In April of this year my wife and I decided that our home in the Boston area exceeded our needs and that we should downsize. Having lived in many areas of the country and having owned numerous homes we were well acquainted with the “services” offered by Realtors and Real Estate Agents. Suffice it to say the idea of paying a third party 6% of the selling price of our home for photographs, a boilerplate description of the property and having the property placed on local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was unappealing to say the least. As we were not under time constraints we decided to attempt to sell the property ourselves.

We consulted with a real estate attorney, did due diligence on the value of our property and sold off excess furniture and other belongings on Craig’s List. We gave the property a thorough cleaning, touched up paint and manicured the grounds. We then took pictures of the interior and exterior with a digital camera. Wishing to convey a professional appearance we purchased a domain name from JIMDO, created a web site and designed a professionally produced “for sale” sign to hang from an E-Z Post yard sign. On June 11th we became a real estate firm focused on the sale of a single property, our own home. The price that we placed on our home was over 10% higher than estimates we found on the familiar online real estate databases.

As we lived on a busy street we felt that the sign would generate interest. We indeed had several inquiries and even an offer, but detected no urgency on the part of the prospective buyers. After about two weeks we began to explore how to have the property placed on the local MLS. A search engine made us aware of Entry Only New England, a flat fee multiple listing service. We contacted Entry Only New England and discovered that for a one time charge of $295 our property would be placed on the MLS. Included in the listing would be our photos, our description of the property and most importantly the price that we decided that we would accept for our home and the amount of commission that we would pay the buyer’s agent. On July 4th we engaged the services of Entry Only New England and our property was listed on the MLS.

Within hours our listing on Entry Only New England was picked up by virtually every real estate firm in Massachusetts. The image that we had created for our home was replicated on the web sites of dozens of realtors. A “full service” realtor would have charged us $40,000 for the identical marketing services and visibility provided by Entry Only New England for $295.

On July 17th we accepted an offer. The offer was from one of the prospects that had previously expressed a casual interest in the property. In our opinion the Entry Only New England MLS listing caused the prospect to buy our property immediately, out of fear that the increased visibility afforded by Entry Only New England would result in a sale to a third party. After a bit of back and forth on price and contract language we sold our home on August 28th.

The selling price of our home was 8% higher than estimates found on the familiar online real estate databases. We paid zero commission as we listed the house with Entry Only New England and dealt directly with the buyer through our attorney. The $40,000 that we saved by using Entry Only New England was more than enough to move us to Hawaii and pay the first year’s lease on a two bedroom condo in Waikiki. We saved the for sale sign and it now hangs on the wall in our Waikiki condo.

Sound to good to be true? Here’s the proof that dreams can come true if you do your FSBO right and use Entry Only New England. – Patrick S.