What is the process of selling a home in Texas on your own without a Realtor. A For Sale By Owner type sale.?

Question

Any paperwork. Forms? etc?

Answer 1

I would get a Realtor, the headache is not worth the money you will save. They know the laws, they can advertise to more people. There is alot of paperwork involved and with no experience you could end up sorry in the end.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

A licensed Realtor is required by Texas law to use the promulgated TREC (Texas Real Estate Commission) forms, but someone who is selling their own home can write it up on the back of a Whataburger wrapper if they want. You can also put in whatever kind of verbage you want. Someone representing you, or helping you would be practicing law to write up their own verbage,

You are still responsible for all the disclosure requirments that Realtors walk you through. That's also covered by the TREC forms.

If you do want to be your own listing agent, here's what I'd suggest.

1 - Put your home # on the Do Not Call Registry. That way, even though you have a For Sale By Owner sign in the yard, no agent can call you to try to list your house. It would result in an $11,000 fine if you turned them in (that's for the first offense). Don't list your house with an agent who doesn't understand this law. There are probably other important laws they don't understand either. Keep in mind though, you are the listing agent. Most buyers are represented by Realtors. We can, and will call to see if we can show your listing, and if you will offer a cooperative commission - if this buyer does not like the house, we still cannot use this as an opportunity to try to solicit a listing.

2 - Interview a few agents. We will help you set your price. We don't do this out of the kindness of our hearts - over 75% of FSBO's end up listing with an agent eventually. You will already know who you'll go to if you're one.

3 - If you end up finding a buyer yourself, and agree to basic price, before putting it to paper, call one of us and we can put it together for you. We can make sure nobody does anything wrong - always try to stay out of court. And we can eliminate most of the risk of putting your house under contract (taking it off the market) and then maybe not closing. This can be done for less than the typical commission of a listing. I do it for 2-3 %, depending on the price of the house and if I can then be your buyer's agent to buy another.

The last thing I'd say to you is this. Do not let someone talk you into selling on a contract for deed, lease purchase, lease option, "subject to", or anything that requires you to put title in the name of a trust. Sell for cash or to someone who is getting a new loan.

Good luck in your home sale!!

Answer 4

Selling A House In Texas