View Full Version : Getting ready to sell the house
Anyone here done a "For Sale by Owner"? What was your experience?
I've sold several commercial properties "by owner", but I hand-selected the buyer from tenants. Paid a local real estate & title place to handle the paperwork. Saved everyone a lot of fuss and bother.
That was in a fairly flat market with low demand. In today's market here, I suspect I'd get a much better price using a well-connected, skilled real estate agent.
iris lilies
4-7-23, 6:23pm
Anyone here done a "For Sale by Owner"? What was your experience?
Well, sorta.
We found our own buyer, but contracted with our close friend who is one of the leaders in the real estate field in our area to handle the sale. We consulted with him in setting a price. After that, my goal was to be inconvenienced the least possible in the sale process.
We did once, but we were selling it to someone where the house had been in their family, and they had stopped by one day and offered to buy it, and we were wanting to move south to be out of the harsh winters, so it worked out pretty well. We just got a lawyer to prepare the closing and they got a mortgage from their credit union. So we did not have to advertise or anything.
Yes. When we sold our house in Austin, we placed an anonymous type listing on the local NextDoor site. We immediately had three responses and an offer within 24 hours (this was back in 2016). We used a local title company with an in house attorney to help with paperwork. Went off without a hitch with all parties happy. I have a visceral reaction to most realtors and don't think in this time that they deserve the 6% commission anymore. Had one come by last week for a market analysis and she is has been so aggressive to list that we will once again try the FSBO aspect when we sell this house.
Yup, quite a while ago and there was a buyer ready. It was pretty easy, but I'd never try it without the help of a legal expert.
frugal-one
4-7-23, 10:30pm
The biggest issue is determining the value of the house. I tried to find comparable properties through the village assessor and was shut down. Get an appraisal or just contact a realtor to see what they would list it for (not sure they would reveal without being the agent?)? There is a RE agency that charges a flat 3% commission if there is no other realtor's involved. Usually the buyer has a realtor though??? I think it wouldn't be hard to find an attorney to check over the paperwork, etc. or title company. Not sure what path to take.... probably the 3% Realtor since I have a reputable referral???
The realtor we met with recently gave us comps for a suggested sales price. Almost every realtor will do so with the hopes of getting your business. Just don't sign a listing agreement unless you are sure you want to go with that particular realtor.
Frugal, it's such a weird market I would just bit the bullet and hire a realtor if you have a really good one. To avoid underpricing the house, to deal with the financing stuff that comes up, to deal with buyer weirdness. To advertise widely enough to get a quick offer.
iris lilies
4-8-23, 9:47am
Dealing with a real estate agent or not kind of depends on your goal. If your goal is to squeeze the most dollars out of your house, you AND a real estate agent will have to work at it.
I didn’t want to work at it, so I was willing to accept a less than maximum price. In other words, we didn’t paint it up and stage it and keep it clean for many showings. We just sold it to the people who wanted it, and those people assured us they didn’t expect us to do any fix ups. DH did do three things because it would not have passed occupancy inspection without them, but otherwise we sold our house that had some old flooring, mismatched appliances, not a fresh paint job, etc. We didn’t have to keep it constantly clean for showings.
Be sure to have really good pictures. I lurk on Realtor.com and I’ve looked at hundreds of houses there, and you’d be surprised at how many in this day of digital promotion still have crappy pictures.
Our out of pocket to pay realtors when we sell this house will be in the $25-30K range. That seems like a lot but that includes drone shots which I am told one must have these days...
iris lilies
4-8-23, 12:25pm
The biggest issue is determining the value of the house. I tried to find comparable properties through the village assessor and was shut down. Get an appraisal or just contact a realtor to see what they would list it for (not sure they would reveal without being the agent?)? There is a RE agency that charges a flat 3% commission if there is no other realtor's involved. Usually the buyer has a realtor though??? I think it wouldn't be hard to find an attorney to check over the paperwork, etc. or title company. Not sure what path to take.... probably the 3% Realtor since I have a reputable referral???
your assessors office will not likely give a market value. If you don’t have any idea what comparable properties in your neighborhood go for, you definitely need professional advice on pricing.
When we sat down to talk to our real estate agent/friend, we had a pretty good idea of what comparable houses were going for. And in fact, just a year earlier, he had suggested we sell our house then because he had buyers who would pay $400,000 for it.
The “ little “ houses like ours were in super hot demand.
We priced our house at $410,000 and the buyers accepted without quibbling. Within a couple days around the corner two other comparable houses went on the market for more. I had a moment of price regret, but then I remembered that I would’ve had to do a lot of work to get our place spic span and shiny, and plus it would’ve taken DH 2+ months plus $8,000 in new floiring to do that, and by then, what would the market be?
In hindsight, that was a perfectly fine idea because the market did tank some months later.
Ok... the plan is to have 2 different realtors come in (will call next week after the holiday) and decide then. We want to get rid of EVERYTHING except DH tools and a few kitchen items and my reference books. I would love to just start over. So, we will call an auction house in the area too after the house is sold. My mind is reeling...... I no longer want to live here or have a big house (this is 1800 sq ft...not big by other's standards though). Now is the time to bite the bullet. There are NO houses for sale in this community except newly built so that may bode well????
Good for you! I am so impressed!
I hope there are available houses where you wish to live. The pickings are slim now in many places...and still over-priced for what they are. The hard part of moving for us was having to move several times since we had to get out when the house sold and still had not found a house here.
I agree - good for you and the best of luck!!!
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