I have come to rely on the crowdsourcing advice from Hidden Tech threads through the years for references to numerous Pioneer Valley professionals and practices, i.e. eliminating house mice. My wife and I are in the throes of selling her remodeled home in Florence and have learned through direct experience some stuff that may serve other for-sale-by-owner list members going forward: 1. *Do not advertise in the Gazette for under $100*. That's the starting range for a display add in the open house section of the weekend edition. Otherwise you're looking at your own buried FSBO oblivion under rustified BBQs. Also, you'll need to phone this this in during business hours. Such listings can't be completed through the Gazette.net interface. 2. *Get on the MLS through a Flat Fee Listing Broker*. The MLS Listing is consumed across the virtual realty universe (realtor.com, zillow, etc.) To me the wider distribution is worth the trade-off of needing to cut-in the buyer's broker. Also, I found no correlation between cost and quality. Lisa Berry Properties in Merrimack Valley region was much more responsive than the Better Business Bureau seal of approval for Buyself.com at three times the price. 3. *Get an appraisal BEFORE you list*. The appraisal is a credible way to assess not only the market value but the financing threshold for your property. As you'll learn the estimation formulas for the virtual sites are more "over-the-map" than the other comparables your would-be-buyers are considering. There will be other bumps along the way but I hope I answered some dormant questions for list members considering whether to sell their own houses. Marc North Hadley -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20160819/01225b8d/attachment.html