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For Sale by Owner? House help please!
Hi Ladies,
TheNest has always been a great resource for me for advice, recommendations, etc. I'm usually on theBump now but I've been lurking over here for the past couple days.
Does anyone have experience selling their own house?
Here is my/our situation -
My husband and I bought our townhouse 4 years ago for $357K. We currently have a 30 year fixed for 5.25%. We possibly could refinance under the new laws but want to save the money for a downpayment.
Houses in our neighborhood that we more than likely want to buy in are going for around $450K. We have enough to put 20% down and the interest rate right now is 3.75%. (New construction & closing costs paid). The new house monthly payment would be almost EXACTLY the same as what we pay now.
Our issue is our current townhouse. In our neighborhood there have been a couple short sales but right now a different model TH (smaller unit) is selling for 300 and another house just listed for $350K. We kind of want to wait around and see if the one TH just like ours sells for that much.
We would be set if we could sell for $350K and basically not have to pay any realtor fees. Another reason we don't necessarily want a realtor is when/if we buy the new construction, we can negotiate a lower price because they will NOT have to pay a realtor.
We had issues when buying our townhouse. We did the research on the house, noticed when the interest rate went down, found out about the inventory house (that we bought) and realized the builder paid the realtor almost $10K (she was just mostly there for the business aspect of it).
Thank you for reading all of this if you made it this far. I'm just looking for advice, input, etc.
THANKS!
Laura 
Re: For Sale by Owner? House help please!
Even if you list on your own, you will still have to pay the buyer's agent a commission, which is usually 3%.
If I was buying a house that was FSBO and there were lower realor fees involved, I'd expect to see that difference in the price I paid for the house.
- You will not receive the same amount of traffic as being listed with a brokerage. So it could take longer to sell. Most agents will NOT bring their clients to look at your property. You would do sell in your listing information and on your listing signs to state clearly that you will pay Buyer's Agent Fees and then send your flier to local brokerages introducing them to your property and make sure they know that their fees will be paid if they bring their client - but often times this still won't bring the broker to you. And many buyers will not work without an agent - because why should they? See how you've already reduced your traffic?
- FSBO when done right is a big time sucker. Not only are you having to keep the home staged and ready for a showing at any moment but you also now have to also be present to show the home (when the potential buyer is available). You also have or should prepare a professional sheet for the home that includes the pertinent information that buyers look for. You'll need to run open houses.
- IMO if doing FSBO you have to treat it like a professional situation and transaction. You should dress appropriately ... you should be concise and knowledgable ... you should not hound, follow or stalk the people when they come to look at your home but you should also not be gabbing on the phone to your mom while whipping up some walfles (I've seen it all I swear). If you have pets, they should not be present (can be cages unless they can't handle strangers) when doing showings ... ideally children should not be available, if you have them.
- Often times FSBO do not understand the true value of their home or be able to make themselves separate emotion from reality. This is where having a professional/expert that can show you comps and what is happening in your market guide you to reality if you are having a hard time with it. They will have access to sale information of those around you before it becomes part of public record.
- Buyers will look for an even better deal from you when it is FSBO - so the idea that you will save money by not using an agent is probably not true unless you are experienced with real estate and selling by owner.
- If you don't use a REA for your buying transaction I would make sure that you have your real estate attorney review everything and still ensure you go through the inspection process. In most cases, I really believe to be foolish on a buyer's part to not use an expert like a REA.
So i've said a lot of negative things about FSBO ... really it does all come down to how patient you are, how easily you can separate emotions from the selling process - which is very hard for most sellers, and you have the ability to invest the time in doing it properly and treating it like a professional job ... then you will be successful.
But the work that a REA does is not simple - they earn every penny, usually, for their time, knowledge and effort. Not to mention their contacts and relationships with others in their field.
I completely agree with pp's. I just wanted to add that you do not have to include your selling agent in the purchase of your new home. It's not a requirement.
Granted, if you did, they may work extra hard for you to ensure your home sells quickly.
Don't write off the value of a Realtor. A good one will earn their money 2x over and save you time, money, and headaches.
We sold our house ourselves and had no problems.
YOU do NOT have to pay a realtor if you do not agree to do so. Granted, most realtors wouldnt want to bring anyone to see your house, but if a realtor calls and wants to bring someone you can be upfront about not wanting to pay a fee.
Once we agreed on price with our buyer I called my attorney and he handled it with their attorney.