For Sale By Owner

[JD50]

Who's done it? Anyone got any tips?

 

[geecee]

If realtors bring people, be sure to let them know that you are not letting them take the full 6% commission. They are entitled to 3% as the buying half of the transaction. You reserve your 3% to make the deal work, i.e. offering buyers a 3% lower price. I did a FSBO condo apartment in NYC 5-6 years ago, and you'd be surprised how many realtors tried to get away with that. They do not represent you, they represent the buyer.

 

[mshan]

Unless you have a really amazing place, or really amazingly low price, it might be smarter to hire a realtor. You might not get many showings because realtors are not motivated to show your place.

Plus, you don't know what t's you didn't cross, or i's you didn't dot, and perhaps expose yourself to after the sale price adjustment because you didn't do everything properly according to the law.

 

[leeland]

we just got done with a FSBO...we had a realtor for 6 months...then FSBO 6 months and it sold with a realtor contacting us.

We had some local FSBO website for hosting and we purchased a MLS number from a company for another 350 which is how the realtor found us.

The FSBO wasn't too bad, we saved about 7 grand in commission cost to a the broker because we only agreed to 2% commission if something would go to sale.

We got F'd by the buyer who low-balled us, and asked for his closing costs to be paid by us

 

[geecee]

Unless you have a really amazing place, or really amazingly low price, it might be smarter to hire a realtor. You might not get many showings because realtors are not motivated to show your place.

Plus, you don't know what t's you didn't cross, or i's you didn't dot, and perhaps expose yourself to after the sale price adjustment because you didn't do everything properly according to the law.

In this market, unfortunately, mshan might be right.

If you do decide to go it alone, there are some fixed fee realtors (generally a few hundred dollars) who will get your listing up on MLS, Zillow & Trulia-type sites at the very least. Be sure to "pretty" up the place as much as possible. It sounds ridiculous, but take a look at some of those home design mags and try to apply/improve whatever you can, especially those tips that open up a space/make a space look bigger and/or brighter. If you have a photographer friend with a good eye, try and get them to take the pictures of your place for posting/advertising. Also, when you are showing your home, flowers, well-placed candles and/or the smell of fresh baked cookies (on a plate offered to potential buyers) seem corny but are surprisingly effective, and make a place memorable. Presentation often makes a big difference, and details make for good presentation.

 

[datalink7]

we just got done with a FSBO...we had a realtor for 6 months...then FSBO 6 months and it sold with a realtor contacting us.

We had some local FSBO website for hosting and we purchased a MLS number from a company for another 350 which is how the realtor found us.

The FSBO wasn't too bad, we saved about 7 grand in commission cost to a the broker because we only agreed to 2% commission if something would go to sale.

We got F'd by the buyer who low-balled us, and asked for his closing costs to be paid by us

How did you get F'd by the buyer? You aren't obligated to accept his offer.

 

[BoberFett]

Unless you have a really amazing place, or really amazingly low price, it might be smarter to hire a realtor. You might not get many showings because realtors are not motivated to show your place.

Plus, you don't know what t's you didn't cross, or i's you didn't dot, and perhaps expose yourself to after the sale price adjustment because you didn't do everything properly according to the law.

Use a FSBO company. For a few hundred bucks they'll make sure you all the proper disclosures, etc. As far as other realtors showing your place, the buyers realtor probably won't care as long as you pay a decent buyers agent fee. Hell, some might even be more motivated to show it. Put in a 4% buyers agent fee and you'll have them lined up to show it. Beats the 3% they may have gotten out of a 7% split and you still save 2%. Don't pay any fee though, and you'll be lucky to sell at all. You'll have to find the exact buyer completely on your own, and that's a needle in a haystack.

 

[ZickZJ]

Who's done it? Anyone got any tips?

Nope, I sell other peoples stuff.

 

[dud]

Who's done it? Anyone got any tips?

Yes, twice.

Tips ... I've got too many to list here. If I had to choose one it would be it helps NOT to be in too much of a rush nor seem too desperate to sell.

 

[Jeeebus]

We just sold our house to our next door neighbor. Never even listed it - with or without a realtor. I guess if I had to give a tip - be extremely extremely fortunate like we were?

 

[JD50]

Use a FSBO company. For a few hundred bucks they'll make sure you all the proper disclosures, etc. As far as other realtors showing your place, the buyers realtor probably won't care as long as you pay a decent buyers agent fee. Hell, some might even be more motivated to show it. Put in a 4% buyers agent fee and you'll have them lined up to show it. Beats the 3% they may have gotten out of a 7% split and you still save 2%. Don't pay any fee though, and you'll be lucky to sell at all. You'll have to find the exact buyer completely on your own, and that's a needle in a haystack.

Yea, I saw forsalebyowner.com and they have a bunch of packages that include MLS and realtor.com listings. I'll have to see what else I can find. I was gonna offer a 2% realtors fee, might have to bump that up to 3% if no one bites.

I understand that it's a buyers market, but I'd think that realtors are also pretty desperate for commission right now. 2% is better than nothing.

 

[JD50]

We just sold our house to our next door neighbor. Never even listed it - with or without a realtor. I guess if I had to give a tip - be extremely extremely fortunate like we were?

That's how our last sale went 3 years ago. My wife's cousin and her husband were looking to buy a house in the area that we lived, we found out about it the day before we were going to have a realtor list the place. That was awesome.

 

[JD50]

Unless you have a really amazing place, or really amazingly low price, it might be smarter to hire a realtor. You might not get many showings because realtors are not motivated to show your place.

Plus, you don't know what t's you didn't cross, or i's you didn't dot, and perhaps expose yourself to after the sale price adjustment because you didn't do everything properly according to the law.

We can't afford to pay a realtor unfortunately, otherwise we'd much rather go that route.

 

[BoberFett]

Yea, I saw forsalebyowner.com and they have a bunch of packages that include MLS and realtor.com listings. I'll have to see what else I can find. I was gonna offer a 2% realtors fee, might have to bump that up to 3% if no one bites.

I understand that it's a buyers market, but I'd think that realtors are also pretty desperate for commission right now. 2% is better than nothing.

2% may be better than nothing, but because it is a buyer's market there are lots of options that will pay better than 2% and realtors are going to steer their clients that way. Sure, you may get lucky and somebody will drive by and see your sign and tell their agent "That's the one I want." But if the agent is pulling a list of houses to show them, unless your house is truly unique in some way, they'll pull a nearly identical listing and show them that one instead because it pays 3%.

 

[leeland]

2% may be better than nothing, but because it is a buyer's market there are lots of options that will pay better than 2% and realtors are going to steer their clients that way. Sure, you may get lucky and somebody will drive by and see your sign and tell their agent "That's the one I want." But if the agent is pulling a list of houses to show them, unless your house is truly unique in some way, they'll pull a nearly identical listing and show them that one instead because it pays 3%.

I totally agree. In our case we were not pressed to sell which is why we didn't push the commission.

All it takes is ONE person to be totally interested in your home and you can work it out...and avoid the realtor bullshit and commission.

To be honest with you I cannot STAND the bullshit that I have seen on the back end with realtors. I am not stating that they are all bad but FFS the hand washing that goes on with the whole system is FUCKED UP.

In our sale alone I have seen so much collusion and failure of separation of duties it makes me want to puke at how people work the system to get what they want and need.

 

[leeland]

How did you get F'd by the buyer? You aren't obligated to accept his offer.

I know...maybe I am bitter at the market in general. When we bought the home we live in 7 years ago it was a 'sellers' market and you could not negotiate at all on the price. Homes were over priced because EVERYONE and their sister were getting loans. So we bought a home probably over priced ( a little bit) but we didn't want to rent anymore.

7 years later and 1 year on the market we had 1 person finally make an offer and we decided to take it. It wasn't what we wanted but we wanted to get out of our home. We came out ahead and with a profit but not much.

Seller low balled us (something I would do totally and expected) and asked for the closing costs as well 4 grand ( something I wasn't totally expecting but again why the F not).

The realtor (who did next to SHIT) gets a nice 4 grand pay day for being nothing more than a peddler (in retro-spec she did bring the guy to our home so that made it possible).

In the end the guy wins because he got a pretty decent price and we are out of our home and building our new house...

We could have said no or kept on going back and forth but just wanted to be done. So take my comment as a /rant