty Sheet, or include this in your advertisement on the internet and MLS.
21 NEWSLETTER ADVERTISEMENT
Every month, our clients and customers receive our newsletter full of articles and important information. We will be happy to include information on the sale of your home at our discretion.
22 WEB ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise your home on www.HomeTeamAdvantEdge.com and www.FSBOadvantEdge.com . We will include your home’s description and price as well as your contact information on our web sites. We want to support your efforts in selling your home. You only need one buyer to sell your home. Other buyers who might not be interested in purchasing your property, might be interested in working with us. Advertising your home will give us an opportunity to reach these buyers.
23. INTERNET RESOURCES– including Tips for selling your home without an agent.
Please remember that all of the above programs are totally free and there is absolutely no obligation to continue working with us if you are not completely satisfied!
Please read our privacy statement.
What are the services we provide for a flat fee?
SECURE LOCK BOX
Rental Fee: $10.00
When selling your home, you will have an opportunity to show your property to perspective buyers. At times, home buyers work with an agent. Since you want your perspective buyers to feel as comfortable as possible, you may want the buyer’s agent to show the house. Instead of leaving the house open for several hours, you can choose to utilize a secure lockbox and give out a combination to professionals only. This protects your home from unwanted intruders.
COMPARABLE MARKET ANALYSES
Bound Report : $350.00
COST/BENEFIT ANALYSES
Evaluate should you
remodel/stay or move: $450.00
When a home owner begins to consider whether or not they want to sell the home, they first want to know what the home is worth. The homeowner can do the research him/her self by going to the town hall and looking at recently sold properties, perhaps driving by these homes. Ideally the seller would be able to walk inside the home to see the condition. Unfortunately, many times, it is impossible to get a good perspective of the homes and the market for someone who isn’t involved in real estate on a daily bases. Eventually, the home owner calls a professional real estate agent to give them an idea of the home’s value. These real estate agents offer a free evaluation. Many times theses broker opinion of value are based on the real estate agent’s motivation to get to sell the property instead of what the property is worth. Beware when the agent asks you what you think it is worth. They are gauging their own answer. Home Team AdvantEdge Co. charges a fee and provides unbiased information on the salability and value of your home. You will receive information on what is going on with the market by looking at what is available for sale in the market, what is being sold and what has sold within the last few months. You will receive information about the days on the market, the listed price and the sold price of the property. When you receive this information the most valuable service you will get is the interpretation of the data. Home Team AdvantEdge Co. representative will spend time going over the report and interpreting the data so that it makes sense to you and is relevant to your situation.
If you are not sure whether to move or build on to your existing home, Home Team AdvantEdge Co. has a report that compares the two options by looking at what is the value of your home today, what will be the value of the home after the work is completed and what you can buy for the cost of the project plus the value of your home. The Home Team AdvantEdge representative will sit down with you and explain the information in your report to help you make the best decision for you.
CUSTOM BEAUTY SHEET POSTCARDS
Create Custom Postcards (100 pcs.) $200.00 Additional postcards (Minimum 50pcs.) $1.00 ea
Post Cards, mailed out to neighbors (100 pcs.) (if same design) $150.00
The big question is how does one make his/her advertisement of the house stand out from all the rest? How do you peak the interest of perspective buyers? What is the best way to showcase the finest features of your home? Home Team AdvantEdge Co. Has been utilizing the jumbo postcard method for their Seller clients and are offering this service to For Sale By Owners. Each post card set up is as unique as each home. Through consultation with Home Team AdvantEdge representative, you can determine on which features you wish to focus. We will take photos of the home, information and statistics of the home and create a custom design for your postcard. You can use the postcard in many different ways. We recommend that you place them in the brochure box on the sign so that buyers feel comfortable picking up the information. Give them out at the Open House so that buyers have a memento of the homes’ visit. Send them out to your friends and neighbors. We also offer a service to send out your postcards for you. You can choose to send to a specific area, renters or home owners, depending on the demographics you want to reach. This is one of our most popular services!
MLS ADVERTISEMENT
MLS insertion (for 180 days) $695.00
Virtual Tour $100.00
The Multiple Listing Service has been around for almost as long as a real estate professional. Even as late as a few years back, the public had no access to the MLS unless working with and through an agent. MLS is the single largest information base for properties for sale. Most buyers start and ultimately purchase a home that has been advertised on the multiple listing service. Although buyers who are not working with agents have access to the output of the information, sellers have no way to access the input of the information without a real estate agent. In order to sell you home, you need to get the word out, the easiest and best way for you to do it is by advertising your home on the MLS. The only way at this time to get access to the MLS is to utilize a real estate agent. We offer a flat insertion fee to the consumer. By MLS rules, Home Team AdvantEdge needs to be the contact person and as a home seller, you are required to offer compensation to the real estate agent who brings in the buyer.
Unlike other insertion companies, we will come out to your home, take down all the relevant information and photographs. You can also opt for a virtual tour to showcase your home. When you decide on the MLS advertisement service, all the work is done for you. We file al the paperwork on your behalf. When you choose this service, your home is featured in all web sites MLS properties are advertised such as www.realtor.com .
ADVERTISEMENT
Local area real estate magazines advertising Market price
Many times consumers just to have an opportunity to advertise their home in local real estate magazines. We provide this service on availability bases to our For Sale By Owner customers. Have your home featured in an advertisement that many for sale by owner can not have access to and be able to reach more buyers.
HOME SHOWING
Show the home to prospective buyers
and schedule appointments (per appointment) $75.00
Let’s face it, consumers do not sell real estate for a living. Many do not know what to do and say when showing a home. They are not aware or have a mistaken notion when someone is interested in the home. The do not know how to exaggerate the positives and minimize the negatives. Home Team AdvantEdge Co. offers a service to showcase your home. We will arrange for a showing and accompany buyers on their tour through your home. Many buyers feel uncomfortable looking at a home when the sellers are present and this will give them an opportunity to really feel “at home”. We will point out the best features and attempt to overcome their critiques and objections. We will then follow up with the buyers and ask for insight and feedback to give the seller powerful insight on the selling process.
BOOKING SERVICES
Schedule showings, appointments, walkthroughs, closings $500.00
Most people lead very busy lives, too busy to sit by the phone setting up appointment for showings, walkthroughs, and closings. We offer a service to you that will enable you to go to work knowing that you will not miss any important phone calls from perspective buyers. We will contact you to set up your appointments. Cancel and reschedule any appointments when conflicts arise. We will coordinate walkthrough and closing appointments between all parties.
WRITE OFFER CONTRACT
Prepare Offer to purchase contract (up to 3 documents) $750.00
When you find a buyer who wants to make an offer, what do you do? You can potentially purchase offer documents on line. But how do you make them say what you wish to say? You can have an attorney write your offer document, but that certainly will be costly. We offer a service for a flat fee to sit down with the buyer and fill out the documents, disclosures, and addendums. We will not advice the buyer or the seller on what to offer only to present the buyer and seller with a legal and binding document outlining all the agreed terms. We will present the buyer and the seller with copies of the documents and forward the original to the seller or seller’s attorney.
REVIEW AND NEGOTIATE OFFER CONTRACT
Review the documents and Negotiate on
Offer to Purchase contract only (up to 3 documents) $1,250.00
Put our expertise and experience to work for you! Let us explain the buyer’s wishes and help you respond in a way that makes sense for you and the buyer. We will sit down with you and explain what the buyer is offering for your home. We will then advise you on the best course of action to achieve your objective. Then we will relay your answer to the buyer/buyer’s agent. We will continue to negotiate on your behalf until there is either the meeting of the minds or an amicable resolution can not be reached. You will have a benefit of our decade of experience and education to structure the offer with ideal situation for you.
HOME INSPECTION REPRESENTATION
Representation (up to 3 times) $2,500.00
Once you have a legal, written contract with the buyer to purchase your home, your job is not done. You will still need to negotiate throughout the process. The biggest stumbling block in a transaction can be the Home Inspection and resolving issues that arise after the home inspection. You can choose to hire us to represent you just for this important segment of the transaction. We will attend the Home Inspection, review items of concern with the seller and help the seller negotiate on these items. We will help the seller to coordinate quotes from professionals and create a legal and binding addendum and forward it to attorney(s).
WALK THROUGH $250.00
As the process wraps up, many details can be overlooked and therefore creating delays for the closing. Home Team AdvantEdge will help you create a smooth ending to this transaction by accompanying the buyer to the walk through and address any last minute concerns such as utility transfer and final water reading adjustments.
CLOSING $150.00
The final step is the closing. Many sellers choose not to go to the closing and have the attorney handle any last minute issues. But, if problem arise, it is good to have someone in your corner handling issues that may come up. We offer professional representation at the closing and arrange key transfer to the buyer.
Read on for a few of our helpful tips............
Sale Preparation Checklist for Sellers
OUTSIDE
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Have lawns mowed, edged and green
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All plants healthy and trimmed
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All weeds removed and ground cultivated
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All gate latches working
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Fencing in good repair
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Side yards clean and groomed
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Any mulched areas cleaned and replaced if necessary
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All driveway(s) and walkway(s) clean
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Mailbox in good shape
- Outside lights working and bright
EXTERIOR HOUSE STRUCTURE
- Front door clean with no squeaks
- Door bell working
- Shutters in good shape
- All window trim clean and bright
- All window trim painted or stained
- Garage door in good repair
- Windows clean of dirt and spots: SPARKLING!
HOUSE INTERIOR
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Walls free of hand prints and faded paint
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Wallpaper firmly attached and clean
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All trim clean, especially around doors
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All light bulbs working and very bright
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Light switch plates clean
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Carpets clean and free of spots
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Floors freshly washed and shiny clean
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All plumbing working, no drips or leaks
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All cobwebs in corners, ceilings, and around fixtures cleaned
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Drapes clean and in good condition
- Closets neaten and organize.
KITCHEN
- All appliances in working order
- Lights over range and in oven working
- Oven and range clean, lined with foil if necessary
- Counters clean and clear: less clutter...more spacious
- Floor clean and waxed
- Ceiling free of grease and stains; light fixtures working
BATHROOMS
- Sparkling clean, smelling fresh, towels neat
- Fresh, clean caulking all around
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