Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Home for sale by owner?

If you're smarter than 90% of the Karens who are 'real estate agents' (which isn't exactly an achievement) you can sell/buy your own property. I've done it numerous times.

Zillow had our house on their site. We never listed it with them. Took months to have them remove from the site! We sold one withput a real estate firm, would do it again!

Depends on the market, FSBO nationwide tends to average 10-12% below what an agent closes at so the 6% saved from not using an agent is not really a gain. Again, depending on your market you can have an agent work at a lower percentage simply to handle the bids. In the Boise Market a selling agent will work for 1% simply because the house will be sold in a few days and they are basically being used to do all of the paperwork, sort through all of the offers etc.

This link discusses FSBO using Zillow and some of the pros and cons:

https://www.realestatewitch.com/fsbo-zillow/

And it discusses agent fees paid to the buyer's agent and suggests using Clever instead. Anyone have any experience with Clever?

"If your buyer is working with an agent, there will still be fees the agent will collect throughout the sale, typically around 3% of the final sale price. At the end of the day, even if you are selling FSBO, you will still need to pay some sort of agent fees.

To help out with these selling costs, work with Clever to get transparent pricing on the selling and closing costs. Clever negotiates prices with agents so you only pay 1% or $3000 to your listing agent."

I've sold a couple FSBO and bought and sold a few with RE agents. Much prefer to do it myself. Line up an RE attorney ahead of time to handle the sales contract. The boiler plate contract that RE Agents use is mostly designed to ensure they get their commission. I also had inspections done ahead of time to show to potential buyers. I do only scheduled showings and require a cell number and drivers license ahead of time. My general experience with RE agents is that they were dishonest and not nearly as good at showing the house as I was.

I've got a house set to close on Wed and my realtor was phenomenal. She offered less than 6% but I wanted her paid. The house is selling for 235 so 6% is not exactly a windfall. She helped me time the sale just right. 2 years ago when I was thinking of selling should told me to hold off. Would have sold for about 200 then. I am out of town owner 7 hours away and she was meticulous in getting the house ready to put on the market, deciding which updates were necessary and which can wait, pricing vendors, etc. No way I could have done that on my own from 6 hours away, and even local it would have been worth the time suck just to pay her.

I have another house in a different state that I am leaning toward selling later this spring. Will come in at twice the value and in a neighborhood that pretty much sells itself. I'm not excited about paying the 6% or searching for a realtor in the area. I may use my current realtor to find a referral. The house will need some work after tenants leave, also I will need somebody to help make sure their exit goes smoothely. Would not try to sell out of town on my own.

the problem with doing a for sale by owner is, for some reason every home owner thinks they are a real estate expert. just like you don't represent yourself in court, the same applies for real estate. buying and selling is an emotional decision for most people. The extra money a realtor might get may be far more worth the value spent. Its possible to negotiate the commission you pay them. In my area you can get your house listed by a realtor for anywhere form $750 to 3%, you get various levels of services depending on the agent and price you pay. I have flipped 3 houses and each one I tried to for sale by owner while we were working on it. knowing if I couldn't sell it for sale by owner I would list it when it was finished. I never had any luck selling it that way. We have a massive classified website in our area that is far better than most that everyone uses. didn't work. plus the people that buy a for sale by owner want you to take the commission hair cut and they keep the savings instead of you, LOL

find a local real estate licensee (a realtor is a left wing donator to NAR!) Ask them for a market analysis, with comps.TIP THE POOR BASTARD and list where it is legal to do so in your state/area. in many cases mls will be for members only (nar members)
and btw zillow sucks terrible inaccuracies

You use a lawyer for $1000 or a realtor for $18000+. Its your money, do what you want.[/quotI don't know where you can get a lawyer for $1000. guess you hen't used one in awhile. Go ahead and use craigslist, you have every Tom Dick and unqualified buyer in the area casing your property for a "return viewing". Lots of lookers no buyers.

Presently around here one can simply put out the word they're thinking of selling and a home will be gone in 1 to 2 days. Have a neighbor that's come into some money, and listed homes have been gone before he gets a chance to look at them.

Wish I could talk Cookie into selling right now.

Whatever means gets the word out there for the sale.

I've sold two homes in the last few months by just hanging out a sign.
My lawyer is far smarter than any realtor out there when it comes to the in's and out's of a real estate transaction.
I'm paying 1200.00 bucks a house which includes the title search.

Only use for a realtor is if you just don't have the time to do it yourself.

I am a semi-retired Realtor. A lawyer is certainly qualified to read over a contract and tell you if it is what you think it says. However, a lawyer knows nothing of your area real estate market trends, home warranty coverages and prices. Lawyers know nothing about marketing properties nor will they make any attempt to do so. Lawyers do not, as a rule, research and see to the issuing of property tax issues and HOA regulations, fees, transfers, etc. What about any required or desired insurance for the property? What about any flooding potential? Again, not a lawyer's area of expertise. Lawyers know nothing about arranging financing for the buyer. You may think that is not an issue for the seller, but you would be very much mistaken. Basically, this is the buyer's responsibility, but just because a buyer says they want to or say they have the ability to buy your property is meaningless. Furthermore, just because they say or even if they have a lender say they have financing arranged, do they really? A good Realtor will research this. Realistically, even then financing may fall through. Many lenders will give a letter saying that a buyer is pre-qualified for a loan. This is a perfectly legal document that a lawyer would find no problems with. However, don't be fooled, it actually only says that the buyer has spoken with them. It does not say they will do a loan. I have actually had loan officers send me a pre-qual form letter and tell me to just fill in the buyer's name and the amount needed for anything I wanted and they would figure out after a contract was accepted and negotiated if they could do the loan. By the way, I have always refused to do so as I consider this to be unethical at best and fraudulent at least. A good Realtor will try to establish if a buyer actually can qualify for a purchase, even if the buyer is represented by another Realtor. I, as a seller's agent, have several times arranged for a buyer's financing on a transaction that the buyer's original lender was unable to complete, saving the transaction. Lawyers simply do not do any of this. It is not their expertise. As an example, I have a good friend who is a well experienced lawyer who just closed the sale of his home this past Friday. It was a $400K+ transaction. He gladly used a local to him Realtor and paid full commission. No, it was not me as he lives 6 hours away and in a state that I am not licensed in. Some suggest Zillow. Let me tell you something: Somethings on Zillow are accurate. Much of it is not. I have on several occasions had people come into my office and want to see a property they saw on Zillow. I would look up the property and find that not only was it not currently on the market, but it had last sold 4 or 5 years ago. Two such buyers got extremely irate and accused me of being grossly incompetent as they showed me on Zillow the properties. I tried to explain this to them respectfully to no avail. I finally told them to go to the properties, knock on the door and ask whomever was living there if I was lying or not. Never heard from them again. You see, Zillow would pull property listings from the local Multiple Listing Service and post them on their site. That's fine and dandy, but they never would update the site when a property sold or went off the market, making it look like all these houses were available on Zillow. This also led people to believe that the prices for properties that were on the market 5 or 6 years ago were current comps for the area. Not true at all. Another example of misleading Zillow info is that they would give an estimated property value by comparing the general area building size prices per square foot sales or tax value and calculating this to determine a building's value. Well, this is fine and dandy IF you are comparing comparable properties. Zillow does not look at properties. I had a potential buyer contact me from west Texas who was wanting to buy a property that he was convinced was a steal that he found on Zillow located in Galveston. I went and looked at it for him and he was not pleased with what I told him. The property would cost him more money to demo and clear the lot than the lot value would be. It was unfit to occupy and dangerous to enter. But, according to Zillow, the property was worth multiple 6 figures. So, yeah, I've a pretty low opinion of Zillow. Zillow is OK if you can find something that is accurate and current. The problem is, finding something that is current and accurate. On the other hand, if you have someone to buy your property and have the expertise to work with a title company to handle the closing documents, escrow funds, arrange for inspections and negotiate any resulting repairs needed, arrange for any survey that may be needed by local authorities or arrange for an existing one to be approved, tax required documents and tax pay offs, do lien and judgement research, can get a sales contract legally and properly prepared and executed, arrange for and negotiate any home warranty and any repair negotiations, arrange for any HOA transfer documents and approvals, arrange for any financing needed, etc., etc., then by all means do so yourself. Some transactions are relatively easy. Most all will have unexpected surprises, even when purchasing a new home. Sorry for the long post, but there is a lot to these real estate transactions than what meets the eye. Some, a LOT more so than others.

Requirments to become a Real Estate Lawyer
Complete a Bachelor's degree,
Pass the Law School Admission Test,
Complete a 3-year graduate program at a law school accredited by the American Bar Association
Pass the bar examination in the state where they will practice.

Requirments to become a realtor
Be at least 18 years of age
High school diploma or equivalent
United States Social Security number
Complete 63 hours of approved pre-licensing instruction within the last two years
Pass the state sales associate exam
Pay the $89 fee and get fingerprinted
Submit the application.

I was selling the first log cabin that I had built, at 136 Old Plantation Trail, Milledgeville Ga. I had listed it with a realtor that I knew, I had gone to college with him.
At that time I was working in Atlanta, living with my girlfriend 2 hours away.
I went down there one Saturday, the For Sale sign had fallen over in the yard. I called William up and told him that sign needed to go back up and right quick. He said, Yes, of course.

I went down again 4 days later, the sign was still down in the yard. I called up William and fired him. We were in the middle of a 90 day contract so I wasn't sure if I could fire him, but I did.

Second realtor, also a friend, I told her what happend to William. So she was sure to at least keep a sign in the yard. And that was all she did. She was going to hold 2 open houses, and also run an ad in the Macon newspaper with one photo. This was 1996.
She never had an open house and she never ran an ad. It did sell right at the end of her 90 day contract, but it sold because a couple was driving down the road going to look at another log cabin, and they happened to see the sign in my yard, and they liked mine better.

Two realtors, both friends of mine, both lied to me every chance they got and I would have sold it just as quick with a For Sale by Owner sign in the yard.

You get a good lawyer he will check all the paperwork for you. You don't really need a realtor to do all that.

There are good realtors and I have used one on another deal but there are some real lying BS artists "working" as realtors. Working as little as they have to.

If I ever sell my house(or property) I would tell the realtor..... Hey, this is what I want, you get anymore, keep it.

Be sure and check out prices that other homes are selling for in your area .

In a lot of places new home building hasn't caught up with demand . Homes are selling for thousands more than appraisal.

Open houses are for realtors, not sellers.

Pretty much any Realtor is going to check the comps and price your property accordingly. Most properties won't exceed current comps by very much at all. Even if someone offers a price that's higher than the comps, the banks won't finance it for more than the comps indicate it's worth.

As for "for sale by owner" houses, it depends on the market. If the house is in a hot market and you want to handle it yourself, it could be a good idea.

If the market is "ho-hum", you're going to get a lot more traffic by listing it with an agent simply because none of the agents will show your property to their buying clients unless you agree to pay the agent 3%.

Of course, you don't have to. But you lose all access to the buyers who have hired a Realtor to handle their purchase.

Unless there’s a bigger cash down.......Around here offers that come in over are common and almost always all cash quick close. These are $700,000+ homes so it’s not just a little bit of cash. My dad sold the family home after mom died and it was all cash, no inspection, quick close. My buddy just sold his last 6 homes here and everyone came in way over asking (comp+) and every one was all cash. He started to list the minimum asking and begin accepting offers that he’d open and review after a predetermined amount of days (5-10 days). He was able to go through and accept the one that best suited them....all cash quick close. It was worth it to him to accept an offer that was $10k less than the highest offer but more than asking if it was cash.