Has anyone bought and/or sold a home w/o a realtor?

[Raiser]

Hey guys. We are looking to move and my wife wants to sell our house on her own. For some reason this scares the crap out of me. Has anyone done this? If so any tips and/or good reading references would be very nice.

Thanks in advance.

[MtnDave]

Not sure if this is a good idea.
However, NOLO press has a book called "For Sale By Owner in California" which has everything you need to know. (I have a copy.) Not sure about other states as I live in California.

[chaas4747]

I did this, but I still payed a land and title company to do all of the closing docs. They did not charge me a percentage, only the closing costs.

[turnipmonster]

yeah my parents did this and it worked out great for them, my sister did this as well. some realtors called them and asked if they could sell it, and my dad just told them how much he wanted for the house. he said if they could get more than that then they would of course keep the difference. my dad got a lot of offers from individual buyers and it worked out fine.

--turnipmonster

[on_thg]

I've done this. I don't know that I especially recommend it, though.

You'd need to have a pretty good handle on what your home is worth and be comfortable with negotiating the terms of sale. You can pretty much expect that some potential buyers and their agents will try and lowball you. It also helps if you're familiar with real estate law so that you don't find any hidden surprises in the purchase agreement.

If you can handle that stuff, though, it's not difficult. I saved half a commission -- a few thousand bucks -- and doubt that I passed on extracting anything like that much more from my buyer.

[PanchoVilla]

I thought the same thing. Now I have spent the last two years working for my broker's license in CA and I understand that there are a lot of things to know. If everything goes smooth in your transaction then its great cause you save money.
If anything goes wrong that is when you will be glad you got an agent. If you find a good agent they generally end up being worth the fee. There are 1001 things that you can do wrong that will get you sued.
Yes you can do it. Make sure you do a LOT of research though and CYA. Otherwise you will end up like the guy 3 blocks from me. He has had a FSBO sign up and holds an open house every weekend. He has also had his house on the market for over 3 months in the insanely hot northern California market. That is at least an extra $6k in interest alone and 12 saturdays of his time lost......
That said there are a lot of not so good agents. During one of my classes I went to 8 open houses. I would not even have considered hiring 6 of them. Interview a lot of agents before you list with one.

Pancho

[Fins]

Yes.
Find a good real estate lawyer.
Get comparables... search the web & in your area.

[snakehead]

I've bought and sold without an agent. If you don't understand real estate transactions, you probably shouldn't do it, but it isn't very complicated. you can get the standard sales documents at your local office supply. depending on where you live, the closing will be handled by a title company or an escrow company.

I saved about $40,000 in commisions on my last purchase. if you are selling yourself, you might be able to pocket that money.

[inishowen]

I've bought and sold a several times FSBO. There is NOTHING a realtor can tell me that he/she can do that justifies the $ they get paid. Most overpaid occupation in the country. You pay them for marketing, not legal protection.
-Find out how much your home is worth. Be realistic. Visit comparables, do some research.
-Find out what means of marketing attracts buyers in your area. Here in Boston a line in the Sunday paper is enough
to get people to your open house.
-Go to a sign maker and have one made, don't use tyhose Home Depot cardboard ones.
-As a FSBO you will get the Carleton Sheets wannabes. Laugh at these jokers.
-If asked about a material defect in your property, disclose it,
-Only entertain offers in writing, nothing verbal.
-Hire an attorney to draw up the P&S and to represent you at closing. Here a good one costs $2500, much better than paying a soccer mom a RE commission to tell prospective buyers which room is the bathroom and which is the kitchen.

Can't stress enough how important marketing is, the rest is not brain surgery. Good Luck

[snakehead]

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good agent

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oxymoron