Author Topic: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?  (Read 1918 times)

joenorm

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Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« on: November 30, 2018, 07:59:44 AM »
I am pondering selling my primary residence. After doing the math, 6% in realtor fees is a lot!

Is it even worth considering trying to sell on my own? Or is the realtor fee just part of the "cost of doing business?"

I am a DIY type of person, but the realtors are able to get the house seen by such a bigger pool then I would be able too(so it seems).

thoughts?

thanks

Fishindude

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2018, 08:50:34 AM »
It wouldn't worry me.
My brother in law just did this and got his place sold very quickly.   Put up some signs and ran a few adds in the newspaper.

Jon Bon

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2018, 02:46:02 PM »
Get a flat fee agent.

My state it costs you $500 bucks to get into the MLS. I have bought and sold about 7 houses now without an agent.

You will sell your house just like everyone else. Then you will realize how much of a racket real estate agents are running!

All real estate is local, but where I am a flat fee agent is a real thing.


katsiki

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2018, 03:39:40 PM »
We used housepad.com years ago.  It worked out fine.

tralfamadorian

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2018, 04:46:01 PM »
I am pondering selling my primary residence. After doing the math, 6% in realtor fees is a lot!

Is it even worth considering trying to sell on my own? Or is the realtor fee just part of the "cost of doing business?"

I am a DIY type of person, but the realtors are able to get the house seen by such a bigger pool then I would be able too(so it seems).

thoughts?

thanks

How strong is the market in your area? The stronger the market, the less likely you need a realtor. Do you have Redfin or other discount brokers available?

waltworks

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2018, 09:42:03 PM »
If you have to ask, you're probably not competent to sell it yourself.

If your market is super hot (probably not at this point, but you never know) go for it. Pay someone for a CMA unless you've been obsessively following your local market for a few years.

If you don't immediately know what a CMA is, just call a realtor.

-W

joenorm

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2018, 07:08:34 AM »
If you have to ask, you're probably not competent to sell it yourself.

If your market is super hot (probably not at this point, but you never know) go for it. Pay someone for a CMA unless you've been obsessively following your local market for a few years.

If you don't immediately know what a CMA is, just call a realtor.

-W


Thanks for all the responses, and with all due respect, this one seems a little silly. Yes, I know my local market extremely well. No I didn't know the acronym CMA until I googled it but it's what I do in my spare time almost everyday. I'd say I know the market as well as most Real Estate Agents that I have come across around my area.

Anyway, the market is strong around here simply because there is a limited supply and it is a desirable vacation area. That said, its a unique place to live and not for everyone, so the potential buyers are equally limited. Plus the high prices make it tough for a lot of people to get into the market.

I have bought two places off-market and it was great, I find real estate agents knowledge of their own business disappointing most of the time, so avoiding them has been nice. But, I have never sold anything on my own. Someone said it cost $500 to get into the MLS in their state, what does this mean? That you can act as your own agent for that fee and get your home Online? I am in Washington State, I'll look into that.

I am not as much concerned with the logistics of doing it myself, that seems pretty easy. I'm just wondering if the agencies will get my house seen by way more people than I can, therefore making the fee potentially worth it.

Thanks again!

 

Another Reader

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2018, 07:44:14 AM »
The $500 gets the property listed on the MLS.  You have to offer a commission to buyer's agents to get them to show the property, write up their offers, and shepherd the selected buyer through the process.  If you don't offer a commission, the agents won't show your property.

Villanelle

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2018, 07:49:16 AM »
Last time we sold a house, it was pretty easy to negotiate with our agent.  I think we ended up paying 5% (2.5 for sellers agent and 2.5 offered to buyers agent).  The agent so readily accepted the 5% offer that I was annoyed with myself for not pushing it lower.  So if you decide you need an agent, you might consider attempting to negotiate the fees. 

waltworks

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2018, 08:22:22 AM »
Sounds like your mind is already made up, but based on what you've told us, I'd hire a realtor.

I live in a similar (ski resort) area and I can say that at least here, the market is most definitely no longer "hot". It's still expensive as hell, but properties started sitting on the market around mid summer. Case-Schiller national and regional numbers are now starting to tell that story (there's a 3 month lag there) and I'd be *extremely* surprised if any expensive market in the US is still "hot". My personal expectation is for moderate price declines or stagnation for the next 5-10 years.

That said, plenty of realtors will blindly price your place as if it's still a seller's market because they're either oblivious or want to blow your ego up to get your business.

-W

joenorm

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #10 on: December 01, 2018, 10:27:22 AM »
My mind is certainly not made up, just trying to gather more info.

I'm actually leaning toward the Realtor idea. I don't know if I have the time to put into it at the moment to do it on my own.

And haha, yes, the Real Estate Agents certainly have a way, don't they? I've already experienced what you just mentioned.

I guess we'll see. Shooting high never hurt if you're not in a rush to sell.






Another Reader

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #11 on: December 01, 2018, 11:53:15 AM »
My mind is certainly not made up, just trying to gather more info.

I'm actually leaning toward the Realtor idea. I don't know if I have the time to put into it at the moment to do it on my own.

And haha, yes, the Real Estate Agents certainly have a way, don't they? I've already experienced what you just mentioned.

I guess we'll see. Shooting high never hurt if you're not in a rush to sell.

Shooting high in a slow market pretty much guarantees you won't sell.  After awhile, you have a stale listing that no one will show.  If the market drops, you end up following the market down.  If you need/want to sell in a slow market, price the property aggressively so you get a lot of interest and hopefully a quick sale.

waltworks

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #12 on: December 01, 2018, 12:07:16 PM »
A lot of people here have never experienced anything *but* a hot market. I talk to people all the time who assume home prices will keep rising forever. It's not quite as crazy as 2006 or so, but still plenty of irrational folks are out there.

House down the street from us (1980s construction) sold this summer for $800k or so. The house across the street (literally 50 feet away) with the same view, same size, same amenities, similar updates/upkeep, but constructed in the 90s just listed for $1.3 million. Hilarious. I mean, a 10-15 year newer house is great. It's not a half million bucks of great. It will sit for a year and maybe eventually they'll get $900k for it if they're really lucky.

I spoke briefly with the sellers and they said "well, houses like this sold for a million bucks last spring, so we added 30% to that." Good luck with that, folks...

AR is right, if your market is not actually hot, you need to price aggressively. I can't say whether your particular market is, but I'm betting it's not at this point.

-W

Jon Bon

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2018, 12:13:50 PM »
I have sold several houses without an agent, it is relatively easy and straight forward. I have used a flat fee agent to get into the MLS and handled the negotiations on my own.

Realtors call you asking if they can take clients through. I simply googled the realtor name/phone to make sure they were legit and gave them the lock box code I kept on the house. They would take clients through and take it from there.

The thing is the is EXACTLY how most sellers agents do this. A sellers agent is NOT meeting the buyers agent over there to let them in. That would just be a waste of man power. Nor would the scheduling be possible as they are normal <24 hours notice. So really the only real work done by the agent is to get the house listed in the MLS, and then negotiations at offer time. Both of these things are easily done by anyone with some common sense.  So all a sellers agent does is list the house and sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Not a lot of 'working for YOU' is happening here.  As other have said you do have to pay the buyers agent their 2-3% depending, but you get to keep the 3% on the sellers side.

If your worried about pricing it right (which is legit) you can have an independent appraisal done for $500 or so. Its something you could include to potential buyers to show your are priced fairly.

Buying and selling a house is stupid easy, the real estate cartel is just trying to convince you otherwise. The heavy lifting is done by title agency and the bank, NOT an  RE agent.



tag

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #14 on: December 01, 2018, 08:01:17 PM »
I stewed over this question for months. Half of what I read said hire an agent. I chose to listen to the other half. And I was wrong. I listened to what I wanted to hear. I didn't listen objectively.

I did a flat fee listing, no agent representation. Eventually I did hire an agent and it sold. I learned A TON. But I will always hire an agent in the future.

MicroRN

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #15 on: December 02, 2018, 03:18:25 PM »
We sold our previous home without an agent, and it was very smooth.   However,  we didn't have to deal with listing it.   A mutual friend knew we were moving and that it was exactly what the other family wanted.   So,  we showed them the house,  they did an inspection, made an offer,  and we did the paperwork through a title agency.  We paid a couple hundred to the title agency, and that was it.

GHG7F0

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #16 on: December 02, 2018, 04:02:25 PM »
I listed with Shoprop.com based out of Washington and for a flat fee of 2995.00 they listed the home on MLS, provided a lock box, did all paperwork and pretty much all services of a regular agent except for open houses. I offered 2.5% to the buyers agent. The condo sold over asking in a few days.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2018, 04:04:32 PM by GHG7F0 »

clifp

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #17 on: December 02, 2018, 04:29:21 PM »
My mind is certainly not made up, just trying to gather more info.

I'm actually leaning toward the Realtor idea. I don't know if I have the time to put into it at the moment to do it on my own.

And haha, yes, the Real Estate Agents certainly have a way, don't they? I've already experienced what you just mentioned.

I guess we'll see. Shooting high never hurt if you're not in a rush to sell.

Unless you offer 3% to the buyers agent, you'll almost certainly get much less traffic. My sister was the last person I knew who successfully sold her is my sister. She is an artist and perfection, the house was staged to perfection and she always had freshly baked cookies or bread before people came to look it at and she offered the 3%.

In looking at properties (mostly rentals) I have gone to look at several for sale by owner places, my experience is they were overpriced.

 I'd definitely look into one of the low-cost realtor's as an option.

clifp

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #18 on: December 02, 2018, 04:34:15 PM »
We sold our previous home without an agent, and it was very smooth.   However,  we didn't have to deal with listing it.   A mutual friend knew we were moving and that it was exactly what the other family wanted.   So,  we showed them the house,  they did an inspection, made an offer,  and we did the paperwork through a title agency.  We paid a couple hundred to the title agency, and that was it.

This is a case where you don't need an agent.  I was in a similar situation, a person I knew was very interested in buying the house, and another expressed some interest.  My listing agent agreed that if I either one bought, he'd just collect the 3%.  Turns out neither were really interested.

flowerofsun

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #19 on: December 02, 2018, 06:08:56 PM »
I think its better to sell with an agent. I saw a statistics somewhere that through agents you can sell for more money and quicker (saves you mortgage payments, insurance, etc)
If I ever wanted to sell my house I would get an agent, but that is my humble opinion

SnackDog

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Re: Selling home without agent. Good or bad idea?
« Reply #20 on: December 02, 2018, 08:04:03 PM »
Real estate is  local and so are selling/buying practices.  In some locations perhaps you can sell on your own just fine without an agent. In others, you may lose a lot more on price than you save on the commission or worse, end up with a lawsuit. Be sure you have a good attorney and be ready for anything. Be sure you know what you can/should legally say to the other party in all instances. Lots of people crow about how realtors don't do much for their commission on an easy sale but I can tell you they have to work pretty hard when things get weird on a transaction.

 

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