Gayle Rich-Boxman, Broker, (503)755-2905 www.lakehomesatfishhawk.com

Vernonia Realty

I’ve completed one of these sales this year and when I began, I called a real estate attorney to make sure that I did everything possible to make it a smooth transaction for all involved.  She suggested  that I “write everything down” so that I had a paper trail, should any concerns come up in the future.  Well, that’s what I always try to do, so that was a no-brainer.

What I found out is that I actually came to the point where I was acting as both the buyer’s AND the seller’s agent, so-to-speak, because I was guiding both the buyers and sellers through the paperwork and having to check on things with the sellers start to finish, doubling the amount of communication/work that a buyer’s agent would usually do.  For example, the disclosure forms had to be filled out.  So, I gave them (the sellers) copies of that from RMLS forms. Some owners may not realize that you have to have those filled out at the time you put your property on the market. And you have to be HONEST.  If you’ve experienced a flood for example, or had carpenter ants in the structure of your home, those things need to be mentioned!  I always tell my sellers to be as honest as possible, and if you don’t know the answer then you can put “unknown”, but there will be red flags that’ll go up if you put unknown for three quarters of the questions.

This is just one example of how I walked the sellers through their sale.  After the inspection, there were numerous small items to be repaired.  Since the sellers weren’t fulltime residents of this particular property, I helped out by setting up a roofer for a small repair job.  This is not commonly done by the buyer’s agent. These sellers are also my friends in my small community, so I wanted to do whatever I could to expedite the sale in a timely manner, as well as getting repairs done by someone I could trust that the sellers also felt comfortable with while keeping the cost down.

Because of some of these examples, many realtors won’t bother working with a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), because we only get half or less of the commission if we were to be the listing agent for the sellers instead, AND  you’re still doing almost the same amount of work!