Hoboken Mom Condo Living
Planning the long-term & juggling the everyday

I have been helping four Hoboken moms sell their 2BR apartments, and the news has been dire all spring. Inventory is climbing, along with interest rates, the economy is stagnant, and buyers are looking for terrific bargains. They don’t care what properties sold for three months ago -the mantra is “Sellers are being unrealistic.” I don’t know know if it’s because of the Obama $8k first-time buyer tax credit, but I’m starting to see more requests for showings.

What’s a FSBO seller to do? Keep trying. It is going to take a long time to sell your property. See what avenues work best for you and exploit them. For example, I found that all the serious buyers for my 2BR had already been in the building. That meant that I needed to reach out to my neighbors so they could tell their friends about our apartment. I post the postlet.com ads every week on Craigslist, send marketing emails to local realtors, give postcards to neighbors, and of course, direct everyone to the sale websites. I track traffic to those sites and can tell when an approach works (or not).

You also have to be very responsive to your buyers. The relationship with them (and it is a relationship) is a delicate one, and since this is a buyer’s market, it is up to you to reach out to them and respond quickly. You need to find solutions for them for financing, encourage them to make an offer even if they think it is insultingly low (starting the conversation is very important), and generally explain the way real estate transactions work. Hey, I never said selling FSBO was easy!