How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days -- Fourth Edition

By Bill Effros

Most of what you think you know about selling homes is nonsense.
Real estate industry professionals have worked hard to convince you that selling homes is difficult, and that you can't do it without paying enormous fees. It's easy to sell a home.

You can find a buyer and negotiate the terms in five days.
You can put money in your pocket in eight days.
Legalizing and recording the sale is simple.

This book explains how to sell your home in five days for the highest possible price. Tens of thousands of homeowners have used this 5Day Home Selling Method.
You can use it also.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350952681

Bill Effros

Bill Effros is just an ordinary homeowner. He developed the 5-day method 31 years ago after a realtor advised him to run a desperation sale. Then an old friend convinced Effros to write this book. Since then, tens of thousands of other ordinary homeowners have read this book and sold their homes in 5 days for more money than they could get using any other method.

Book preview

Copyright Ⓒ 1993, 1998, 2007, 2024 by William G. Effros

All Rights reserved. no portion of this book may be reproduced – mechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopying – without written permission of the publisher.

Printed in United States of America

First printing March 2024

The Best Method I’ve Ever Seen

If anyone ever wants to know about the 5Day Method, have them get in touch with me!

I teach real estate at the Wharton School.

I’m a real estate broker.

This is the best method I’ve ever seen for selling a home.

RP

New Hope, Pennsylvania

Disclaimer

I’m an author.

I sell books, not homes.

I’m not a lawyer.

I’m not a broker.

I’m not a financial advisor.

I’m an ordinary homeowner, just like you, who figured out how to sell his home in exactly five days and put the most money possible into his own pocket – and all I’m trying to do is share what I know with you.

Please read this book all the way through, and consider my advice carefully before deciding to try this method.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

Table of Contents

Preface

Nonsense

Introduction

A True Story

Another True Story

The First Review

The 5Day Method

The 5Day Method Day by Day

It Works Every Time

Sounds Too Good

A Better Way

You Pick the Day

It’s Faster

It’s Safer

It’s More Profitable

It’s Not a Trick

No Risk

Is The 5Day Method Risky?

The Broker Pricing Bait & Switch

Broker Listing Contract Risk

Auctioneer Contract Risk

Try the 5Day Method Without Risk

Selling Methods

Free Market Basics

Fixed Prices

Negotiated Prices

Outcry Auctions

Dutch Auctions

The Slow Dutch Auction

Silent Auctions

Round Robin Bidding

Try the 5Day Method First

The Internet

Things Have Changed

Internet Listing

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Internet Privacy

Burners & VoIP

If You List It, They Will Come

Listing

What Your 5Day Listing Should Say

Use My Listing As a Model

Buyers are Lazy

Think Zip

5Day.us

Craigslist

Free FSBO Listings

Social Networking

Paid Classified Advertising

Search Engine Advertising (SEA)

Lawn Signs, Bulletin Boards & Paper Flyers

Buyers

The $100 Bill Analogy

The Buyer Pool

Three Real Buyers

Cash Buyers

Professional Buyers

Heirs & Heiresses

Cash Business Owners

Bitcoin Billionaires

Tear Down Buyers

End-Buyers

Mortgage Buyers

Brokers & Agents

Brokers & Agents

The Broker Conflict of Interest

Help!

Family & Friends

Attorneys

5Day Coaches & Consultants

5Day Brokers & Agents

What Are Brokers Worth?

Stay in Your Comfort Zone

Negotiate Fees

You Are Valuable

Fees are Negotiable

Fixed Fees Not Percentages

Put It In Writing

You’re So Organized!

The Quick Description

The Detailed Description

Directions

You Write the Rules

Cash Discounts

Full Disclosure

Use Large Type

Are You Ready?

Are You Really Ready?

Religious Matters

Bad Times

Lead Time

Furnished or Empty?

Staging

Fixing

Don’t Get Into a Fix

Inspect by a Pro

Inspect it Yourself

When in Doubt, Don’t Fix It

The Fix-It Rule of Thumb

Pricing

Comps

Pricing Nonsense

5Day Pricing is Easy

Magic Numbers

You Can’t Start Too Low

The Calls

Don’t Answer the Phone

Don’t Protect the Broker

Returning Phone Calls

Sample Answering Message

I Remind You Again Of The Rule of 25

Postponed 5Day Sale Options

Final Preparations

Ready

Set

Go

Showtime

Showtime!

Learn How to Work the Room

Greeters

Pace Yourself

Meanies, Soreheads and Weasels

Don’t Be a Weasel

How to Deal With a Meanie

Signs

Remove Distractions

Just Say NO to Bathroom Use

Getting Initial Bids

Select a Closer

Explain the Bidding

Don’t Tap Dance

Round Robin Bidding

Not Like Cold Calling

Some Day My Prince Will Come

The Longest Ten Minutes

Transferring Ownership

Hand Off All Details

Going to Contract

The Settlement

Don’t Cheat

Cheating Doesn’t Pay

What to do …

… If No One Responds

… If No One Bids

… If Someone Wants to Buy It Now?

… If The Bidder Disappears

… If Your Home Is an Oddball

… If You Don’t Think the High Bid is High Enough

… If The Deal Falls Through

… If the Buyer Gets a Low Appraisal

Quick FAQs

The Buyer’s Section

If You Have Never Heard of a 5Day Sale

How to Buy a Home In Five Days

How to Bid

Your Bid is Not Binding

Preemptive Bidding

Keep Your Own Bidders List

Testing Thresholds

Testimonials

Preface

Nonsense

Most of what you think you know about selling homes is nonsense.

Real estate industry professionals have worked hard to convince you that selling homes is difficult, and that you can’t do it without paying enormous fees.

It’s easy to sell a home.

You can find a buyer and negotiate the terms in five days.

You can put money in your pocket in eight days.

Legalizing and recording the sale is simple.

This book explains how to sell your home in five days for the highest possible price.

Tens of thousands of homeowners have used this 5Day Home Selling Method.

You can use it also, at no cost, with no risk.

Introduction

I wrote the first edition of How To Sell Your Home In 5 Days 33 years ago.

My book explains a home selling technique that enables sellers to sell their homes in exactly five days for thousands of dollars more than they can get selling their homes any other way. 

The 5Day Home Selling Method has been used tens of thousands of times.

Previous editions have sold more than 250,000 copies. 

This is the first new edition in 17 years.

The principal difference between this edition and the three previous editions is artificial intelligence (AI), and the availability of free internet advertising which, together, makes it possible for every seller to offer their home to every buyer without using paid advertising, paying a broker, or using a Multiple Listing Service.

Everything you need to know is in this book.

Read it carefully.

This information will put more money into your pocket, whether you ultimately sell your home using the 5Day Method or not.

Bill Effros

Author

A True Story

I stumbled across the 5Day Home Selling Method by accident during the 1989 housing crisis when I couldn’t sell my home.

Originally I had planned to sell my home using the conventional method.

I was hoping to get $255,000.

When I spoke to my real estate broker, he said:

Why don’t you just hold on to it for another six months? The market has to be better by then.

Six months later, the market was worse.

My broker told me he didn’t think I could get $199,500 for my home.

The longer I waited, the more I lost.

Then, he said: Well, I suppose we could run a desperation sale to get rid of it.

So I thought to myself,

Why do I need a broker to run a desperation sale?

I can run a desperation sale all by myself!

Besides, with no broker, I won’t have to pay a 6% fee.

Let me try this.

I thought.

I wonder what a desperation sale looks like.

I thought.

I’ve got nothing to lose.

I thought.

In figuring out how to run my desperation sale, I came up with the basis for the 5Day Method.

If nobody called, and it didn’t work, I’d be embarrassed, but all I would lose would be five days of my time and a couple of hundred dollars worth of newspaper advertising.

But it did work.

I placed ads in local newspapers and in The New York Times offering my home for $199,500 or Best Offer.

I stated in the ads that I would sell my home on Sunday night to the high bidder.

The Times offered a substantial discount for placing a Homes for Sale ad from Wednesday through Sunday (five days).

So I placed all of my ads to run from Wednesday through Sunday.

I ran ads that looked just like the ad on the front cover of this book.

I never imagined that anyone would offer me more for my home than I asked, and I was prepared to take less – much less, if need be.

The way I figured it, I was losing roughly $3,000 a month on taxes, utilities and mortgage expenses.

I had lost $18,000 simply by waiting for six months for the market to improve.

If my broker could run a desperation sale and sell my home for $199,500, I would have to give him a 6% fee – $11,970, so I would net only $187,530 – $67,470 less than I was hoping for – and I would have taken it, just to get rid of my home.

But if, as my broker said, he couldn’t get even $199,500, I knew I would have to take whatever he could get.

I had already lost $18,000 just by waiting for six months. I had no options. I was losing more money every day.

When I drove up to my semi-abandoned home, in pouring rain, at 9:45 on the appointed Saturday morning there were already 25 people milling about in my driveway.

Once I unlocked the door, we all scrambled in, sorted ourselves out, and so began the saga of How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days.

By late Sunday afternoon I had received more than 100 responses, and more than 40 different prospective buyers, along with their families, came to my home during the two days it was open for inspection.

The most serious buyers came back many times.

They could stay as long as they liked, and spend as much time with me as they needed.

They seemed to like that.

By Sunday evening there were a dozen serious bids.

Six were higher than the asking price.

I sold my home for $271,500 – cash – in round robin bidding – $72,000 more than my broker told me I couldn’t get.

Additionally, I paid no brokerage fee, thereby saving another $16,290.

And I spent no more money on taxes, utilities, insurance and mortgage interest.

I had $271,500 in my pocket by the following Wednesday.

My five day desperation sale netted me $88,290 more than I would have received if I had stuck with my broker.

I was greatly relieved.

I thanked my lucky stars.

And I didn’t think much more about it after that.

Another True Story

A few months after my desperation sale I went to my college 25th class reunion. There