Re: helping owners sell
From: Philip Dowds (rphilipdowdsme.com)
Date: Sun, 25 May 2014 08:20:15 -0700 (PDT)
Owners that don’t mind paying the 6% real estate agent fee will certainly want 
to deal with a broker.  On the other hand, a properly maintained candidate 
buyer waiting list of households informed about cohousing in general, and about 
your community in particular, may have some advantages — like, forestalling a 
mismatch between buyer and community, and providing a pool allowing a by-pass 
of the realtor, and thus dodging the realtor’s fee.

The question for the seller becomes, do I believe I’m getting the best possible 
price if I don’t go to market with my offer?  But having maximum profit as the 
one and only criterion for a sale creates risk for both buyer and community, if 
buyer is not really a fit, and internal frictions advance.

I think many of your strategies for attracting good-fit buyers are appropriate 
— but I do not believe that real estate agents make good advocates for 
cohousing, or add much to the process of community-building.

RPD

Cornerstone Cohousing, Cambridge, MA

On May 25, 2014, at 10:30 AM, David Bygott via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
cohousing.org> wrote:

> 
> Most owners will want to sell through an agent, and agents may not appreciate 
> what they see as "interference". Yet from the community's POV it is vital to 
> attract buyers who are interested in cohousing, or have at least heard of it. 
> Things we have tried at Milagro, Tucson, where we still have two beautiful 
> homes for sale, include: 
> - Publicizing availability in every cohousing forum (as I am doing here);
> - Revamping our website to be attractive to potential buyers and featuring 
> the homes prominently, with a box about cohousing beside each ad - for 
> example, see milagrocohousing dot org;
> - Word of mouth - telling friends and relatives about this great opportunity;
> - Keeping our community attractive and tidy, and homes well maintained;
> - Holding "open days" and inviting realtors and the public, with delicious 
> snacks, kids playing happily outside, and our most enthusiastic members 
> giving tours.
> - In cases of 'sale by owner' we can also help by always having someone on 
> hand to show the house to prospective buyers, if owner can't be present.
> 
> The best-laid plans can,and do, go astray, but all we can do is try!
> 
> David Bygott
> Milagro Cohousing, Tucson AZ
> 
> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>> Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 10:52:27 -0700
>> From: John Goldberg <johngoldberg [at] hotmail.com>
>> To: Cohousing dot org Listserv <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>> Subject: [C-L]_ Helping owners sell
>> 
>> I would like to know what other Cohousing communities do to help sellers 
>> when they want to sell their homes.
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