Customer Reviews

How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days: Third Edition

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I hehab houses and finished one TOO nice in a run down area. On the market for six months and had tried everything including a Realtor listing! Everyone liked it but we could get no one in that araa that could qualify for a mortgage.
The 5 day auction raised interest, brought in lots more prospects, and we close the sale next week!!!

While this book is an easy read and has some good information in it, one of the primary concepts the author, Effros, uses to try to get a home sold is the "auction" effect. Basically, WAY underprice the home and hope that several people realize that the price is very low and everybody bids the price up to a reasonable level.

I have seen this work in strong, hot markets. When you're located in slow market in the country where foreclosures and short sales are ruling the day, this method is a waste of time. I've read several other reviews glorifying how it works, but too many buyers have an expectation that the home should be low and so I don't believe this is a viable strategy for the market.

Again, well written book, I just don't think the material is applicable. I actually recommend How to Sell Your Home in Any Market by Loren Keim. Another strong read but better information.

I bought this book in 2003 and used it to sell a rental house. At the time there were 5 or 6 other homes for sale on the same small street. I sold mine in 5 days while the others languished on the market (because they were over-priced) for months. Definitely recommended reading.

I am trying to sell my house and decided to check out Bill's book from my library before signing with a full service realtor. I made sure I had the most recent edition, read through it thoroughly, went to his web site, and read over the recent forum entries. Even though I saw nothing from the Chicago area and nothing of any real positive success stories, I thought I'd give it a try. I followed the book exactly, spent over 650.00 for advertising (newspaper and internet) and had lousy results. It was a waste of money to follow the book for the advertising advice, but if you look at the forum, people are using different methods, such as signs and flyers. Still, I have read of no great results and it seems that Bill's book is out of touch with what is going on in today's market. His book sounds promising, but, in reality, it doesn't work in the current real estate market.

My husband and I decided to try to sell our house based on the 5-day method. We live in Cambridge, MA. It is Spring 2009, the market has cooled but it is still not too bad. Well, we followed the book cover to cover - with an awful result at the end. We advertised in the paper with 0 responses, on craigslist with ~10 responses (craigslist is flooded with real estate ads and frankly, most buyers in MA use agents b/c they have no time to browse craigslist) and we ran around the whole Boston putting fliers up (20 responses).

We had over 70 people visit and 49 people bidding. However, they were all bottom feeders hoping to finally own a home (they could not afford it before). So our bidding ended at a way below the market price - we know b/c we were able to sell it 20% higher later through a regular sale! What a waste of time and energy! I wish I can have my money back for the book - btw, if you check out the forum that the book's author started online - pretty much everyone is failing to sell. I advise not to bother with this - it is a scam - and the author just keeps repeating himself like a broken record now and says to everyone who fails - "I guess you do not want to hear what the market price is for your home".

As a broker, I've tried the principles in this book several times and while it doesn't always work, it's worth a shot. At the very least, you get generate a lot of interest in the property you are trying to auction. 5 days may be a little optimstic to sell a house, but certainly it beats the traditional method of "list and wait".

I think it's great:)! However, my broker made some revision in it. He thinks that it is actually misleading the consumers so he agreed to advertise it with - Home will be sold to the highest "acceptable" bidder. One of the owners felt it's also misleading the public & did not agree for me to proceed with it. However, if I didn't have a license & was a regular public, I would have tried this, just to see how much my home could take, esp. in this market.

In May 2007, I bought the book, read it cover to cover (it's a quick read), and implemented everything Effros recommended. We had our open house in late June, sold it during the round robin that weekend and closed in early August. It is an EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT method that I will use from now on. FYI, there is a website with a forum that is very helpful. The URL is the book's title spelled out dot com.

I had a friend who used this technique and I was amazed how it worked just like the book describes. Flocks of people turned out to see the house. He got a round-robin bidding war going on Sunday night, and he sold his house rapidly, without any unnecessary professional help, and for a good price.

This technique is match made in heaven for the do-it-yourself real estate investor.

Terry Sprouse is author of the book "Fix 'em Up, Rent 'em out: How to Start Your Own Fix-up House and Rental Business in Your Spare Time."

I bought this book last year and I have used it to sell all the homes I buy. I was skeptical at first, but after trying it and seeing how successful it was I recommend it to everyone I know in real estate today. If you really need to sell your house quickly, then you really need to read this book.