You totally have every right to sell your belongings, including your home - all by yourself! But in most cases, I would advise against it. Why? Because it IS a lot of work that you would probably rather pay a real estate professional to do for you. And unless you happen to know a good deal about the legal aspects of real estate transactions, you could potentially find yourself on shaky ground.
If you still think you want to give it a try, you’ll want to consider how you’ll accomplish the following:
Complete the required disclosure documents and distribute them on time
Follow Fair Housing Laws (if applicable)
Get eyes on your property via listing it in the MLS & online or with printed ads
Decide what your home is worth and establish what you want your “take home” to be
Find trusted specialists to help you photograph, measure, clean and do repairs, etc.
Stage your home for photography and showings
Take calls and respond to texts and emails from inquisitive parties
Hold weekend open houses
Book and be home for showing requests from potential buyers
Negotiate the terms of the sale (requires filling out legally binding forms)
Negotiate any necessary repairs
All without advice or support from a real estate professional…
With the requirement of finding your own potential buyers without the help of the MLS or an extensive network of individuals who have buyers searching for properties just like yours, along with the additional requirements of scheduling and attending every showing yourself, it’s no wonder why most FSBOs eventually end up hiring a real estate agent!
On top of this, there are a few important things that FSBOs typically overlook:
Although not required, you will certainly want to provide a commission to the buyer’s agent, otherwise they won’t be incentivized to show their clients your home. That means you need to do all of the work above, but you’ll only be saving on approximately HALF of the commission costs. (Note that commissions are always negotiable by law and that there is NO standard rate for agent commissions.)
As an example, we’ll take a rate that is typical for agents working with my brokerage, 3% (for the listing side of things). If you think 3% is high, please reconsider, since as a rough rule of thumb, 1% goes to the brokerage for their administrative services, 1% goes to costs involving the marketing the property, and the remaining 1% is what the agent makes as compensation for their work.
Owners who sell their own homes often leave money on the table (we're generally talking thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars), either because they don’t know what their property is worth or because they are not talented negotiators. In most cases, the amount that the agent costs will be made up by achieving a higher sales price (compared to how the property would have sold as an FSBO). In this case, the seller isn’t out anything for paying to list his home with an agent and he also doesn’t have to do the work himself - nice!
It’s certainly helpful having someone there in your corner to make sure that you don’t overlook anything important and in the worst case, you've also got someone to call in case something goes wrong with your transaction - even years after the fact.
Please leave your questions in the comments!
*This guide is intended to be used as general information only. It is important to note that the author is a real estate agent and is NOT licensed in law, loan, finance or tax matters. Therefore she cannot give any definitive advice on these topics. If you have any questions about any of the topics mentioned, it is advisable for you to seek out properly licensed professionals so that you can obtain current information that is relevant to your specific situation.
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