I keep seeing this being recommended, especially for people where the equity might be tight. If I seriously consider doing this, I want to be honest about my capacity to do so.
I’ll probably get downvoted for this but just giving my honest opinion - you’re much better off using a discount broker than going FSBO. Buyers oftentimes have a negative perception of FSBO’s & you will almost certainly have less traction / offers. FSBO’s often net less than when they use an agent as well, but I’m sure you’ve heard all of that.
If you’re stubborn and determined to go that route:
Use professional photography. Seriously. It makes a HUGE difference.
Pay a flat fee to put it in the MLS (if this is an option where you are), it will synchronize to all of the other browsing sites. You can also put it on Zillow separately.
Anticipate having to contribute to the buyer agent as most buyers cannot afford to pay theirs out of pocket. Instead of saving 5% to 6%, expect to save 2% to 3% on agent compensation to be on the safe side so you’re prepared for the “worst case scenario” when it comes to your bottom line.
I would agree with this. I am a real estate agent, and I show for sale by owners when I can get into them. The problem is, those owners aren’t working this listing full-time and it’s hard to get into them. If you know your stuff, have it readily available, can answer the phone and schedule appointments quickly, I don’t have a problem selling your fsbo to my buyer. More often than not, the above is not happening and we can’t get in to see the house or get the information we need to get a proper contract on it. You’re going to have people judging you because that’s their experience. The only thing you can do is make sure that that’s not the experience you’re offering up.
Fsbo can be just as fast as using agents. I recommend using a real estate lawyer to draft the documents, look for one that has done fsbo transactions and negotiate a fixed fee.
I recommend the Nolo press book about sellng your house. It has template legal documents and walks through the entire process: Sell Your Home FSBO or With a Real Estate Agent? | Nolo
@Kimberley Can you comment on the time aspect? Like how much time would one reasonably be spending out of their day/week to do it successfully
The big variable here is your market. If there’s a lot of demand, it might be a few hours of your time to push out the listing and then a few hours doing the transaction with the lawyer. If you have to market hard for months, because demand is weak or price is wrong then you will spend a ton more time and effort finding a buyer.
You can close in 2-3 weeks.
One word of caution is that you might spend time with shoppers but not serious buyers. You will have to sniff out the interested parties to decide if you take want to let them tour the house. You will also want to avoid difficult buyers who cause the close to go of the rails. And you will get outreach from agents that will say almost anything to get a listing.
You can always try selling it yourself and then use a listing agent later if it isn’t working out. Get familiar with the process, then decide what you want to do.
@FrankSmith You will want a good photographer and probably an interior designer to help stage the home for photos and overall give you tips on keeping the house presentable for potential buyers.
You will want to pull real comps of real houses that are model matches. Look at sold, not listed. If you can find out how much they listed for, even better. Take emotion out of it. Nobody cares you installed a sick accent wall and chandeliers. You don’t add that to the price, hopefully you enjoyed it while you had it.
You will have to be prepared for every agent calling and running a script on you. YouTube FSBO cold calling.
You can find someone to list it on MLS for a flat fee. That may solve the issue of agents calling you, though I’m not certain.
You will be taking calls a lot more often than normal. No more hitting that silence button when a call comes in. Hopefully your work schedule allows for this. If you read this or the realtors subs enough, you’ll see a common issue is lack of communication.
Probably interview some top agents in your area and let them pitch you. Who knows, if you have listed for a bit and find it overwhelming, maybe you’ll have a backup plan already ready.
Buying and selling and moving is stressful AF.
On the topic of your equity being tight, if you have a favorable APR and your loan is assumable, you may be able to find someone to assume the loan from you and be willing to pay a bit above market in order to do so. Those do take a bit longer to close as the bank does a bunch of stuff on their end.
I have a friend who sold two homes FSBO in balanced markets.
I know for one house he had maybe 15-20 showings over 3 weeks, which meant he basically couldn’t do a lot of work then (his work was seasonal and this was during his slow time); I don’t know as much about the other house he sold.
Are you comfortable showing your home to anyone who asks? being alone inside your home with a group of strangers?
I used a generic real estate contract off the internet and had a realtor friend look over it for me after I filled it out. Buyer agreed to terms and we closed in <30 days at his attorney of choice. It seems like it was closer to 2 weeks but that’s been a few years.
If we hadn’t been stretched for time on showing my wife’s previous house, we would have FSBO’d that one as well.
The biggest challenge to FSBO is being available. You need to be able to show the house on a few hours notice. Other than that, it’s a piece if cake. I’ve done it twice.
Most of the time is in preparing for showings, and post-contract logistics (inspections, moving, repairs, etc.)–which are basically unchanged with an agent (and oftentimes more complicated with extra people involved). Open houses themselves are pretty easy, you’d be wise to use a pro photographer, and you don’t need much in the way of legal stuff until you have an offer (generally at most a set of disclosures). Once you have an offer you’re serious about accepting or negotiating on, you can typically find a title company’s law office to review/negotiate for flat fee (we didn’t use that service, but would have been $150).
It really depends on your area and what type of home you offer. If it’s in the 150-220K you normally seller faster because that’s first time home buyer budget. If you need help listing and marketing for a faster sale, there’s our guide on Etsy that goes over all of that
@BillSmith NoRealtorNeeded.Etsy.com This guide outlines photography, negotiation, paperwork like contract, sellers disclosure, pretty much everything you need to not use an agent