What's better, FSBO or going with a realtor and paying mad fees?

Question

We're trying to sell our house, but the realtor wants to charge us $10,000 for his services. So if we break even on what we owe for our house (which we probably will) we'll actually be in the hole $10,000. !!!!! We have a year to sell the house and then MUST move. HELP!!

Answer 1

You can try it by FSBO for a few months and see what kind of traffic you get. You might get lucky. If not, there's plenty of time to hire an agent after you've tried it. I wouldn't try more than three months, though, especially during the summer buying traffic. By then, you should have a good idea of what kind of traffic you've had, etc.

Keep in mind, though, that most FSBOs sell for about 16% less than you'd get if a realtor was handling the transaction, since the buyers feel that THEY shouldn't have to pay "top dollar" since you aren't paying commissions fees. Plus, you'd probably have to offer to pay a commission to buyer's agents, anyway, to encourage them to show your home to their clients. Just something to factor in to the costs.

Another option would be to interview several different agents and see if you can hire them for a flat fee to list your property in the MLS system. You wouldn't be getting a "full service" agent, but you'd get that MLS exposure, which can be critical.

Answer 2

Depends on the market in your area. If houses are selling like crazy, you can probably FSBO with no problem.

If it's a sluggish market, the extra resources and experience that an agent has may make the difference between selling and sitting.

Check with other realtors and see if ALL realtors in the area charge that $10K, or if there are others that will work for a percentage of the sales price. I think around here it's 6% - 3% of that goes to the listing agent, 3% goes to the buyer's agent.

Answer 3

The others are correct. Basically, you get what you pay for. If the realtor doesn't sell your house, you pay nothing. If he sells it, you pay $10K.

Bear in mind that neither you NOR a realtor will get more than current market value for the property. Even if you DO find a dumb rube who offers you too much for the property, it probably won't pass an appraisal at that value to qualify the buyer for financing.

Surely you can try it on your own. Do NOT spend a lot of money on advertising, such as large newspaper ads. Find the least expensive way to promote the property to buyers, and do search for a 'flat fee MLS' listing, since that will get you into the local MLS and most probably onto realtor.com

If a real estate agent brings you a buyer, expect to pay a three percent commission to the realtor who does the job.

Answer 4

First of all, what kind of skeezy agent asks for 10,000 up front? A normal selling agent will take a 3% commission of the sale price of the house.

Second, if you're going to be 10,000 in the hole it probably means one of two things.
a) You haven't been there long enough to build up equity in the house and now you're upside down. Plus, I'm assuming that if you haven't had time to build up that equity, you've probably been there less than two years, in which case you'd be eaten alive by taxes anyway.If that's the case, see if you can wait until that two year mark to at least avoid the taxes, and hopefully build up the equity.
b)You pulled the equity out of the house for some other purpose. If this is the case, it's like you got the money that you would have gotten upon the sale of the house anyway, just earlier.

Third, unless you're in one of those rare areas where it is actually a seller's market, a real estate agent is the best way to go. Your home would be put into databases for other agents to pull up, and most likely be put in real estate publications. With FSBO, your exposure is very low, and you run the risk of independent parties trying to purchase your home, which would most likely turn into a case of the blind leading the blind. An agent would be able to alleviate the petty arguements which usually ruin deals with FSBOs.Or, if someone with an agent bought your house, you'd still have to pay the agent 3% anway.
Basically, your own agent would be an advocate for you.

Hope I've helped.

Answer 5

Why does that sound like BS? Think about it like this.. you are the one purchasing the home and going "in Debt" by securing a mortgage. The seller is the one who profits from the sale. So who do you think should pay for the services of the proffesional in the transaction? Of course it is the seller, you don't pay anything!! The seller list their home for sale with a Real Estate broker and agrees to pay them a % of the sale their services. The Real Estate broker then puts the home for sale in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and advertises to ALL the other Realtors in the area that the home is for sale and they are willing to share a portion of the commision if another Realtor brings the buyer. As the buyers agent your Realtor is going to collect that agreed upon portion of the shared commision for bringing the seller you.. the buyer! So to answer your question... yes you should hire a Realtor and not it does not cost you anything. Best of luck!

Answer 6

Call other realtors. The rate can usually be negotiated.

If you live in an area where homes are moving quickly, FSBO might work out. It really depends on you. If homes are sluggish, consider a realtor, they have the experience to get your home sold.

Answer 7

If you have a year, and don't mind dealing with phone calls, showing the house and dealing with the details of negotiating and closing, try it yourself.

Go to the book store and get a good book on selling your own home. Contact a local title company or real estate lawyer (whoever normally does closings for your area), they should give you some information you can use for selling your home, including some offer to purchase forms. Also contact a local mortgage broker. They can give you guidelines about prequalified buyers and give you a place to send buyers to make sure they are qualified.

Good luck

Answer 8

In this market priced right sells homes. So if you can price your home lower by eliminating commissions your home will sell itself. You can get your FSBO on the MLS and Realtor.com for a flat fee. Check out http://www.helpmesell.com for more info.