FSBO vs Realtor

[Stibalfamily]

OK, maybe I am feeling a bit crazy but I just realized that if we sell our house through a realtor we will be paying $24,000!!! This is a bit of a sticker shock for me, especially because we need to turn around and pay closing costs on our next house. This seems like a huge sum of money for what they are doing. The average length of time a house is on the market in our area is 11 days. I am wondering if I should try to sell by owner or get my real estate license which costs a couple hundred dollars and 135 hours of schooling. What do you ladies think? I would love some input. At least talk me off the ledge. 

[Liz CA]

Depends on laws in your state and how comfortable you feel you can do the sale. In many states you can involve an attorney before escrow closes so you have everything covered and the buyer cannot come back and sue for some reason. I would hope you can get attorney services for less than $24,000.

[Lecka]

Do you need a license to do FSBO?

I think getting a license seems like a lot of overkill.

But FSBO I think is worth looking into and seeing if it seems like a good option.  

[Lanny]

You are  in a hot market if the average sale is in 11 days. That would interest me in trying FSBO, if your state laws permit that. Also, there is an Intermediate level, which is a company that helps you FSBO your house. I am not sure what they charge for their services, but it is probably far less than $24K USD.  Until recently, we listened to a radio station in Anchorage ("KOOL") and I remember hearing the commercials of one of those companies. I believe it is a nationwide company. "KOOL" no longer "Streams" to international IP addresses, so we can't listen to them now.

I don't know what to suggest you Google for, possibly something like "companies that help sell your house by FSBO" without the quote marks.

Good luck!

[SamanthaCarter]

Well, considering I have the same opinion of realtors as used car salesmen, I’d obviously say give for sale by owner a try and involve an attorney. 

Youll still need to be prepared to give the buyers agent a half commission. 

[Annie G]

With a hot market like that, I’d totally try a FSBO. Even if you don’t get top dollar you’ll save a bundle. What would the benefit be of getting your own license? 

‘What happens if the buyer has an agent? Here the agent charges a 6% commission which is split w a buyer’s agent if there is one. 

 

[ksr5377]

Before we sold our home I would have said to just go with the agent, but having sold a home in a hot market I now think we could have completely handled it and just paid a real estate attorney.  Everything she told us was wrong, mainly because she told us how things normally are, not how things were working in the hot market.  She had urged us to accept a lower offer because our home would not appraise for the higher offers, making it a waste of time.  DH and I ended up going against her advice and choosing one of the higher offer bids, but not the highest, so kind of compromise, and planned on the selling price being whatever we appraised for.  Guess what?  Our home appraised for their offer price!  We now wonder if we couldn't have gotten the highest offer

However, I do think you have to be willing to pay the buyer's agent fees.  Most people are buying with an agent and that could eliminate a lot of potential buyers.  However, that still saves you $12,000.  Provided it works like it does here, where those fees come out of the sale price.

[elegantlion]

We did FSBO back in 2001. At that time, there were FSBO stores where you could buy package deals, which including legal and marketing information. They had information on all the legalities involved, steps in the process, etc. At the time I think it was a couple of hundred dollars. 

We were prepared to give an agent 3% if they brought a client to us. We used a real estate attorney for closing and it was the most painless process of home selling for us. 

There are several things that need to be willing to do: 

1. Schedule tours, have open houses. 

2. Listen to feedback about your home - both good and bad - without taking it personally. 

3. Negotiate the sale price and be active in the negotiating. My ex had been in sales, so he was very comfortable with that part. We actually verbally closed the deal over the phone while we were at a ML Baseball game. 

4. On the other side, I'm the detail oriented person, so I made sure all our paperwork was in order - disclosure forms, inspections, etc, so there could be no legal ramifications. 

We did it in a time where FSBO made sense for us. Now, I wouldn't. We have a stellar real estate agent. Not only does she do all the above, she has all the connections. We've both sold and bought a house with her. While the improvements of the Internet make exposure easier, you still have to be very proactive with the marketing. 

 

 

[Scarlett]

Don't get your RE license to sell your house.  In most places you would still have to work under a broker for 2 years amd unless you are wanting to actually go into the business not worth it. You would also have to advertise it as an agent/owner. That can be a pain.

Selling a house by yourself is not difficult at all IMO. I have done it twice.  And plenty of people drive around and look for FSBO signs hoping to avoid a realtor.  

Also, the abstract companies do all the work, including the title work,  so I have never felt an attorney was necessary.  A simple family home is not usually going to have some complicated legal aspect to it.  And if the buyer is financing it, the mortgage company also does a lot of the work because they want to be sure their investment is score.  

 

[KrissiK]

You do not need a license to FSBO. We did it in 2003, when the RE market here was on fire. It was easy. DH just downloaded the paperwork, the title company did most of the work and it was great. We were out of our house before our new one was finished and had to live in a dumpy mobile home owned by the son of my parents’ friends, but that’s another story.?

That said, houses were flying off the market, buyers were lining up to buy and were’t too picky about the details. I think it’s when people start getting picky about the details is when realtors come in handy. And you won’t know that until you are in the midst of things.

[Joules]

Two houses in our neighborhood have sold with agents in 4 and 11 days.  Someone decided to go FSBO yesterday.  She put it on the Fb group, Zillow, and put signs out.  I’ll let you know how quickly it goes compared to the others!

[LarlaB]

We sold our first home FSBO in a reasonably hot market.  PP mentioned what you need to know- DIY staging and showings as well as negotiating.  We opted NOT to do FSBO with out second home in a different state and very sluggish market and used an agent. Bought our third home from a FSBO seller. ?

The FSBO website will walk you thru it all 100% even with packages and adverts.

 

[Stibalfamily]

Thanks for responding. I don't need a real estate license but I also don't know what I am doing either. It is just an option instead of paying all of that money. I am not looking forward to selling, buying a house and then moving. 

[Ottakee]

The costs of selling take off the sale price are so high.   I don't know how people who move often can afford that.

[milovany]

We've sold by owner a couple of times. You can get a standard sales contract at an office supplies store, which both you and the buyer fill out and all sign.  Then you take it to the title company while the buyers order an inspection and get their financing ducks in a row. The title company basically walked us through the process.  You could also hire a real estate lawyer to do a lot of this for you -- and it will cost you a lot less than $24,000.  We're in the same position as you right now -- we may be selling one of our rentals soon and we're in a hot market, too. We will totally try FSBO first.   

[SamanthaCarter]

When we were shopping for a house we did notice that all if the FSBO homes that we might have been interested in were very much overpriced. So do take that into consideration. Get a good appraisal so that your price is based on something fairly objective. 

[Scarlett]

7 minutes ago, SamanthaCarter said:

When we were shopping for a house we did notice that all if the FSBO homes that we might have been interested in were very much overpriced. So do take that into consideration. Get a good appraisal so that your price is based on something fairly objective. 

I have noticed this at times.  I think people don't examine the market closely enough. I don't even think you need to get an appraisal ....just watch the market near you and be honest with yourself about the condition of your home. 

[I talk to the trees]

If I could have a do-over, I would absolutely choose to do fsbo. Our current realtor is a nightmare, despite being highly recommended. All she has done this far is pressure us into taking a deal that we were quite unhappy with, and it has gone downhill from there. Maybe it’s just this area. Our last realtor here was horrible as well. But I really liked our realtor when we sold our house in NY. I guess it’s a case of 99% of realtors giving the other 1% a bad name! ?

[catz]

I sold by owner once.  I paid like $5000 for a realtor who specializes in FSBO to do the paper work and advise us a little bit with pricing and staging.  We did all the showings and open houses.  The market was really hot at the time and this house was an urban starter home.  So it was pretty easy and we sold over asking price within 2 weeks.  But it would depend on the market and my area as to my comfort level with this.  

[Sneezyone]

On 7/15/2018 at 9:15 AM, elegantlion said:

We did FSBO back in 2001. At that time, there were FSBO stores where you could buy package deals, which including legal and marketing information. They had information on all the legalities involved, steps in the process, etc. At the time I think it was a couple of hundred dollars. 

We were prepared to give an agent 3% if they brought a client to us. We used a real estate attorney for closing and it was the most painless process of home selling for us. 

There are several things that need to be willing to do: 

1. Schedule tours, have open houses. 

2. Listen to feedback about your home - both good and bad - without taking it personally. 

3. Negotiate the sale price and be active in the negotiating. My ex had been in sales, so he was very comfortable with that part. We actually verbally closed the deal over the phone while we were at a ML Baseball game. 

4. On the other side, I'm the detail oriented person, so I made sure all our paperwork was in order - disclosure forms, inspections, etc, so there could be no legal ramifications. 

We did it in a time where FSBO made sense for us. Now, I wouldn't. We have a stellar real estate agent. Not only does she do all the above, she has all the connections. We've both sold and bought a house with her. While the improvements of the Internet make exposure easier, you still have to be very proactive with the marketing. 

 

 

We sold in a hot market for a flat fee and this is how I handled it too. Most buyer agents didn’t even know I wasn’t an agent myself. Our house sold in less than 30 days and we had multiple offers. I’d absolutely do it again in a hot market tho. We paid the 3% customary buyers agent commission too.