Ever bought or sold a house "By Owner?"
 

Ever done a For Sale By Owner on a house? Was it smooth or did you end up wishing you had a professional handling it for you?

I never have, but you can hire a real estate agent to act on your behalf. Should go smoothly then.

And I can save 10-15k if I don't use a real estate agent. That is why I am asking for the experience of others. To see if it is worth it.

Ah ok. Are you selling or buying?

Do lots of research and use an Attorney for any and all contracts, there are plenty of ways to get fucked. If you know what you're doing it can work out well.

pay the RE agent, even if you list in the MLS like I did its a pita. and yes you can list in the mls without an agent. I used floridaflatraterealty.com some years ago it was $300 for an mls listing not sure what it runs now. but should have got an agent to handle showings marketings etc

houses not, apartments yes, a few buy fix them up and sell them never had any problem you just need to do a bit of researching of low about buying and selling but i presume it depends of the state you are located..

several times, Realtors are a waste of money.

I did both and it ended up being a really good choice.
It cost me 700$ to sell my place instead of 10k...

id also like to hear more about this
id love to save that money as well

if you are not in a hurry, you can put a few signs up and test the market yourself.

If in a hurry, I would hire an agent with buyers in the waiting.

I sold mine myself, but that was when the market was much better than it is now. Put up a few signs and actually sold within a couple days.

Spent about $250.00 to $300.00 for an attorney to set me up with all of the paperwork and info I needed.

It was definitely worth it and much easier than I expected.

Selling.

Yeah, an atty for the closing papers was the plan.

Why is that?

That was pretty much my argument.

I would be surprised if anyone in that area has a stable of buyers. Would be nice, but I have my doubts. Only way I figure this will be fast is if I take a loss and sell it cheap. I can make it up on agent fees. I hope.

most people look for location and price...so if you dont overprice your home, it should sell

lawyer handles the paperwork...and the money transfer so no biggie

especially if the other person is paying via bank loan

Good move. Slicing off the $ that would have gone to a RE agent allows you to offer a nicer price

I've bought/sold both residential and commercial without a realtor. But never without an attorney representing me. Even when there was an agent involved I always used an attorney to represent my interests.

We bought one house that way, it went fine.

Another house we bought the RE guy was a fuckwit and almost blew the deal half a dozen times. Finally our banker took over and once he was out of the picture it went okay.

I have not, but my friend saved over $40,000 in commissions for two private sales.
Works pretty good in Toronto. Good luck Baddog!

I am debating also for 2 properties and my house (we need to downsize, I am getting old)...I have done a bunch of research, and the consensus seems to be that agents usually represent a buyer in the higher priced homes, and to get the buyer you need to schmooze their agents with a nice percentage.
My thoughts are a listing agent is not as important as being on the mls and the internet

I had one 3 bedroom condo listed for 6 months....cancelled my listing agent, and am going the fsbo route on that one.

I sold my house, but to my sister so all went smooth. Not sure how it would have went had I put it up on the market myself and tried to sell it to random strangers though.

Realtors are the most useless people ever. Especially in the internet age. I've bought and sold plenty 'privately' and would rather pass the savings on to the buyer or pocket the commission payment myself.

Just remember that you'll likely have to pay the commission of the buyers agent ... there would likely be no incentive for a buyer to buy your place if they have to pay the commission when there are similar homes where the seller will pay it.

Many times FSBO's end up becoming regular listings when the owner discovers its a lot harder to move a house than they thought.

I understand that. But 50% is better than 100%. And the incentive would be a lower price.

You can also advertise "agents protected" and offer 2% to buyers agent.

.

Sold a home myself but that was when prices were constantly climbing and selling was easy. Not sure if that would work too well in today's market.

I bought with no agent involved on either side and it was super smooth.
My mom bought and sold a number of houses and likes to use real estate attorneys. Agents are basically commissioned sales people. They are supposed to know how to make a sale. Real estate attorneys know how to protect your interests and cost thousands less than agents.

As a former Realtor, I can tell you, it can go either way. Two BIG tips when using a Realtor:

1. Do NOT accept "dual agency" in states that allow it. Insist on dedicated representation. This is different from "exclusive agency" which really only means that the listing agency is guaranteed a commission regardless of which agency brings a buyer. The bottom line is that you must get an agent/ agency that represent you, and only you, in the transaction.

2. Insist on a high standard "fiduciary" relationship, again, in states that allow it.

Having a real estate agent isn't all it is cracked up to be. If your house is worth $300,000 and your agent needs cash and gets an offer for $290,000 they are going to figure, fuck it, and tell you why you absolutely need to sell NOW! Then in 2 weeks someone tells you they were getting qualified or getting more scratch to offer you $310,000...

A very good friend of mine is an agent and he tells us horror stories about what he does to people. So another friend sells his home by owner. The agent friend goes nuts and pretty much acts like a royal dick for years... Asked why he did that he says, "Fuck, dude! You told me how badly you were going to fuck me. Why would I use you?" haha...

Not too mention he saved like $18,000...

Over here it's the 'normal' way of selling a house. People here only get a real estate agent involved if they either don't have the time to do it themselves or they have not been able to sell the house themselves for a certain period of time.

yep, Freakonomics mentioned something similar. The owner has an incentive to get the highest price. The agent has an incentive to sell as quickly as possible.

Supposedly homes sold by owners are sold both faster AND closer to asking price (on average) than those sold by realtors. I'm getting ready to sell my place as well and at $500k... I could hire someone full time to sell my place for $30k... Not to mention you could price your home cheaper if realtors aren't sucking up 6% of the sale price.

I say do it on your own. You will never know until you try it if it will go smoothly. Good luck!!

I sold one of my condo's privately and it was easy to do, I did use duproprio.com which is big in Montreal and for under $500 they came and took incredible pics, provided me with a sign and listed it on their site. They do a lot of local advertising and in less than 8 weeks the condo sold.

I do use an agent for all my out of town properties, but do my best to avoid the comm on local ones.

I bought my house and it was a for sale by owner. it worked out well because he also worked for a large title company and his cost on it was $150.

My neighbor sold their house for sale by owner. They paid I beleive $250 to have it listed in the MLS database. He did all the marketing, he said it was a lot of work and probably would have sold quicker if they would have used an agent. However, he ended up saving a ton of money.

I bought a FSBO on my first house, its pretty simple just get a real estate lawyer with experience in it and you wont get screwed over. Agents do nothing but point heads to houses that they _might_ not of seen.

Real estate agents are nothing more than sales people/marketing.

Most realtors are greedy morons who refer to themselves as "real-a-tors". They've got no idea of how to properly market a property and most will either sell your property low for a quick commission OR take your listing at too high of a price (it will never sell)

If you're not comfortable doing the paper work yourself, have a lawyer who has experience with property law do that for you.

Find out what properties very close to you have sold for very recently. That will give you an idea of where you're at.. a real good idea (not what nearby properties are listed for - what they've sold for)

an agent has some benefits.

they get you listed on the local MLS. buyers are lazy, they just go into an agency & ask for a customized list off the MLS. you will lose access to these buyers.

(good) agents know the homes in the area, what things are selling for. They have value helping you negotiate an offer with this knowledge.

agents know what trends buyers are looking for, can help you stage your home.

agents can refer competent inspectors/title people/attornies.

i guess bottom line is that if you feel competent in these areas, go it alone. Agents do bring value for people who know nothing about real estate & home values.

make sure you speak to an attorney about proper disclosure of any issues. thats where you can get hit for fraud if your sloppy.

Realtors rates are always negotiable.


You can prolly get one for .5% in this market.

You can pay $250 and do that yourself...

Every single one will tell you to pay for an appraisal out of your own pocket.

A little Internet research or watching some TV can remedy that. It's not that difficult and with the cash you'll save you could hire some professional stagers to come in and even rent some additional furnishings if you need.

You can get recommendations from other buyers/sellers in your area. Often times Realtors recommend people based on the referral payout they get.

Definitely get an attorney! But 6% can be a lot of cash depending on the value of your home... definitely not worth it my opinion. Especially considering places like ForSaleByOwner.com offer 100% money back guarantee if you house doesn't sell and you end up going with an agent.

Additionally something like 90% of all homes sold are found by searches on the Internet these days. I guarantee all of us here know a thing or two more than any real estate agent about keywording and positioning content to place well in search engines (or what sites get the most traffic [by doing actual research]).

Real estate agents are becoming less and less valuable. They're going to have to lower their take if they want to stay competitive.

My personal game plan is to photograph my own place, the property, and the view to create a nice little mini website that has a walk through. No realtor would ever produce a better tool online... and I'll save $30k.

Agreed. As long as you're around and available to do the work you'll be fine. Probably wouldn't hurt to pay for a MLS listing. Tons of companies offered it in the past, who knows today....

And the lawyer for paper work, which you've already figured on.

That is a given.