Homeless Man Attempts to Sell Apartment?

Bypass a real estate agent when selling your home to save some cash

By RUTH SAMUELSON

Updated 3:49 PM EST, Tue, Nov 18, 2008

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From the Washington City Paper blog Housing Complex

Friday’s New York Times includes a story about people who choose not to list their homes with real estate agents, and instead do the grunt work themselves to save some cash—six percent of the transaction to be exact. The star of the piece is Hal Ruzal (left), who is seen with a cardboard sign in a glorious slideshow meeting richie rich pedestrians and diners in his meatpacking district neighborhood. Given the classic use of cardboard by random people approaching others on the street, this strikes me as a rather confusing image for potential buyers.

Ruzal is still on the prowl. Fortunately, other strategies have yielded more positive results:

“It’s all common sense,” said Matthew Morse, 46, a magazine editor. He and his wife, Sarah, sold their two-and-a-half-bedroom one-bath co-op in Brooklyn Heights on Pierrepont Street in June.

“We put it on the market at $799,000,” Mr. Morse said. “We didn’t want to go below asking, but we ended up selling it for $737,500. I don’t think a broker would have gotten full asking price, and they would have chopped off 6 percent.”

The couple created a Web site with photos and a floor plan, advertised the apartment on nytimes.com at the beginning of May and then held open houses every weekend. Before each open house, they cleaned their apartment and crammed their children’s toys into closets.