Sell Your Home Without a Broker: Insider's Advice to Selling Smart, Fast and for Top Dollar

266 Pages·2005·1.18 MB·English

by  Joseph DiBlasi

SSAAVVEE $$$$$$$$ OONN RREEAALL EESSTTAATTEE CCOOMMMMIISSSSIIOONNSS!!
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ens of thousands of for-sale-by-owner homes go on the
market every year.Those who do it right make top dollar
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and save thousands of dollars in real estate commissions.
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own terms.
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Sell Your Home Without a Broker takes you through each YOUR
step in the home-selling process.It cuts through the confusion R
and addresses the important issues of selling your own home.
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own pace.
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Written by a seasoned real estate attorney, Sell Your Home
Without a Broker teaches you how to: E WITHOUT
n Use the Internet n Dodge Pitfalls in the
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to Your Advantage Home-Selling Process
n Write a Powerful n Host an Effective i A BROKER
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J P. D B
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SPHINX® PUBLISHING Real Estate $14.95 U.S.
ANIMPRINTOFSOURCEBOOKS,INC.® $20.95 CAN A L
NAPERVILLE,ILLINOIS ISBN-13: 978-1-57248-529-7 TTORNEY AT AW
www.SphinxLegal.com
ISBN-10: 1-57248-529-9
DIBLASI
C N
P A
U E
Sell
Your Home
Without
a Broker
Insider’s Advice to Selling
Smart, Fast and for Top Dollar
Joseph P. DiBlasi
Attorney at Law
S P
PHINX® UBLISHING
ANIMPRINTOFSOURCEBOOKS,INC.®
NAPERVILLE,ILLINOIS
www.SphinxLegal.com
Copyright © 2005 by Joseph P. DiBlasi
Cover and internal design © 2005 by Sourcebooks, Inc®
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing
from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.®Purchasers of the book are granted a license to use the
forms contained herein for their own personal use. No claim of copyright is made to any offi-
cial government forms reproduced herein. Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered
trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc. Portions of this book were previously published under the
title The Complete Kit to Selling Your Own Home.
First Edition: 2005
Published by: Sphinx®Publishing, An Imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.®
Naperville Office
P.O. Box 4410
Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
630-961-3900
Fax: [phone]
www.sourcebooks.com
www.SphinxLegal.com
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the
subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in
rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assis-
tance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the
American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations
This product is not a substitute for legal advice.
Disclaimer required by Texas statutes.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DiBlasi, Joseph P.
Sell your home without a broker / by Joseph P. DiBlasi.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57248-529-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-57248-529-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. House selling. 2. Real estate business. 3. House selling--United States. 4. Real estate
business--United States. I. Title.
HD1379.D49 2005
643'.120973 2005028436
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
BG 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Laura—
You inspire me, uplift me, and simply amaze me.
Sei un Mito!
and
To my new son Dario—
You have shown me that life truly is a miracle to be treasured.

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to several people for their assistance to me during this
project.
First and foremost, I want to thank my wife, Laura, for her
unyielding love and support. This book was written during the first six
months after our son, Dario, was born. As a result, when not at the
office, I was often typing away, while she—by herself—constantly
attended to him. She not only never complained, but also made sure
that I was comfortable, happy, not hungry, and not too stressed. Laura,
this book is largely due to your strength and sacrifices.
I also want to thank my family (including my family in Italy) and
friends (you know who you are) who offered many words of encour-
agement and support, along with many of their personal experiences
in selling their homes. I am very fortunate to have each of you in my
life. Grazie per tutto!
I would like to thank and acknowledge Mark Harrington, of
Harrington Moving and Storage in Andover, Massachusetts, for the
valuable assistance and great suggestions he gave me for the moving
section in Chapter 10.
Finally, I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to
John Nelson, of Private Properties Realty in North Reading,
Massachusetts, and Anthony Salerno, of Re/Max Real Estate in
Andover, Massachusetts. Both have been my close friends and busi-
ness colleagues for many years. When I informed them of the nature
of the book I was writing, they were both very supportive and gracious.
Moreover, they each provided me with valuable insight from a real
estate broker’s perspective, which has greatly assisted me in the writing
of this book. In the last chapter of this book, I suggest that those
sellers who ultimately are not able to sell their home by themselves
find a broker who is a person first and salesperson second. There are
no better examples of this ideal than John and Anthony.

Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Chapter 1: Why Sell By Owner? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
We Can Handle New Ideas
Extinction of the Middleman
A Little (Too Much) Off the Top
Best Candidates for Selling Their Own Homes
Chapter 2: Before the For Sale Sign
Goes Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Planning the Sale of Your Home
Buying a New Home
Chapter 3: Getting Your Home Ready
for the Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Start Outside
Move Inside
viii Sell Your Home Without a Broker
Time for a Yard Sale
Working with an Attorney
Chapter 4: Marketing Your Home . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Determine Your Price
Design Your Listing Sheet
Chapter 5: Advertising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Describing Your Home
Legally Promoting Your Home
Publishing Your Advertisement
Chapter 6: Showing Your Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The Open House
Advertising Your Open House
Setting the Time of Your Open House
Prepare for the Showing
Conducting the Tour
Duty to Disclose
Following Up
Chapter 7: Arranging the Deal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Purchase and Sale Agreement
Executing the Purchase and Sale Agreement
Chapter 8: Preparing for
a Smooth Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Home Inspection
Buyer Asks for Help with Financing
Buyer Asks for Extensions
Buyer Wants to Move In Before Closing
Handling Title Defects
Final Walk-Through
Contents ix
Chapter 9: The Closing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Necessary Closing Documents
At the Closing Table
Chapter 10: The Move. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Timing Your Move
Avoid Back-to-Back Closings and Moving
Hiring a Mover
Chapter 11: Dealing with
the Hard-to-Sell Home . . . . . . . . . 183
Reasons a Home Does not Sell Quickly
Proactive Selling Tips
Selecting a Full-Commission Broker
Make the Listing Agreement in Your Best Interest
Chapter 12: Tax Planning
for Home Sellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
The 1099-S
1031 Exchanges
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Internet Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234