This was a proud seller “friend” of mine who spouted the statement that has now become my title. Not only was he overheard saying this once, but every Sunday when I saw him in Sunday School. Not only that, but every time you pass him by you overhear him still proudly proclaiming his good fortune to another hapless listener who got cornered while also on guard duty at the church nursery. Yes, that is correct. We are not discussing worshipping God at the local Church these days. We are proudly boastful of how through Craig’s List we did the impossible and sold our home FSBO with no help from anyone, including a dreaded Realtor.
What is interesting is that this week the paper listed the sale of his home. He sold his lovely home in Athens for $305,000. Did it on Craig’s List I have heard tell!
So I had to look into this. Had to out of curiosity to see if this “friend” is correct. Did he get an all time great deal on the sale of his home? Is the profession where I feed my children, all four of their little mouths, at the expense of home owners who could, nay “should,” according to this “friend” find their buyer without the help of a Realtor!
After look up his home, the one he sold on “Craig’s List,” at the Oconee Tax Assessor’s Office online, I found that his home was worth $342,500. Now if you live in Athens-Clarke, I would say your personal tax appraisal is a bit high. In Oconee, from my experience, it is pretty close to “fair market,” whatever that means now a days. My next step was to do a Current Market Analysis on sold homes in this particular upscale Oconee subdivision. Thanks to the local Athens MLS, I took listing and sales data going back a year from today. What I found was the following;
| Lowest List Price | Highest List Price | Average List Price |
| $359,900 | $429,900 | $399,900 |
| Lowest Selling Price | Highest Selling Price | Average Selling Price |
| $335,000 | $400,000 | $356,667 |
| Lowest Adjusted Price | Highest Adjusted Price | Average Adjusted Price |
| $335,000 | $400,000 | $356,667 |
| Lowest Day on Market | Highest Day on Market | Average Day on Market |
| 74 | 244 | 174 |
Now, if there was the traditional 6% commission for a listed property by a Realtor, the lowest selling price ($335,000) would be reduced to $314,900. The highest and average selling prices would be, after commission, $376,000 and $335,266 respectively. Now with that said, I don’t personally set up listings with my seller clients at a 6% commission. I believe in a Win-Win scenario for all parties. If you are selling, email me and we can talk.
In all, my “friend” got $305,000 for the sale of his home. I think after looking at solds in his subdivision, our local Donald Trump left between $9,900 – $71,000 on the table by not hiring a real estate broker to represent him. Let’s just be fair and take the average. It cost him $25,266 to sell it himself, and we haven’t even touched how long it took him to get a buyer. I have another “friend” who has held an Open House at his FSBO for the past year each and every weekend. Yes, each weekend for a solid year, and is still doing it the old fashioned way with no success.
There are DIY’rs out there and that is fine. I just think that too many times we start out incorrectly with the assumption that if we don’t pay someone to assist us, we make more or net more for ourselves. Many times that is just not reality.
If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years! If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today! On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!
