Is it worth it to try selling your house without a realtor?

Question

We are looking to put our house on the market after the first of the year. We live in a very desirable neighborhood, and have had a market analysis done on the house to determine a reasonable asking price. We want to pull every penny we can out of the house, and when we heard what the realtors in our area charge we were a little shocked! I have heard that they do a ton of work behind the scenes, but I have a friend who is a very successful realtor and I feel that in all reality it may not be worth it to pay them the thousands of dollars they require. We live in a small town where houses for sale are really pretty obvious. Any advice?

Answer 1

You really don't need a real estate agent to sell your property. You need to have common sense and be willing to hold open houses and discuss prices and other things with people that want to purchase your house.

There are several For Sale By Owner (FSBO) web sites that you can look up in selling your home yourself.

The main thing about selling your home is the maximum exposure through advertisement. This can be done several ways

#1 Advertise in your local newspaper (to include any open houses you schedule)

#2 Flyers on some part of the property or house that is easily accessible to the public and that they can see from the curb

This flyer should give the sale price, have a picture of the property # of bed and bathrooms, perhaps a few inside shots of the house and it should be in color.

#3 Open house to show the property to potential buyers.

#4 Advertise on the free websites on the internet.

Even though you plan to sell the property yourself you might consider interviewing three real estate agents, tell them the truth you are considering selling the home yourself but you wanted to interview a couple of agents to get their ideas. During the interview they should give you some idea as to the sale price of like properties in your neighborhood.


Now once they have given you what the property should sell for, they were nice enough to spend time with you and help you in getting compts and talking with you.

When you finally make up your mind, please call these 2-3 agents that you interviewed and tell them thanks, but you have decided to sell the property yourself. That is common courtesy and you should extend that courtesy to them.

Clean up the property so it will have good curb appeal. When you drive up to the house ask yourself "Would I purchase this house?" Take care of any possible problems that you know are there but you simply over looked them. Paint inside and outside, cost about $3K increase value about 10K. New carpet might also be in order if it is more than 5 years old.

Take away any clutter that might also be there, that lived in look you have might turn some buyers off. So clean up

Now you should also call a mortgage broker to see if he would be interested in assisting you with open houses. Tell him for his expertise you are willing to give him a list of those individuals that looked at your home, but were not pre-approved.

You would also want this individual to be there for your open houses so set up a schedule that he is able to attend.

This individual should also assist you in finding an escrow closing agent, an appraiser as well as a title company to assist you in your sale.

This person will also be able to assist with any state rules and local laws required to know in selling a house in your area.

Now once you have found a person to purchase your property, draw up a sales contract with the assistance of the mortgage broker. He will get an appraiser to verify the value. He should assist you in opening an escrow closing agent.

If the buyer is not pre-approved your mortgage broker will get the buyer approved and handle the paper work. If he is pre-approved his mortgage person will take care of the rest of the paper work.

Either way the mortgage broker whom ever he might be will take care of the majority of the rest of the transaction.

Don't fall for the real estate agents that will come by and ask if they find a buyer would you give them a commission. Tell them if they find someone their client should pay them.

The reason for this exercise is for you to put the maximum amount of your equity in your pocket as you possible can and not into a real estate agent's pocket. Keep your eye on the mission.

Now about paying off your mortgage, the escrow closing agent will send a letter to your present mortgage company and request a demand of payment indicating how much you currently owe on your mortgage. Your mortgage company will send them a reply with the amount you owe. This will be done on any mortgage you owe if you owe more than one.

The escrow closing agent will pay off any demands and leins they receive. Anything left after all payoffs a check will be written to you the seller.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

Answer 2

I figure that the marketing part of my job is about 1/3 or 1/4 of what I do for people. In the part where I am filling out standard contracts- that can be done (with advice from a lawyer) by you if you can get the forms from your state real estate website. Knowing what data in those blanks would be to your advantage or disadvantage would require someone that specifically knows a lot about the current practice of real estate. The lawyer may know that or may have some other specialty instead. Almost all purchases require a mortgage loan and that would require an appraisal- as long as that goes ok then there would be no problem. But if there are issues a real estate agent may be able to help things work out better for you. There are a few times where a real estate agent can find good comparables that the appraiser may not have found, that help defend the value of the property. Almost all purchases have a clause in them that allow the buyer to have an inspection done and that inspection may result in the buyer requiring certain repairs or adjustments in price. A real estate agent may be able to help things work out better for you and may be able to explain things clearly to you. You would also want to have some strong assurance that the buyer will qualify for any loan and have any assets necessary to fund their personal money they will need for closing. This you may be able to get from the buyer's loan company. It is impossible for me to tell you if any of this will come up- or that the real estate agent you choose will be a good one.

Answer 3

By selling your home yourself you can save allot of money. I was going to sell one of my houses on my own but after I waited for a few client no shows I figured my time was better spent doing what I do best and let the Realtor do what they do best. You will save thousands, but if your losing thousands by time lost hire a Realtor. Regardless if you decide to sell yourself or by Realtor, don't let a buyer lock you up in a contract. Make buyers do all inspections and loan qualifications before signing a contract, and taking your home off the market for 30-45 days of lost time. Or, ask for a non refundable, no excuses deposit to be paid to the title agent. That's how you separate the shoppers from the buyers. Hope this helps,

Answer 4

You can try it on your own. However, be prepared for a buyer to immediately knock that real estate commission off his/her offering price. The buyer knows fully well that you're not paying a brokerage commission, and that buyer wants the commission in his/her pocket just as much as you want it in yours.

Our firm tracks the sale values of properties which are sold by owner, and you'd be amazed at how many of them go for less than they should go for.

Answer 5

Try selling your home yourself first if you are unsuccessful then hire a Realtor. A good place to get a biased opinion of selling your home yourself go to http://www.empireteam.com/fsbo_for_sale_by_owner.php
Good Luck!
RJH