For Sale By Owner..Anyone Done This?

[Papa Deuce]

***!!! Where did you get those figures??20-40 hours? Not unless you're the worst Real Estate Agent in the marketplace. And what about fuel, ad costs, printing costs, etc. And the LIABILITY!! You must have worked with some of the scummiest agents ever to come to your conclusions, and for that - I'm sorry. But lumping them all together, basically calling them all worthless. And as for flat fees - you can get that now. But remember, you get what you pay for! You can't hire a top-notch realtor without paying the price - but you can get a half-@#$ed one for next to nothing.
And NO-realtors do NOT work for the seller unless they're the listing agent on a specific property. They work for the buyer. Sheesh

Yes, they generally DO work for the seller. First off, they want the highest commision possible, so that means selling the home for MORE money, and that goes against helping the buyer. Second, the commission comes out of the seller's take, not the buyers wallet.

Can there be buyer's agents? Sure. But most ageants work "with" buyers, but "for" the seller.

 

[golfgal]

We have sold homes by ourselves with no problems. We used a real estate attorney to do all the paperwork. We knew what our house was worth and got that. Our overall fees were very minimal, about $1000. We are also in a market where nice houses sell fast, like within a couple weeks at most. If we end up moving for DH's new job, we will sell FSBO. We are in a high demand area, completly updated our house and it will sell in less then a week most likely. Why would we pay a RE agent to list it. A listing agent in our town does very little work marketing your home. Every RE company puts their listings online and then they put them in an ad in the paper on Wednesday's. That is pretty much it. ALL the agents in our town represent the SELLER. None of the RE companies in our town act as buyers agents.

 

[Virgo10]

We almost bought a house here in FL through Buy Owner
Buy Owner

Would I sell one myself? Not sure. I'd have to do some thorough reading on the subject.

Good Luck!

 

[Zurealsoon]

Realators screen the people who they show houses to. In otherwords they know that this client will be approved for a house in the $125-175,000 range and only show houses to them that they can afford.

You will waste a lot of time showing your house to people who in no way can afford it. My friend had a contract, took the house off the market and it wasn't until 6 weeks later when these people's loan was not approved, that she put the sign back up. The next buyer was ok, but then the house did not appraise for as much as she was selling it. There are lots of things that a Realator does, trust me.

 

[golfgal]

Realators screen the people who they show houses to. In otherwords they know that this client will be approved for a house in the $125-175,000 range and only show houses to them that they can afford.

You will waste a lot of time showing your house to people who in no way can afford it. My friend had a contract, took the house off the market and it wasn't until 6 weeks later when these people's loan was not approved, that she put the sign back up. The next buyer was ok, but then the house did not appraise for as much as she was selling it. There are lots of things that a Realator does, trust me.

Not everywhere. Realtors ask you what price range you are looking in. They don't do a back ground check to see if you have a criminal record like someone else suggested. If you say you are looking in the $175,000-$200,000 range, they will most likely show you houses in the $220,000 to see if you will buy up-they make more money that way. You can get pre-qualified from a bank, but you don't have to show how MUCH you qualify for to anyone, including the RE agent. The bank should give you a letter simply stating that you are pre-qualified for a loan at the bank. This is how it works in our area. Every market is different. One town we lived in almost every house had an open house the first weekend you listed. Roughly 90% of the homes in that town sold off open houses. In our town now if you have an open house, something is wrong with your house and it isn't selling.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Realators screen the people who they show houses to. In otherwords they know that this client will be approved for a house in the $125-175,000 range and only show houses to them that they can afford.

You will waste a lot of time showing your house to people who in no way can afford it. My friend had a contract, took the house off the market and it wasn't until 6 weeks later when these people's loan was not approved, that she put the sign back up. The next buyer was ok, but then the house did not appraise for as much as she was selling it. There are lots of things that a Realator does, trust me.

Possibility, not a fact.

 

[chris1gill]

We did it & it was VERY easy... We listed our house through an MLS listing service, so the house was on Realtor.com.... The call's I received were from realtors representing buyers. In our contract, we paid a 2% realtor commission to any realtor who brought us a qualified buyer.. and that is exactly what happened. We did NOT negotiate our price more than a few thousand dollars... we had done our homework, gotten estimates on our house & went with the pricing we knew was comparable to everything else that was selling. DO NOT take money off because you are selling it yourself. Be competitive, don't give it away, but don't over-price either... if it's not selling you can always lower the price if you need to.

In our area, homes won't sell now until February or March, the buying season is over...

This is the listing service we used: http://www.fsboadvertisingservice.com/hybridmls.htm

You should have your own real estate attorney that reviews and completes your documents....

 

[TandJ61574]

http://realestate.msn.com/buying/article.aspx?cp-documentid=24871

 

[LauraR]

We sold our house in CT in 1999 by ourselves. We used FSBO, but also put an ad in the paper for an open house and got 4 contracts right after that. We ended up with a small bidding war and the house sold for $3,000 more than we listed. It was a very good and painless experience. We hired a real estate lawyer who did the paperwork for a $500 flat fee, and did a great job. I read several books before we did it, and we spent some effort sprucing up the house. The main thing is to make sure it is decluttered and immaculately clean (not easy to maintain if you have pets or kids!)

It's good to make a write up of the house with a photo like the real estate agents do, so people have something to take with them.

 

[malibuconlee]

Yes, they generally DO work for the seller. First off, they want the highest commision possible, so that means selling the home for MORE money, and that goes against helping the buyer. Second, the commission comes out of the seller's take, not the buyers wallet.

Can there be buyer's agents? Sure. But most ageants work "with" buyers, but "for" the seller.

This is why buyers AND sellers sign Agency Agreements. AND why dual agency must be disclosed.

An agent that doesnt take care of the buyer they are representing won't be representing those people in any future transactions. And really, the difference in a few thousand in selling price doesn't make enough of a difference to encourage a good agent to work against their fiduciary responsibilities.

And not all areas have this "hot" market where properties jump the day after they're listed. Take the house I bought last year. We saw it in September and it had been on the market since April. Granted it was over-priced and they had just lowered it, but we paid $100,000 for it. Now let's say the agent got half of the 6% commission split between two brokerage firms. That agent got a whopping $1,500 for 6 months of work on the property. (100,000 x .06 = 6,000 / 2 firms = 3,000 / 2 for agent and brokers cuts = $1,500.) And we didn't close until November.

As with all professions there are good agents and not so good agents. I've worked with one I would never care to work with again. I've worked with a couple I'd work with again in a heartbeat.

 

[Tina]

We are also considering FSBO route in selling our home. Homes in our neighborhood sell in approximately 7 days or less. We are currently researching the process. We absolutely will use a lawyer to ensure everything is handled properly.

 

[chrissyk]

We ONLY sell FSBO, and it's truly the best route to go IMHO. Did you watch 20/20 last Friday night? John Stossel did a GREAT segment on why realtors do NOT really work in your best interest. I can give you loads of tips on selling FSBO...feel free to PM me. We've done it twice, sis has done it 3 times, and every time we've come out ABOVE what any realtor told us our property was "worth".

BTW, selling by yourself is quite easy, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You get a LAWYER to cover you legally, and in some states you also shop the title company as a seller. Again, this is easy...please don't be daunted by it.

You can put your house on the MLS yourself if you wish. We paid $399 for 6 months worth of this service through a site called yourigloo.com. There are lots of sites like this. Our ad was up on realtor.com in a day. Only go this route if you feel that you need to let in buyers with a broker. In one instance, there was no other way to sell our house in that particular town. We therefore bumped up our price 3% and let the buyer cover the fact that they felt the need to use a broker.

We sold another house by putting signs on the street and advertising on a regional FSBO website.

I have found the newspaper to be a $$ waste of time, but it worked well for my sister twice. Go figure.

Line your lawyer up ahead of time, and know whether or not the lawyer does your closing or the title company does it. That's about all there is to it. Again, feel free to PM me...selling FSBO is the only way to go IMHO!

 

[Papa Deuce]

This is why buyers AND sellers sign Agency Agreements. AND why dual agency must be disclosed.

An agent that doesnt take care of the buyer they are representing won't be representing those people in any future transactions. And really, the difference in a few thousand in selling price doesn't make enough of a difference to encourage a good agent to work against their fiduciary responsibilities.

And not all areas have this "hot" market where properties jump the day after they're listed. Take the house I bought last year. We saw it in September and it had been on the market since April. Granted it was over-priced and they had just lowered it, but we paid $100,000 for it. Now let's say the agent got half of the 6% commission split between two brokerage firms. That agent got a whopping $1,500 for 6 months of work on the property. (100,000 x .06 = 6,000 / 2 firms = 3,000 / 2 for agent and brokers cuts = $1,500.) And we didn't close until November.

As with all professions there are good agents and not so good agents. I've worked with one I would never care to work with again. I've worked with a couple I'd work with again in a heartbeat.

Sure, but the agent did not work EXCLUSIVELY on that home. They sold others at the same time. For me, I know that I am not giving them 25K+ to sell my home in a week! Heck we had a really beat up 100 year old house 3 blocks away from us sell in 2 days for almost 400K.

And I have never signed an agreement as a buyer with an agent yet. This home is my third, well actually my fourth as I bought my mom's condo too. And never once did I sign an agreement making them my exclusive agent.

EDIT, BTW, can you see giving a realtor $60,000 to sell a home in a hot market? Lots of DISers have million dallar homes.

 

[disneymom3]

***!!! Where did you get those figures??20-40 hours? Not unless you're the worst Real Estate Agent in the marketplace. And what about fuel, ad costs, printing costs, etc. And the LIABILITY!! You must have worked with some of the scummiest agents ever to come to your conclusions, and for that - I'm sorry. But lumping them all together, basically calling them all worthless. And as for flat fees - you can get that now. But remember, you get what you pay for! You can't hire a top-notch realtor without paying the price - but you can get a half-@#$ed one for next to nothing.
And NO-realtors do NOT work for the seller unless they're the listing agent on a specific property. They work for the buyer. Sheesh

As a Realtor, I have to say, thank you. Oh, how I long for 20-40 hours per house I sell. And keep in mind, most realtors are not getting that entire % of comission. For one thing, since 85% of buyers in the market are rep's by an agent (Who is the BUYERS agent, BTW) you need to deduct about half of the comission right off as they will be paying it to the other agent's office. Then the agent's broker is going to take their cut to cover things like office space and receptionists in addition to liability issues. People can and do sue over the stupidest things. And, Realtors pay all of their own marketing, MLS fees each month to get you into the listings, sign fees, etc etc. My expenses generally cut my income in half each year.

A good Realtor does a heck of a lot more than list your house and sit back and wait for offers to come in. Just two quick experiences--one friend was considering FSBO and then decided she didn't need the headache and had me come to get ready to list the house. The figure I gave her that we should list at was well over $20,000 more than she had intended to list it for. She just couldn't believe her house was worth that much. We listed it in the price range I suggested and 5 days later we had two full price offers. The $20,000 more than made up for my comission.

Another friend decided to go the FSBO route. The headaches she had were insane and the amount she spent on advertising etc was way more than I would have because I qualify for discounts through my company. Her house sat on the market for 5 months. Finally sold for around $25,000 less than it should have sold for with the proper exposure.

Sometimes all goes smoothly and that is great, but sometimes even the most basic transaction blows up in your face. Make sure you are ready for either possibility and that you know what to do if something goes wrong.

 

[disneymom3]

ALL the agents in our town represent the SELLER. None of the RE companies in our town act as buyers agents.

Being you are from MN that just doesn't make a lot of sense. Not all states work this way, but many of them do, and having a MN real estate license, I know this is how it works here. We have to do an agency disclosure form with every single real estate contact we make. Every single one that you have a possiblity of doing a transaction with. If an agent hasn't gone over this with you, report them to the comissioner of commerce because it's illegal not to. One of the things this form explains is the difference between a Seller's agent and a Buyers agent. If you are a buyer you should have a representation agreement with your agent as a Buyer's agent. This doesn't mean that it even has to be an exclusive relationship where you work with no other agents but in order for that agent to submit a purchase agreement for you, there has to be some contract. In that contract the agent agrees to work for you as your representative. That agent is to get you a fair price and to work in your interest at all times. Again, if you feel an agent hasn't done that, report them. That is how we get the bad apples out of the market.

Not saying that FSBO can't be done. Lots of people do it, but I have see too many agreements hit a snag and you have to be ready for what you are going to do about it. And I have to admit, I know plenty of agents who show homes to buyers they do not prequalify. Totally waste of time if you ask me, but people do it.

 

[golfgal]

Being you are from MN that just doesn't make a lot of sense. Not all states work this way, but many of them do, and having a MN real estate license, I know this is how it works here. We have to do an agency disclosure form with every single real estate contact we make. Every single one that you have a possiblity of doing a transaction with. If an agent hasn't gone over this with you, report them to the comissioner of commerce because it's illegal not to. One of the things this form explains is the difference between a Seller's agent and a Buyers agent. If you are a buyer you should have a representation agreement with your agent as a Buyer's agent. This doesn't mean that it even has to be an exclusive relationship where you work with no other agents but in order for that agent to submit a purchase agreement for you, there has to be some contract. In that contract the agent agrees to work for you as your representative. That agent is to get you a fair price and to work in your interest at all times. Again, if you feel an agent hasn't done that, report them. That is how we get the bad apples out of the market.

Not saying that FSBO can't be done. Lots of people do it, but I have see too many agreements hit a snag and you have to be ready for what you are going to do about it. And I have to admit, I know plenty of agents who show homes to buyers they do not prequalify. Totally waste of time if you ask me, but people do it.

We live in a smaller town and none of the 4 RE companies in town want to deal with dual agency issues so none of the agents do buyers agent agreements. They tell you this up front and they do disclose that they are working for the seller, etc., nothing illegal, just more for convenience for them.