Anyone have any luck selling a house FSBO?

[i'vegotwinners]

can't come to grips with paying out a 6% commission.

house should bring at least $500,000, so that's $30,000 for maybe a few hours of sweat equity by the agents.

all i want for now is to have the house listed in the MLS, and for agents to not boycott me.

i believe i can get it listed for a flat fee on the MLS, (not sure if Zillow charges anything),.

am willing to pay something for a buyer's agent to show it, but even 2% seems outrageous for the amount of time involved.

with lawyers, at least you have an hourly fee option.


it's not a big city, so i'd think many prospects should find it on their own. (old school small exclusive neighborhood).

losing out on prospective buyers coming from out of town is one concern.


on a related note,

when looking for a home, do you generally scout things out yourself, (in person and on line), and steer your agent toward the properties you're interested in? or do you let the agent steer you?

on another related note,

if a prospective buyer has a buyer's agent, but comes looking on their own rather than being brought by their agent, are they obligated to their agent?


fwiw, i'd really enjoy having an agent, i just can't come to grips with being locked in to a percentage, rather than just paying them a very decent fee for their time and resources.

 

[ron313]

can't come to grips with paying out a 6% commission.

house should bring at least $500,000, so that's $30,000 for maybe a few hours of sweat equity by the agents.

all i want for now is to have the house listed in the MLS, and for agents to not boycott me.

i believe i can get it listed for a flat fee on the MLS, (not sure if Zillow charges anything),.

am willing to pay something for a buyer's agent to show it, but even 2% seems outrageous for the amount of time involved.

with lawyers, at least you have an hourly fee option.


it's not a big city, so i'd think many prospects should find it on their own. (old school small exclusive neighborhood).

losing out on prospective buyers coming from out of town is one concern.


on a related note,

when looking for a home, do you generally scout things out yourself, (in person and on line), and steer your agent toward the properties you're interested in? or do you let the agent steer you?

on another related note,

if a prospective buyer has a buyer's agent, but comes looking on their own rather than being brought by their agent, are they obligated to their agent?


fwiw, i'd really enjoy having an agent, i just can't come to grips with being locked in to a percentage, rather than just paying them a very decent fee for their time and resources.

Sure. Make sure the contact is decent and offer a good fee for the buyer realtor. I've done it twice. Makes sense especially if you have time and are willing to market it.

 

[RutgersUnion]

You could negotiate commission. A lot of the time you will see something like 5% and 3% on a direct deal. Remember that most buyers prefer to be represented by a broker since they arent paying the commission anyway. Unfortunately if there are 2 similar properties the broker will steer their buyer to the better commission. You should strongly consider paying a broker 3% that brings a buyer it could make a big difference in sale price as it will cut out the majority of the buyers.

Just a heads up Zillow and Trulia (recently merged) will bring agents to your home not buyers. Their buisness model is agents pay them to put their faces on other peoples listings. Those 3 - 4 agents next to each listing are most likely not the owner or listing broke

 

[imoapie]

Where is the house?

 

[thepal]

I have sold a condo and most recently my house on FSBO. I had the same feelings you did about paying out a commission that high to a realtor. A few things to think about. 1. A lot of people today have a real estate agent but also look for themselves. I would get a lot of calls from realtor's telling me they have a client etc etc and they didnt realize it was for sale by owner. I had 2 of them show up prior to there client arriving only to call me on the phone and say they had to cancel the showing. One women was looking right at me while talking to me on the phone. I learned after that call that you need to make sure you tell the buyers realtor that you are offering a 2% commission to them otherwise they will not show your house. At my house they would just lie to me and make up an excuse why the buyers couldn't come and then they would call the buyers and tell them I couldn't show the house. 2. You have to negotiate with the buyers realitor and set everything thing up with them. If you had your own real estate agent they would handle everything and you would only talk with them. You would never talk to the buyers or there agent. For me it wasnt an issue and actually worked out better because I was able to sit down face to face with the buyer and talk about everything. If you dont like talking with people then you may have an issue. 3. You have to do the open houses yourself. FSBO sends you the stands to put up saying open house etc etc. You then have to show and sell your house to buyers. Again as long as you dont have issues with that its fine. It took me two months to sell my house. I listed it 40K higher than what a realtor wanted to list it at (we talked with one prior to us doing FSBO) and we took 20K off on the price to sell it. (that was my plan when I listed the house so I basically got an offer for what I thought it would sell for) I saved myself around $6,000 in commission fees and thats with me paying 2% to the buyers realtor. It was well worth it to me. Hope that helps and if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

 

[RUskoolie]

I can give you my view point from a buyer. #1 when I see a lot of FSBO homes, more often than not I figure the owner to be "cheap" because usually the house isn't upgraded or well maintained and that's on top of not wanting to pay 5% commission. #2, If I will bid I'm discounting close to 5% off your offer price anyway, which is probably what you would get if you used a REA.

I understand your hesitancy to use a REA because I too find a lot of them to be worthless, but just giving you a perspective from a buyers POV. You can absolutely do it though and I would offer a 2% buyers fee so you attract more people, unless you feel your price is right and the market is hot enough where that isn't necessary.

 

[Leonard23]

If you have a well maintained house in a good area & have time to show it yourself, then you don't need a realtor. Huge waste of $. Pay for the GSMLS listing & that should have a feed to automatically list on trulia & zillow or you can submit it for free to trulia & zillow. Heck, if you don't need to sell quickly, then you may even just try listing it for free on those sites to see if you get any action/interest. You likely don't need to also pay to list it on fsbo.com as you should get enough visibility & action through GSMLS & trulia & zillow. Don't cheap out on the buyer realtor commission so you'll have to pay 2%, 2.5% or 3%.

 

[MozRU]

I used a REA to buy my condo back in '07 and then my next house in '14. BOTH TIMES I FOUND THE PROPERTY ON TRULIA. I went to the showings BY MYSELF. I told the REA what to bid.

I find it today, REA are there to process after.

 

[Scarlet Pride]

Let me add a buyer's perspective. I'm currently in the process of house shopping. FSBO isn't an immediate turn off but it's a red flag to me. I immediately wonder why they are listing it that way. And I understand that it may be just to save money and I can appreciate that. But my first instinct is - what's wrong with the house?

I recently went to a FSBO open house. In this case, the open house was well done and it was great. Not the right house for us but they were doing the right things. In fact, they had a great break down of the house with details, renovations, and what was basically a sellers disclosure of all known issues. The house had an old abandoned oil tank on the property (properly abandoned/filled). I mention that because those are the things that I'm am looking for at FSBO - what is wrong with this house that they may be trying to hide? This guy wasn't trying to hide it and was open about it. If it had been buried in fine print or came up after the fact, there's no way I would buy that house.

So my advice from a buyer's perspective is go all out on providing information to potential buyers. Include everything and anything you can because the buyers will appreciate it and it will alleviate any concerns or at least put them out there to adddress. In fact, you might want to pay for a licensed inspection on your own and give a copy to prospective buyers.

In terms of realtors, I won't buy a house without using our realtor because I trust her and think she is an asset. I do a lot of my own research but she brings professional expertise that I value (not every realtor does). With that said, I'm not going to pay her 3% commission out of my own pocket and I'm not going to just tack it on to your asking price. That's not how the real estate market works. So the earlier advice of being open to paying a percentage to realtors will benefit you because you'll open up the market to large number of buyers with an agent.

 

[cRURah]

I can give you my view point from a buyer. #1 when I see a lot of FSBO homes, more often than not I figure the owner to be "cheap" because usually the house isn't upgraded or well maintained and that's on top of not wanting to pay 5% commission. #2, If I will bid I'm discounting close to 5% off your offer price anyway, which is probably what you would get if you used a REA.

I understand your hesitancy to use a REA because I too find a lot of them to be worthless, but just giving you a perspective from a buyers POV. You can absolutely do it though and I would offer a 2% buyers fee so you attract more people, unless you feel your price is right and the market is hot enough where that isn't necessary.

I have bought many houses and I feel exactly the same about FSBO. I will not even consider them anymore. Listing your house through an MLS broker will get you a higher sales price and a faster sale. Most buyers use brokers these days since the commission is always paid by the seller regardless of how it's split between the listing broker and the Buyers broker. The agent will always steer prospective buyers to the best deal for them. FSBO screams "cheapskate" and buyers are apprehensive that you haven't maintained the house very well and they are usually correct.

 

[RUImpressed]

I sold my house in 2009 in Piscataway, during the fall out of the dirty banking business with mortgages. I was under contract in 11 days. Go to Real Mart dot com. They talk you through getting the listing onto MLS sites, which agents don't want you to know about. You offer the buyer agent the % of commission, say 3.5% they will push all their clients through your house because they only have to split that commission with their broker not a selling agent. You act as your own agent no commission to yourself just savings on the sale, you will just need a closing attorney. It can be done and it is real easy.

 

[RCTrooper]

My thoughts:
-You shouldn't pay more that 5% for your realtor services
-Depending on how hot your market is and what your time frame is, you may be able to do it yourself but you need to know what the true market value of your home is and you need to take excellent pictures of your property to make sure you get people interested. You may screw yourself by listing it too high or by selling it too low.
-For a FSBO, you will have to agree to pay another realtor 2.5% or more if they bring a buyer. Otherwise the other realtor won't bring you an offer letter if their client wants the property. Why would they?
-The biggest value add is getting into MLS so that people can see the property. You'll get that via a FSBO service.

 

[dollarbill]

Get it on the market fast, realtor or FSBO. Everyone is leaving the state and the market could be ready for a good correction once this selling season is over IMHO. Good luck. $$$$

 

[RU85inFla]

If 5-6% was so much money for the so little that they do we would all be realtors wouldn't we!!! Unfortunately if you have a nice house it will sell itself and the broker has a relatively easy job. As far as FSBO, I bought one once and the common thought is that the owner over values them. I was relocated 12 months later and took a 10% haircut. Luckily there was a 10% loss of equity provision in the relocation package.

I'm in the process of downsizing myself. I'm selling my house, a condo and buying a smaller home closer to the beach - all in the same community. I worked a deal with the realtor on all 3 properties. Yes its a bunch of money but I am working her ass off for it. If you are buying locally, work a package deal for both transactions.

 

[derleider]

Heres the question you should ask - will offering the sellers agent the 2% be likely to bring in enough business that you have the demand to bump up the price by $10,000.

Thats not that unreasonable - for a half a million dollar house, it would seem that just having two people who both want it come in on it would be enough to get you that extra money.

Its not about the work involved - obviously, in teh sense of physical labor, they arent putting $30,000 into it. But ARod isnt putting $50,000 worth of extra work into each at bat either. Its about the extra money they get YOU from that work - the higher selling price caused by having more people in and out, or a nicer set up at the open houses or whatever. If you think the house and neighborhood are good enough that it basically sells itself, then go for it.

 

[RUfinal4]

Keep in mind with realtors they prefer:
- buy a house listed that is listed from their specific realtor office
- buy a house listed from the same realtor company
- buy a house listed from another realtor company
- buy a house not listed with a realtor

Some of the above is because of higher commission payouts while the last is because they want to protect their jobs so supporting those who don't use realtors can hurt their future prospects.

 

[RUImpressed]

Thats why you need to set commission at a level that gets them to push their clients through your house. Sign with an agent at 5% if another agent brings a buyer they split the 5 with the other agent 50/50, that leaves 2.5 between them and their broker. The listing agent gets maybe 1% when all is said and done. If you sell on your own and offer 3.5 or 4% it brings buyers agents and they all know the entire 3.5 or 4% goes to them and their broker= bigger piece of the pie. By doing it this way in 09' I had 6 showings in a week and a contract in 11 days. They want the $ and push their clients through.

 

[RUJohnny99]

If I had my heart set on a FSBO listed at $500,000, I would start the offer at $450 & the most I would pay is $475. Otherwise I'd feel like I was being ripped off.

I'd feel the owner out beforehand to see if he was open to negotiation or just a cheapskate. If the latter, I'd pass. Not worth my aggravation.

 

[RUImpressed]

Lol you would make a low ball offer, but the FSBO is the cheapskate...

 

[RUBubba]

Sold my condo in Edison about 14 years ago on my own. Posted an ad in the local Penny Saver type mailer that goes to every house & business, held an open house expecting maybe 15 people to come in the door. Ended up with about 100, including one guy that offered me $5K to kick everyone out and take it off the market and sell to him.

I had all interested buyers fax in an offer to my attorney by a certain deadline. Ended up with 5 offers, 1 well below asking, 1 just below, 1 asking price, and 2 over asking price.

I really could have milked it, but chose to be an honest guy instead since I was already getting over asking price.

After the ad hit the paper though, I received about 5 phone calls from realtors telling me I wouldn't be able to sell it on my own...

 

[i'vegotwinners]

thanks for all the great responses.

i know of no other college fan board that gets the traffic this one does, and where you see multiple informed responses to anything and everything, including mold on a roof.

 

[RW90]

Keep in mind with realtors they prefer:
- buy a house listed that is listed from their specific realtor office
- buy a house listed from the same realtor company
- buy a house listed from another realtor company
- buy a house not listed with a realtor

Some of the above is because of higher commission payouts while the last is because they want to protect their jobs so supporting those who don't use realtors can hurt their future prospects.

We too experienced this firsthand. When we tried selling our first home by FSBO, all agents would call or ask to view the house but would never bring any prospective buyers even though we offered a buying agent commission. At the time it seemed either they were gauging the neighborhood market or looking to become our selling agent. After a month or two we eventually succumbed to listing with an agent.