Selling a House as a FSBO

[buckeyebri]

Has anyone sold their house on their own in the past and have any advice to give? I have been looking at forsalebyowner.com and one of their packages that will get me listed on the MLS. I see you can also get a broker to list you on the MLS for a flat fee depending on what state you are selling in. Do you need to have a real estate lawyer when closing or a title officer or is this dependent on what state you are selling in as well?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated....

 

[BuckBackHome]

Sold our last house by ourselves. We were on a street with good visibility and a few houses down the road were for sale by realtors (everyone had to drive by ours to get to those others listed). We priced it at a point where I could still go to a realtor if I had to, but knew I had more flexibility with the price if no realtor was involved. We put an ad in the local weekly paper twice and did the sign in the yard. I also let everyone know we were selling. We had a signed contract in 2.5 weeks, but we sold just before the market started turning to crud. The buyer had a friend who was a realtor and she gave him a standard contract to use. We used a local title office for all the title work. No MLS for us.

I was happy to do it on our own, sell it quickly for the price we wanted, made a young couple happy with their first home and know I did not have to waste 6-7% on any realtors being involved. I still smile when I think about the realtor who told me I could not sell on my own.

 

[CleveBucks]

I bought my house a couple years ago, it was a FSBO. Neither I nor the seller used a realtor. I found it on Zillow. It was in a development that I had been watching, so I found it the weekend it was listed. I was familiar with the comps in that area so I knew what the house should've sold for. I got the seller to that amount, then told her I wanted another 3% off since she's not paying my realtor a commission. She agreed pretty quickly (I knew she was desperate to sell, I saw her mortgage info and knew her ARM was resetting).

I found a great real estate lawyer in the Columbus area. He sent us the standard Columbus MLS contract and helped us hash out the details, then typed up the contract for us. Everything was a piece of cake.

In my mind a Realtor is a huge waste of money. Especially on the buyer's end. You can find anything that's on the market with a little work. On the seller's end, I think the key is to use some of the savings on not paying the Realtor in lowering the list price of your house. A 5-10k savings off the comparable houses on the market should stand out more than some lazy Realtor's open house and balloons on the street corner. Zillow will let you list for free and gets a lot of traffic, so definitely try that.

 

[reagdog]

The answer to your question is a tough one. There is no right or wrong answer when selling FSBO or with a realtor. You need to evaluate the pros and cons and decide for yourself.

I'm a realtor in AZ, so laws are different here than in OH so I don't know whether you need an attorney to prepare paperwork or not. From the previous 2 responses, it doesn't sound like you need one.

Selling your house is all about getting the "word" out that your house is for sale. Obviously a good price is extremely important, but if no one knows your house is for sale, they will never see it. There are multiple different ways to get the "word" out (Zillow, craigslist, MLS and numerous other websites that do the same thing). Realtors will obviously look at the MLS, but people without realtors will check craigslist and other sites that are similar.

If you are going to sell the house by yourself, you need to know how to price it. You need to be able to check comps in the neighborhood to see what houses are selling for and how long it is taking them to sell at that price so you know what price to expect and how long it should take to sell.

The best thing about using a realtor is that they help get the "word" out that your house is for sale. They also can easily pull comps and help you figure out a price. They show the house instead of you showing the house. They negotiate and hopefully can get you a better price for your home than you could by yourself. When using a realtor, they also inform their entire office of realtors what they have for sale, so they help each other sell houses. They help you understand what are normal "incentives" that you can use to help sell your home (such as offering to pay buyers closing costs or something like that).

If you know enough about all of this stuff and can post your house on numerous websites and get enough foot traffic through your house without a realtor, then I would say do it yourself. If you don't want to mess with this stuff and don't mind paying the extra money to have a realtor help sell your house, then use a realtor.

If you are going to get a realtor, I would suggest getting a GOOD realtor. Don't get a friend who just got in the business. You want an experienced realtor who is on the ball and knows their shit inside and out. They will help you sift through the BS that the buyers realtor might try and throw at you.

Good luck.