FAQs

How does your service work?

Our goal is to give you the tools and the information to be successful at finding a qualified buyer for your home. Since most serious home buyers are using the Internet to help them in their home search, we begin by building a custom web site for the buyers to look at. It will become a point of reference for your marketing campaign. Each home is given it’s own website address. You are then able to bypass our home page and send buyers directly to your page first. By including your web site address on your yard sign, flyers, voicemail message and in your Craigslist ad, you give buyers a place to get more information if they aren’t able to reach you right away.

The web site saves you from cleaning for an hour or two only to hear the potential buyers tell you that they live around the corner and have always wondered what your home looked like on the inside. It allows buyers from out of state to look at the photos of your home on the internet and listen to you give them a “tour” over the phone. When buyers see your website address in your newspaper ad, they’ll look it up on the web and get the facts without the abbreviations. Think about it. When you receive a phone call from a buyer that has seen your website, they already know what your home looks like, where it is located, how much you are asking and they want to see it in person! You have a “pre-screened” interested buyer!

Additionally, we have a list of local and national resources so that you can get assistance with each phase of the transaction. For example, there are inspectors, appraisers, attorneys,real estate consultants, title companies, lenders, and closing companies that will assist home sellers. Many of these companies would be involved no matter if the home was sold by owner or with an agent. The difference is the home seller does the delegating instead of the agent and the home seller saves thousands of dollars for it.

Do I have to have a computer?

Not at all. We have a handfull of customers that don't have computers. Call our office at (509)464-4663 and let us know you are interested in having us create and manage your ad for you.

How long does my ad run for?

Your ad will be active on Spokanebyowner as long as you log in at least once a month and your home is not listed on the MLS outside of our approved MLS affiliate program. There are no additional or monthly fees.

Can I take my own photos?

We strongly reccommend that you use a professional architectural photographer. After years of observing that homes with customer supplied photos didn't sell as quickly or for as much money as homes with professional photos we almost decided not to allow customer supplied photos. Most of our customers are big "do it yourselfers". It was a very difficult decision, especially when a study done by Redifn confirmed our observations. In the end, we decided to reluctantly allow customer supplied photos, and unless you ask us point blank, we won't tell you they look awful and don't show enough of the room and that the windows are over exposed and that they are crooked and dark and have a yellow color cast. Please, please, please, even if you don't use our photographer, if your home is a nice one, especially if it is above "first time homebuyer" range. Use an architectural photographer. (Not a wedding or portrait photographer, their lenses are the exact opposite of what you need) Get someone that has solid experience with architectural photography.
There are a couple of issues with photos that we will act on right away. If you use copyrighted photos that were taken by someone else, say a previous Realtor(R), we will remove those immediately. Ditto if your photos include children. Remember, this is the internet, need we say more?

Does my ad also go on the MLS?

The MLS is a separate optional service available through our affiliate partner Choice Realty (509)951-7653. It's not included with the Premier ($199.95) or Premier + Photo Shoot ($269.95) packages. It is available with the "Flex" package offered through Choice Realty.

Can I advertise with a Flat Fee MLS Service and be on Spokanebyowner?

In order to be on both the MLS and Spokanebyowner, you need to be working with one of our approved affiiliate MLS partners (Choice Realty or Owner Assist Realty). Properties found to be on the MLS with brokerages cannot continue to be advertised on Spokanebyowner. Admin reserves the right to lock these ads.

Why do bedrooms/bathrooms have to be whole numbers?

We want to be compatible with as many services as possible that can accept an XML feed. Some of these services accept only whole numbers, so we opted to use that format.

Why don't you include yard signs in your packages?

Each sign is customized with your contact information and the unique URL that goes to the page for your home. That alone is more work that our office can do. Add in installation and removal and it's best handled by a separate company. See the "Resources" tab to find a sign company that already has our logo on file and understands the URL format used to customize the signs.

My flyer doesn't fit on one page.

The flyer has been tested with and is designed to print on one page with the default settings for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari & Chrome on both a PC and a Mac. If the minimum size of your system font, the margins or header & footer settings in your browser have changed, you may need to adjust them back. Reduce side margins to 1/2 inch if you are having trouble with width issues. If you are having length trouble, reduce the size of your paragraph and don't print the header & footer infomation if you are having trouble with length. Sorry, we don't have the resources to assist you with configuring your specific computer system.

If I archive my ad, how long will it be saved?

Ads that are not active will only be saved on our server for 18 months. You may change the status of your ad at any time during that time back to active.

The map for my address is wrong.

 We use Google Maps for our map data.  You can use this link to edit the information shown on Google Maps: www.google.com/mapmaker