Last summer (2008) I got the crazy idea about selling my house. I bought it with a buddy of mine and we lived there for 3 years instead of renting. With it being 2008 we started talking and decided “Hey, the market is a nightmare right now and if there is any chance we want to sell it before the end of the year we might as well start trying to sell it”
The next day I decide to throw a quick ad up on Craigslist.com just to see if I could get any bites. I got a few “decent” bites, but it seemed like everyone would only come check it out if I knocked $35K off of the asking price.
Screw them!
A few days later, without warning my roommate hears a knock at the door. A couple BEGS him to let them look around the (super messy) house. Keep in mind we didnt have a single sign up in the yard yet…. all we had was an ad on craigslist.
They go in, look around, ask how much we want for it, and pretty much offer just a little below asking price.
We were SUPER EXCITED …….. Until…..
They tell us they want to close in the next 3 weeks
WHAT?!?!
We were just playing around with the idea of selling and all of the sudden I only have 3 weeks to pack and find a place to live…. No Freakin Way!
We decided to go ahead and sign and turn it into an adventure. Find a place in Columbus to live in the next 3 weeks.
I called every lead that I might be interested in and told them I had to move in ASAP!!
Finally I found a place in German Village. The landlord was Super cool and the place was awesome. He told me I could move in and then we could do the paperwork afterwards. The moving company moved all of my stuff into this apartment, and after I finally got in I noticed a lot of issues with the place and the landlord and I kind of fell out of our agreement.
So it was time to move again!
My dog and I ended up moving into my girlfriend’s 400 sq ft apartment in Grandview. It was only supposed to be for a few weeks, but ended up being for 3 months, until I found something to buy (Merion Village / German Village border near the famous Thurman Cafe, as seen on Man vs Food – Best Show on TV).
It was fun telling everyone I was homeless all summer, but the 2 things I learned from this ….
1) Dont rush into finding a place, especially in a buyers market
2) Craigslist can sell a house SUPER FAST!
Do not forget to post your deals on craigslist, backpage, kijiji, oodle, and MyNextRehab. You never know who will be looking online and when. I recommend craigslist every day and the others once per week. In medium to big markets your craigslist real estate ad will disappear in a matter of hours. In Columbus there are about 400 real estate postings on craigslist every day (2 years ago it was about 90).
The other services are more search engine friendly, and have their own following. With these other services make sure you put your keywords in the header. (keywords are what you expect house buyers to type into Google when looking for a house). In the headers of my backpage ads I like to put “Columbus Real Estate Investment Property”.
The best thing is that all of these services are free!
Get out there and start selling!
Shawn Wollenberg
PS – Post your wholesale deals on myNextRehab.com and I will email them out to the VIP Investors Club members in your area (no Cost)
MyNextRehab - Real Estate Investing 