Kootenay By Owner Sale Services

If you have experienced a successful private sale or purchase and have any advice or tips you are willing to share then we would appreciate hearing from you.

We just ask that you do not use the actual name of the internet listing service you utilized unless of course it was KBOSS!

We Sold! Selling my home by KBOSS.ca has been one of the most interesting and exciting experience I've ever had. I met many interesting people and had several offers to buy --- however most had property to sell first which left me in limbo as we had to sell before we could buy. Keeping the yard looking its best and the house immaculate seemed to make an impression. The right person came along in just 3 weeks giving us close to our asking price without too much negotiating. It was all very simple, I strongly advise anyone wanting to sell and getting great exposure-plus saving the realtor fees to try KBOSS, Darlene was so very helpful.

The process was very simple. We ordered a sign and had a few walk-by enquiries when we were in the yard. The other enquiries were from people seeing the sign and then looking up the website for more details and then calling us for a viewing. We had two viewings of which one made an offer. We negotiated the price and closed the sale. It was that simple.

Dear Darlene,

It is a pleasure to share my story.

We had no idea selling our house on our own would be so easy. Although slightly apprehensive, with over $9000.00 in commission fees to be saved we decided it was worth the try. We went with Kootenay By Owner Sale Services (kboss) to provide us with the advertising we needed. Not only did they have the best prices but Kboss also provided us with things like contracts and feature sheets to hand out to potential buyers. With the option to view our home online we only had calls from people seriously interested. We showed our home only 5 times before we got an offer. After some really quick negotiating, we filled out the contract and from there the bank and the lawyer/notary did all the rest. We are thrilled our house sold and with the money we saved we were able to put that much more equity into our new home. That’s what I call a success story!
Becky

Hi Darlene,

Just a short note to say "Thanks" again for my space on kboss.ca .

The calls which I received were generally in response to my ad in the Townsman or Advertiser, but being able to refer them to your website to view pictures and and a much more informative description of the property, made all the difference in the world.

It's great to have that kind of service available, and it definitely gave potential buyers a good idea of what to look for, before calling me to check it out. It made the selling of my home a much more positive and simpler experience for me than I expected it to be.

Thanks again.
Betty

My own personal success story:

Over the years I have had more than one real estate “for sale by owner” success story but the home I sold in 2004 I remember as being the most challenging. Even though prices seemed to be on the rise there were still a lot of homes on the market so I knew mine really needed to shine.

I took the time to attend several open houses to get a feel for the market. I knew I my home was in a good location and had plenty of square footage but it was quite dated therefore I may have to sacrifice in my price in order to compete with existing homes. Not wanting to sacrifice price I decided it made sense to invest some money into my home to increase its marketability. With a budget of $5000.00 I focused my energy on the main floor. With that I was able to replace most of the existing flooring with brand new laminate. I changed out the bathroom and kitchen facets to something a little more modern, replaced all the dated lighting as well I changed out the bathroom sinks but opted to have the old green bathtub relined instead of replacing it. All rooms were then repainted with the same neutral tone and windows were cleaned inside and out. The lawn was freshly mowed; plantings were weeded as well I filled a couple of large round planters with bright annuals for added curb appeal.

I then hired a professional appraiser (not a realtor) to put a value on my efforts. Having this done professionally can be considered a selling feature as buyers are typically required to provide a recent appraisal when seeking financing you can therefore give them one less expense to deal with.

I set my asking price at $1000.00 above the appraised value (I was advised that adding up to $5000.00 above the appraised value would be considered appropriate). I then placed a professional “for sale by owner” sign in the front yard. This was in fact the same year that my own “for sale by owner” website was nearing completion but because the site was still under construction I decided to move forward anyway and placed a small ad in the local paper providing some descriptive detail, the address, the price, and an invitation to an upcoming open house. I had prepared feature sheets and a list of answers to some of the most frequently asked questions such as monthly utility costs etc.

I had scheduled the open house for the upcoming Saturday morning from 10 AM to 12 noon. To my amazement and sheer delight literally the first couple to enter the home made me an offer of just $5000.00 short of my asking price contingent to a satisfactory inspection. I pondered it for only a moment before accepting. The offer was fair therefore I didn’t feel it necessary to counter. They immediately wrote me a $1000.00 deposit cheque and they arranged for an inspection to take place the very next day. They also arranged for legal counsel to prepare the paperwork. Once prepared I took the documents to a notary, who specialized in real estate, to have my signature witnessed and that was it, done deal!

In summary I believe that the $5000.00 update investment not only increased my property’s value but doing so also made the home much more appealing to prospective buyers making it the cream of the crop as far as my competition was concerned. Also by paying for a professional appraisal both I and the buyers were confident that I had priced it right!

Darlene Lacey