Hi - planning on selling a property (parents’ home) without a realtor. Just cannot bear to give someone $16,000 when I know all the comp prices, can get a MSL for $400, am familiar w/town’s code enforcement policies, and will get a real estate attorney to draft docs/review. I also have a marketing strategy set up (have professional photographer & designer/stager, created home’s own website & fliers, made appealing cosmetic updates, etc. etc.).
For those who are familiar with this sort of thing - wondering if I’m missing something? I don’t know what I don’t know! Thanks so much for any thoughts!
I think as long as you have an attorney handling all your paperwork I would do it. I have looked at maybe a thousand house listings in the past few months. Just make sure you have good quality photos in your listing and you should be fine.
Do the math (make a spreadsheet) calculating your carrying costs (including “pain in the neck” elements which don’t have a monetary cost but an opportunity cost) so you can decide whether an offer below asking is worth accepting. Sometimes a lowball offer is a lowball offer- but sometimes it’s a godsend if it prevents you from having to deal with snow shoveling, heating an empty house, insuring an empty house, etc. especially if it comes with no contingencies or is an all cash offer.
Also- call the homeowners insurer and make sure you are insured for what you think you are (you are showing around a prospective buyer who falls, cracks his head on a countertop).
Good luck! We’ve done this once- got super lucky with the reasonable, ethical, kind buyers everyone dreams about-- we were able to cut them a great deal since there were no realty fees, and the closing was quick and painless…
My only concern would be keeping the listing fresh if the house doesn’t sell right away. The realtors often pay to keep their listings at the top of the housing search engines. Not sure how a private seller would go about that.
Thank you for these tips! I will double check homeowners insurance to ensure it covers people touring house. I’ve done some research on SEO in the past and will delve into that more to see how it might work with a real estate listing. Appreciate it!!
I feel like I’m doing most of the stuff a realtor would in terms of marketing (likely better, from what I’ve seen, lol!) - it’s just that grey area that’s not marketing or the four corners of an attorney-reviewed contract that I’m not sure about. Like, negotating w/buyers, etc. Our town’s use and occupancy requirements for sale are super minimal. So there may be some negotation about the old roof, water heater (I guess?)…?
We sold our house on our own about 15 years ago because we were also confident we knew the market and had a good handle on the comps. Our attorney handled the contract, DH handled negotiations with realtors (it was a newer house so no issues upon inspection).
We paid to get our listing in MLS, noted we were paying 2%/2.5% to buying brokers, took out a few newspaper ads, and held a couple of broker open houses (typically on Tuesdays during the day in Chicago, advertised/noted in MLS). I don’t remember how long it took to sell, but was relatively quick and did not need to take any interim price reductions.
I don’t now what kind of market you are in but the last couple of homes we sold, the realtor did a “coming soon” marketing blitz and then doing an open house the day the listing goes live. It’s super common in our area for homes to sell before they officially hit MLS or the day of. We sold our last house that way.
If you are pricing in the old roof and water heater and considering that in your asking price, you can also try selling “as is.”
I would love to hear a realtor’s perspective on your question. While there may be “less than” realtors it is a profession and good realtors are skilled in ALL aspects and tricks of the trade.
I understand wanting to try and save some costs by doing it yourself. But especially in this current market, maybe having a realtor would get your $16K MORE on the price of your house.
I also agree (as someone currently looking for a home) that the trend now locally is the “coming soon” strategy - by the time a home is actually listed realtors often have a full roster of people lined up ready to look at the house day 1.
The most important issue is taken care of with the lawyer you’ll get.
The next most important consideration for me is the local market. If it’s a market where new listings sell quickly, I think your plan is fine. If it’s a market that moves more slowly, you might be creating more of a time commitment for yourself than you suspect. The longer it’s on the market, the more times you’ll have to talk to interested parties, conduct showings, answer follow-up questions.
As long as you’re either in a fast-selling market and/or you have the free time to give to a slower process, I say go for the FSBO.
I just sold my mom’s house FSBO, but it was a different scenario. Run down house that needed lots of work, buyers approached me, we worked out some details, I hired a real estate attorney, and he took care of the contract and closing. I wasn’t able to travel back and forth to show the house but luckily had a friend in the town who did the showing/letting people in for me.
One thing to think about is taht you won’t necessarily be ‘earning’ the full $16k. Anyone purchasing a FSBO is gonna want a piece of the action.
Having just sold my parent’s house, the RE agent was worth every penny to me. But I’ve also sold a condo FSBO in an earlier life, and it was fun. But by selling FSBO I was able to undercut a couple of similar condo’s also on the market.
When we sold our house 2 decades ago, there were a group of about 7-8 people selling their houses without a realtor at the time in the area. Only one of those owners actually sold on their own. One by one the rest of us ended up using a realtor. We kept tabs on each other even though prior to the sale none of us knew each other. Person who sold without a realtor sold at the cheapest price (looking at commission avoided, the net difference was nominal).
I had our house up for a month selling it ourselves. No one made an offer. Put it up with a realtor (for about 7% higher price) and it sold the first day. But that person backed out because she later had second thoughts about buying an old house (on wish list after her inspection she asked for a warranty “in case the furnace goes” – I told our realtor we were moving into a house we just built with a new funace so there was no way we were taking the old furnace with us). Cut that buyer loose and realtor sold the house again to the next person who came through the house. They closed on the house. To a certain extent, I think its a racket.
When we bought that house, the realtor that we used had a “NO FSBO” license place. I asked her what she had against foosball. LOL
A lot more info is available now to buyers and sellers than was available back then. Not sure what we will do when we sell our current house. We shall see.
Have you interviewed at least one realtor to get their input & suggested offering price ?
If you do, be upfront & ask why you should use a realtor versus handling your way. An experienced, professional should be accustomed to addressing these situations.
I suggest doing this because two relatives just sold their houses & both got more than the the asking price within a day or two after listing. One actually received the premium offer on the day it was listed, while the other had to wait one or two days after listing. Both knew all the comps in their area. Both homes were initially offered at full market price.
The involvement of each of the two different realtors was worth the commission payout because of the way they each orchestrated the sale prior to listing. It was a lot of work that yielded immediate results.
I understand your thought & position. Maybe you can get an experienced realtor for less than the standard 6% commission.
Selling a house can be more work than one might imagine initially.
Good luck.
Parting thought: Lawyers are not sales people; real estate agents are sales pros.
I recently sold my parent’s home to the tenant, no realtor was used. I did get a hold of the CA realtor paperwork to use as a contract & I ended up talking to his loan broker and to the title company people quite a bit more than a normal seller would. We are experienced and comfortable with this. I knew the tenant would just barely qualify, 3% down, so knew we had to be creative. It saved me the hassle of refurbishing a house I was sick of managing and saved us pricey carrying costs, so it was worth it to me.
My only concern would be that you don’t know what you don’t know (as you know and are trying to learn here!) and some questions may arise along the way for which you need input.
I’ve recently heard ads on the radio for a real estate business that costs $3000 to list and sell your house, no matter the price of the house. Don’t know how they deal with the buyer’s agent. The pitch is that is costs the same to sell a house for $400k as it does to sell that same house which is now worth $800k (our market is crazy), so why should the realtor get a 50% increase to do the same job?
One of our neighbors just sold and I think went through that group that buys your house and then sells it after you move. I believe it sold for less than it was originally listed for, but it went very very quickly (like in days). All houses sell quickly here, but this one the people were out and new owners in withing about 2 weeks.
Many buyers view FSBO properties in a negative fashion, while homes for sale by a realtor are thought of as fairly priced and somewhat negotiable on price.
FSBO is good if seller is willing to finance or offer rent to buy terms.
If you use a realtor, try to negotiate commission down to 5% & consider offering the property at a bit higher price to cover the commission.
First, you have to determine if your property is in a hot Seller’s market. If not, then you need an experienced agent for that neighborhood. But please know that commissions are negotiable, and the newer techie type brokerages will negotiate more than old school big brokerages
If you are in a hot market, just make sure you have extremely high quality staging and photographs for FSBO. Homes are sold on the Internet now and it’s all about the photos and description. You don’t have to mention anything about FSBO in the description.
Get it into the MLS if you can because most buyers working with a buying agent are getting an automatic feed set up by their agent. They will see the house pop up in their email and call the agent to see it. The agent will try to dissuade them (because they think it’s going to be too much work).
I sold my first home FSBO and the buyer’s agent was wonderful. That was before Internet listing sites but I lived in an area where a For Sale sign out front brought a lot of interest. Next home was in a complex so I had to get an agent, couldn’t put up a sign😏
And I will sell my current home FSBO if I ever sell it
Just make sure you put Sold As Is in description to avoid a lot of nit picking in negotiations. And don’t get defensive or emotional if an inspection tears things apart.
If I knew I had to advertise to the general public, take photos, hold open houses, negotiate with buyers, etc., I’d probably use a realtor. But, if I knew I could simply alert friends, and neighbors, and likely find buyers quickly, I’d probably FSBO.
A previous acquaintance called all their realtor friends (they had several), and basically told them she could not choose among them, and whoever brings in the successful client, and handles the paperwork, will get 3 or 4% commission. It worked for her. I don’t know the full conditions, whether a lawyer was involved, etc. It was also many years ago, but a “hot” neighborhood at the time.
Another friend used a feature “make me sell”? on Zillow. I’m not sure if that’s even available now, or what it involves, but it sounded easy. They took pictures of the house, and posted. Found a cash buyer, without any need for updates, open houses, staging, etc. Again, it was a popular neighborhood, but different market. They could have also undersold, but I assume they researched comparibles. It is easier to know comparibles when many homes in the neighborhood are similar, and recently sold.
OP likely knows this but for anyone else mulling the process, quality ENHANCED photos are key. It’s a little annoying as a buyer to sometimes walk into a home and lol the pics were filtered to look a little better than actual! But it is what is done now. And when I look at non professional photos on Zillow etc. it is real obvious.
Not just enhanced photos- you need your pickiest, most OCD friend to walk through the house and point out things you no longer see in a house you are familiar with- a wrinkle on a dust ruffle, grimy hand towels in the powder room, a burnt out lightbulb over the dining room table.
Once the photos are taken, something minor (we all know how to buy new hand towels at Marshalls or Home Goods!) looks shabby and screams “unkempt”. For $200 you can put new pot holders, towels, a fancy handsoap dispenser in the bathroom, etc. and give even an old, lived-in house a bit of a sheen when it’s photographed.