And yes Forummm I agree that the "standard" 6% fee is way to high when you are dealing with a HCOL area like mine. Next time I will negotiate for something lower or maybe channel Mrs.MM and do it myself.
Good luck negotiating that. I know some realtors will, but most who work for major brokerages aren't going to.
Isn't Ms. MM a realtor?
Doing it yourself when you aren't a realtor can very be tough unless you are in a massive seller's market where houses are moving like hotcakes. Most realtors won't show their clients FSBO houses, and most buyers use realtors (they don't pay the fee).
(We did sell a house FSBO, but we sold it to the people we had been renting it to; and we had to lower the price below the appraisal since they knew we weren't having to pay a realtor. We gave them 3% off. But f inding buyers can be HARD.)
In my area, selling your house isn't that hard, if a buyer is using cash it's very easy, if he's getting a mortgage, the mortgage banker will help out A LOT. The Escrow company also helps out a lot. As far as realtors won't show their clients FSBO (for sale by owner) houses, that's nonsense, as long as you pay a small fee to get your house onto MLS, people will see your house and go for it if they want to. As a buyer, you aren't on a contract like sellers, so if a realtor doesn't wanna show the buyer a house, they'll ditch the realtor and ask to look at it themselves. If the buyer has a realtor, they will still get 2-3%, but that's much less than 6%.