Well, I guess we haven’t actually sold our house by owner yet. That’ll happen at closing in mid December (fingers crossed). But here’s how we got an offer.
We’re hardly real estate experts, so this post is just a roundup of things that happened to work for us. Here’s hoping they help anyone else attempting to DIY their house sale too. The cool thing is that the people buying our house aren’t blog readers (they’d never heard about us or YHL- but we disclosed the blog to them to ensure that they were cool with images of the house with our furniture remaining on the site). Anyway, we thought it would encourage other FSBO peeps to know that you don’t need a blog to sell your house. But it was interesting for us to learn that our blog had nothing to do with attracting the people who are buying our house. Anyway, here are our tips:
Tip #1: Pick the right asking price. This is paramount. And we didn’t do this at first. We priced the house too high and we only had two showings in the first two weeks. Then we finally got real with ourselves, dropped things by about 25K, and priced our house to sell in this less-than-ideal market based on what similar homes in our area were going for. Wouldn’t you know we had fourteen showings within two weeks of the price drop – and an offer within two days of it. Really can’t stress this step enough.
Tip #2: Clean and declutter your house within an inch of its life. Now is not the time to leave a pile of socks in the laundry room or a stack of bills in the kitchen. And dust bunnies have no place in your house when it’s on the market. Oh and make sure the house doesn’t smell funny while you’re at it. Sure you’d hope prospective buyers can look beyond any lapses in cleanliness, but those dirty spots can signal to the buyer that the house isn’t cared for in other areas either. Here are a few posts about what else we did to get things ready for sale-age (here, here, here, and here).
Tip #3: Market the heck out of it. The amazing thing about using a realtor (which we definitely would have done if we couldn’t get this done on our own after a months or two of trying) is the fact that they can draw a ton of potential buyers to your house thanks to clients, connections, and widespread publicity on sites like MLS. To offset this advantage you’ll have to do a heckova lot of legwork yourself. The FSBO route isn’t easy by any means. We paid to put ads in the paper, re-listed our house on craigslist every few days, bought a for-sale sign and made countless fliers for the front yard, and eventually spent $295 to put it on MLS ourselves (using this service – although in the time since we used it we have heard this complaint, so perhaps it’s not as nice as it used to be). All told we spent about $500 marketing our house- but it certainly beats the $12k that we would have spent on a typical 6% realtor fee.
Tip #4: Learn how to show the home in a way that appeals to buyers. We learned that keeping Clara, Burger, and myself out of the house (we went on nice long walks) while potential buyers were led on a quick tour by John was the most professional and crowd-pleasing way to conduct showings. After John’s speedy walk-through he would step outside and let people poke around on their own just to see how they liked the feel of the house without anyone hovering. And if it was raining sometimes Burgs, the bean, and I would hang out in the car since walks were out of the question.
Tip #5: Make a strong argument for why your house is worth buying. Your flier (and the things you mention when you show the home) really can make all the difference. We learned that pointing out that many items would convey with the sale really helped people see added value (we tossed in all of our appliances, window treatments, light fixtures, dining room shelving, and even the master bedroom built-ins & our bed frame). We also pointed out things like the size of our large .75 acre lot and our two-car garage, which are both rarities that most other homes on the market in our price point don’t offer. And of course mentioning perks like the newly remodeled kitchen and baths, the new roof, the refinished hardwood floors, the new windows, and the other upgrades that we put into our home seemed to really set us apart from some of the other un-updated brick ranches on the market.
Tip #6: Figure out what to do if you get an offer. The whole purpose of selling your house is to get an offer, but if you don’t know what to do when you get there, you’re kind of sinking your own battleship. You’ll definitely want to bone up on your negotiation skills and learn how to trust smart people. Sure we were selling our home by owner, but we didn’t do it on our own. Not even close. We even asked the buyers agent that we used to purchase our new house a few questions along the way- and we definitely relied heavily on help from the closing attorney and lending agent that we hired for the transaction (they were both people that we’ve used before, so we really appreciated their opinions). When it came to ratifying the contract and getting through all the finer points like inspection negotiations and closing date determinations they really were our sounding board. Hiring a closing attorney is only a few hundred bucks, and you actually have to pay for a closing attorney whether you FSBO or do things through a realtor, so it was a no-brainer to rely on ours for all the help we could get.
Oh and thanks to the fact that most buyers will present you with an offer on paper, you just have to tweak that and “respond” to it (instead of drafting anything up from scratch). But you’ll definitely want to have the legally necessary papers on hand (like a lead paint disclosure form and a residential property disclosure form- both things that we googled and found online). Your closing attorney should be able to help you with those if you can’t track them down. I guess the key here is that a good closing attorney can really be an amazing resource- especially so you’re sure that everything you’re doing is 100% legit. Gotta protect yourself!
Tip #7: Rest assured that realtors won’t boycott an FSBO house. At least that wasn’t our experience. AT ALL. Nearly all of the showings that we attracted were to people with a buyers agent at their side (the agents were actually the ones calling us to schedule each showing). In fact, the people buying our house came through a realtor (so of course we owe a small percentage to that realtor since she’s acting as their agent) but we definitely appreciated not having to shell out close to 7K to a sellers agent as well (since we took on the marketing and the showings ourselves and did all the paperwork directly with a closing attorney as opposed to using a sellers agent for those items).
So that’s what we did to get ‘er done. Again – we definitely would have used a realtor if we didn’t have much luck in the first few months, but we’re just such DIYers that it felt fitting to give the whole for-sale-by-owner thing a shot and share our experiences with you guys. Is there anyone else out there who sold their house by owner? Feel free to chime in with more tips and tricks. We’re certain there are at least a few things we forgot to mention and probably a ton of things that we didn’t even think of. It’s amazing what a learning curve the whole experience can be. Now we’ll just be holding our breath for a quick and painless closing in around a month’s time. Is it December yet?
Tiffany says
Thanks for the advice, one day I hope I get to use it
XOXO,
http://outfitidentifier.com/
laura says
We sold our house FSBO as well. One thing I found helpful was to have sample offer sheets for the buyer. Many people coming through our house were nervous about buying with no realtor, so we had some info on the legal aspects to give to them.
Erin says
Do you think your blog played into the selling of your home this fast at the end of the year (It’s usually the slowest time for buying and selling.) and with it being a buyers market out there?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Erin,
Just read the first paragraph of our post for that info! We were surprised how little the blog had to do with anything, although the actual upgrades that we did to the house definitely helped!
xo,
s
Amelia from Flux Capacitating says
Hey there! This is not related to FSBO-ing (though maybe it’s good thing to not do if you’re trying to sell a house?) but I saw this link about a guy that decorated his basement with $10 worth of sharpie markers and wondered if ya’ll had seen it yet? Pretty wild, brave, wired, lovely etc etc.
http://www.heraldleaderphoto.com/2008/09/18/man-decorates-basement-with-10-worth-of-sharpie/
Congrats on the new home!!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Amelia,
Oh yes, we LOOOOOVE that story.
xo,
s
Rachel @ The Avid Appetite says
Best of luck for a smooth closing!
KKM says
Thanks for such an informative post–we may be selling our house in a few years and this is so helpful-esp. http://www.mlsmyhome.com! Quick question: you mentioned you had to lower the asking price to something more “realistic” but how did you pick the starting point for your sales price? Did you have an appraisal, did you just do your own research on what was in your neighborhood?
Can’t wait to see more of your new house!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey KKM,
Scroll back through the comments for that info (we chimed in with that a while back). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Laurel says
Even in different areas of Virginia, closings are only done with title agents. I own several rentals in Northern VA and Maryland and have only used a title agent in Virginia. In Maryland, we used an attorney.
YoungHouseLove says
So interesting to hear how varied it is from area to area!
xo,
s
amanda says
Who drew up the contract? When I bought my house I remember sooooooooo much paperwork. How did you get all the right legal documents??
Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Amanda,
Our closing attorney did all that! Just read Tip #6 in this post for more info. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Newlyweds on a Budget says
Wow, go you guys! that’s amazing that you were able to accomplish such a huge feat! It sounds so intimidating but you guys–as always–make it look like a cinch! : D
bfish says
Good for you for doing it all yourselves!
It is too bad — for you and all others selling during these times — the housing market is so depressed, because I think in better times your DIY and decorating skills would have enabled you to readily sell at a price above the competition.
Thanks for noting the last point. We did FSBO w/ cheap MLS listing several years ago and no realtors boycotted us, they all just whispered cattily behind our backs about how way overpriced our house was. Too bad for them, the house sold in a couple of weeks, multiple contracts, and full price. Best yet an RE agent/mortgage banker from Richmond bought it, and she was very nice about doing a lot of the paperwork and closing arrangements.
Kate says
Hi Youngsters! I love y’all, and as a realtor I have to ask-you dropped your list price $25,000, and didn’t want to spend 12k on a realtor? He/she could have helped save some of the equity in your home and still made you some additional money before that drastic of a price reduction! I was glad to read that you used a buyer’s agent-I hope you will blog about that experience as well! :-)
Best wishes for a great closing & move! Can’t wait to see the new home!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Kate,
Our house was priced wrong with or without a realtor. The first thing our buyer’s agent (a realtor we used to buy our future house) advised us was to drop the price dramatically. And we truly believe that any other realtor we could have used would have said the same thing (or our house would just have sat on the market for months, maybe even over a year). So if we used a realtor we would still have lost that 25K in addition to around 12K for the realtor fee. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Mel says
“And you actually have to pay for a closing attorney whether you FSBO or do things through a realtor…”
Not true in California. Each state will have different laws that govern a real-estate transaction (e.g. required disclosures, what constitutes a “fixture”, the need for legal counsel, etc.) What is true in VA may not be true in WA, for example.
The public policy reasoning behind not requiring an attorney for a house transaction in Cali is that our housing prices are already too high and requiring legal fees on top of that would put our costs even higher.
Good luck with, as we say, “escrow”! ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Mel,
So we’re learning! Thanks for sharing how things run in Cali! We’re by no means experts on FSBO- just sharing what seemed to work for us!
xo,
s
Karen J says
We used a “discount” realtor in Dallas to sell our first house. We paid a flat fee of $995 for them to handle everything, but they had an even cheaper $495 option (our company was NXT Home Realtors but there are lots of other options too). It went very well and our house sold very quickly. Then we used a “cash rebate realtor” to buy our next house (we used ZipRealty, but again there are lots of other options). Basically they refund you a portion of the commission at closing. We received a refund of $2200 at closing. Yay! Love saving money!
Meredith says
My inlaws are from VA and have lived in GA, SC and NJ since I have known them. ALL their home purchases (and there have been several) have involved an attorney. They were SHOCKED when in AZ we bought our first home and all we had was a title company handling the close of escrow. Yup – things certainly are different!! We are shopping now and will rent our current home out (being a bit upside down – it is Phoenix afterall) but maybe FSBO will be the right thing for us in a couple of years! Luckily we can carry both mortgages should it come to that.
Missy says
Wow! Congrats guys!! Now I can’t wait to see what your new house is like and all of the reno adventures you’ll take us on. So cool!
Katrina says
Congrats on selling so quickly! After having gone through the home selling experience ourselves (albeit with the help of a realtor), I can attest that proper pricing and presentation definitely pay off! Due to timing issues I ended up meeting the couple who bought our place before the showing (I was running out the door later than I’d like with my 1 year old in tow while they arrived early to scope out the neighborhood), and was surprised by how similar our buyers were to us – they are “us 7 years ago, but without the desire for a major fixer-upper”. I’m assuming that either you or John met your buyers – are there any similarities in personalities (well, as much as you can tell from a brief meeting)?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Katrina,
I did meet the buyers, though Sherry never has. They do seem a bit similar to Sherry and I though I can’t say I got a lot of info about them because they’re agent has been our main contact. And they certainly don’t share our desire for a fixer-upper either. Which is a good thing or else they probably wouldn’t be buying our house!
-John
Beth says
It was so interesting to read this post. We recently sold our house ourselves, too, and did everything you guys did (like pricing too high in the first few weeks). It took ten weeks, which felt like ages, but I know that is nothing compared to so many people’s houses that have been on the market for forever! One other thing we did was leave an album out (and point it out to the people) of the before and after shots of everything we did to our house. I felt like it kind of justified our asking price to show them how much money we had put into it. And you are so right about the fact that realtors WILL come to FSBO houses. All of our showings were with realtors.
Dana @ House*Tweaking says
We sold our first home by owner and used the same attorney we use for our wills and power of attorney stuff. He was awesome! I would like to reiterate the point about pricing your home correctly for the market….Many FSBO’s price too high by factoring in the amount they think they’ll be willing to ‘come down’. This usually places the home in a higher price range and the sellers miss out on a lot of traffic and possible offers. Pricing very close to what you’re willing to take for the home puts your home at the correct price point and lets potential buyers know you’re realistic and honest…another good selling point. If you price your house correctly, the offers coming in shouldn’t be that much lower {if any} than your asking price.
Another good thing to do before selling by owner {if it’s possible} is to pack up a lot of stuff {just as if you were moving} and store it in a small storage unit. We packed up absolutely anything that we didn’t use on a regular basis. This helps to declutter AND makes your move that much easier. When your home sells, all you have to do is pack up what’s left in the house! We also found that by living without those items that were in storage for a few weeks, we realized we didn’t really need them and were able to purge most of it instead of dragging it to our next home.
So happy you decided to try FSBO!
MDASAY says
J & S – I feel like I know you personally after reading your blog for the past couple of years. We sold a condo by owner a few years back and echo all the advice you have given. Here’s a little bit of our experience:
The week after our condo was up FSBO, the condo across the street (exact model as ours, in fact) put up a for sale sign. We about cried thinking we would never sell because theirs was up with a Realtor…all that exposure…but after printing out professional fliers, much like yours, and adding some sparkly parade float skirting along with a 5 foot helium balloon 90 feet in the air, presto, we had lookers and the eventual buyer in the door. We sold three months sooner that the neighbors across the street (at the same price no less) and it only took us three weeks on the market!
Anyone can do it, it just takes a little moxie and a whole lotta cleaning up after yourself!
Congrats, can’t wait to see the next chapter…
M
j says
thanks for sharing all these tips. so just to make sure i do this right, since we are planning on selling our house FSBO very soon. I should just make sure to have a closing attorney on hand for when we get a potential offer, right? otherwise, i wouldn’t know what the next step would be without guidance. thanks!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes J, that should do it. Although we’re learning that things vary by location so perhaps being sure things work the same way in your neck of the woods is good advice! Good luck!
xo,
s
Amanda Wright says
You said that many of your showings were to people with buyers agents. When we were house shopping with our realtor he didn’t want to take us to see any FSBO properties. Did you have to advertise that you were willing to pay a buyer’s agent? Thanks for the great info!! This should come in handy one day. : )
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Amanda,
We indicated right in our listing what percentage we were willing to give buyer’s agents so it was all outlined beforehand and didn’t seem to scare anyone off. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
kitliz @ DIYdiva says
Obviously you didn’t need to do anything different because you sold the house (and fast!) But did you ever consider building a website about the house and its features? It might be helpful for others who are diving into this adventure. That was the ticket for me when selling FSBO. (And the reason an out-of-town couple fell in love with the house before even visiting!)
This is my list of FSBO resources, including info on how I built the site that sold my house: http://wp.me/phpOm-7Q
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Kitliz,
It’s definitely a great idea! We didn’t consider it just because we didn’t think of it (we did have a link on our flier that linked to a listing with more photos than we could fit on the flier). But I bet if it had been on the market a few more weeks we might have done something like that for sure!
xoxo,
s
Aly says
Great post, though I hope to never need your advice. I, like you, believe that I’m living in my forever home. Clearly things can change, but for now that’s what I believe:-)
We bought our house through FSBO. Honestly, I’m surprised at how many people have had such success with it. We almost didn’t view it because of that. I’m not sure why FSBO seemed sketchy, maybe because of family influence, but it certainly worked out well for us. As it has for many of your readers.
Great job selling so quickly. That means we get to see you start the DIY process on your new home sooner! Can’t wait.
Erin says
Sorry guys, I totally skipped that first paragraph and went straight for the details.
YoungHouseLove says
No worries! We blab a lot, so skimming is expected. Haha.
xo,
s
Ana says
Thanks for breaking the FSBO process down. What I found most helpful was the site that allows you to pay to put your listing in MLS. I feel like if I do choose to go the DIY selling route someday it’s feasible. What previously made me wary was that so many people say that FSBOs don’t sell — and I’ve seen several in my neighborhood sit and sit and sit on the market. It’s great to see that it can be done.
Christeen says
Hi
Congratulations on the sale!
It’s funny reading how buying and selling works in another country. In Aust. selling a house without an agent in nearly unheard of. Agent fees are expensive here as well, a percentage of the sale price, however there are now some agencies that are charging a flat fee regardless of the sale price. We’ve spoken to both types and the agency charging the flat fees were also much more transparent with regards to the advertising costs which seemed reasonable. We also don’t pay anything to the buyers. But I believe we will have other costs like mortgage exit fees, stamp duty on a new house or land and legals etc.
We are in the process of looking at a block of land to build again so we are getting our house ready for sale. Much like you with decluttering,weeding the gardens etc. We had a look at a couple of open houses of houses that are in the same price class we want to achieve and I sometimes wonder why they are bothering. I mean people could at least take the smelly plastic bin bag hanging on the kitchen cupboard out(yep no actual bin) and not 5 mins before the open house hose down the alfresco where the dog lives. Wet doggy smell is not a good one! Picking up the bones in the yard would have helped as well. And No, we asked, they weren’t renters they were the owners! At the moment it is a buyers market in Brisbane and you really do need to go to that extra efford if you don’t want to sit on the market forever.
Monique says
Great tips! When trying to sell your home, it’s like living in a hotel room after it’s been cleaned. Everything has to be in its place all the time. Having helped my sister sell her house, I realized just how much work is involved. But it’s so worth it in order to avoid having to use a realtor. The savings is so worth the extra effort.
Caroline says
I am in Australia and my husband and I have sold three houses ourselves because we turned green thinking about handing over $$$$$ to a real estate agent. In our last sale, we sold the place for more than any of the three agents even wanted to list it as! We also sold to someone who wasn’t even planning to look at our place (DH saw them looking at a place next door and told them to come and have a look at ours as a comparison- they ended up buying it).
Another thing we did was to look at the scheduled home opens in the area (they were mostly around midday) and make ours 1pm so people could see ours last. We also put flyers in 200 local letterboxes to ensure we had a lot of traffic (make it look like a hot property!).
We saved $15K by selling ourselves, plus we got $10K more than the agents said we could get :D
Molly Payne-Hardin says
Why relist on craig’s list every few days? Do you think that’s helpful only for homes or other large sales too?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Molly,
In our area real-estate listings got buried after a few days. So we’d delete the older one and relist so we were more visible. Seems like a good plan for any other sales if you find they’re getting hidden behind tons of new stuff.
xo,
s
eileen marie says
You have inspired us to do FSBO when we put our place on the market (champing at the bit, but we have to wait for 2 other units in our bldg. to sell before we can list ours for a decent price, and by decent I mean at a loss, but not owing the bank a dime.)
Christeen says
Hi again,
Just saw a post from Caroline from Australia. I know this is your site guys but I now have a question(or two)for her.
How did you get started? Was it hard? I’ve never heard of anyone selling their own home. I’m amazed. You need to start a blog or something if you haven’t already with tips for us Aussies.
Jill says
Could you guys clear something up for me? You wrote:
“In fact, the people buying our house came through a realtor (so of course we owe a small percentage to that realtor since she’s acting as their agent) but we definitely appreciated not having to shell out close to 7K to a sellers agent as well”…
Were you expected to pay your buyers’ agent because *you* didn’t have a seller’s agent? Or would you have to have paid that agent even if you’d had a seller’s agent? Also, is the $7K you mention part of the $12K figure you cited earlier, or in addition to it?
We’re hoping to sell our condo next year and buy a house… even though we’re going to lose big bucks in the sale. These numbers are not making me feel any better!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jill,
These things tend to vary by location, but here in Richmond if you’re selling your house and use a seller’s agent it’s understood that you’ll pay around 6% at closing, either to that person (if your seller’s agent brings in the buyer) or 3% of that to the seller’s agent and 3% of that to the buyer’s agent (if another agent brings in the seller, they split the commission, each getting 3%).
Either way, if you engage a seller’s agent you know you’ll spend 6% of the sale of your house at closing, either splitting it between two agents or giving the whole fee to the seller’s agent if she brings in the buyer herself. So since we went without a seller’s agent we saved 7K (so instead of dropping 12K, we saved 7K of that) to the buyer’s agent who brought the sellers in. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Caroline says
Christeen- it was easy
1. Ad in local paper including home open times
2. Apartment clear and freshly painted
3. DH at the front of the apartment hading out fliers to those coming to see the apartment, and buzzing to let me know someone was on the way up!
4. A tour by me, including the reasons I bought the place (great layout, bedrooms share no common walls-good for renting to students, great free public transport, good parking, fantastic caretaker, good local ammenities)
5. A fair asking price. We left a little room to negotiate, but not much- we set a fair price to start with.
We also did our reasearch first, sales in the area over the past 12 months, advantages of our place over all others on the market in the area etc. We got great feedback, people seemed to like our no bulls*** approach, we were very honest and upfront, especially with pricing.
Hope that helps! It really was easy…and we rather enjoyed it :)
pawpaw says
Another Aussie here…. I have seen a house for sale by owner once before (aaages ago) but would definitely be interested in the specifics also.
J & S – we’ve recently bought our first house and are also hoping to move in December so I’m counting down right here with you! Very exciting :)
Ange says
Sorry!, J & S that some of your Aussie readers have just hijacked your comments for a bit..
Christeen,I am in Brisbane too & it’s not as rare as you might think to sell your own house. Do you know anyone who works in conveyancing? They could give you some tips or try a search engine searching only Australian pages. You can also get info from Land Titles Office or Land Registry and Office of State Revenue. Bank Managers, especially ones that own their own branches like at Bank of Queensland are also helpful (but if you are a customer they legally cannot provide you with certain information due to conflicts of interest).Also you will need the contract documentation. BuyMyPlace.com.au is a site where you can list your house to sell and they have very helpful resources such as the ‘knowledge centre’ which covers alot of areas of information including understanding real estate jargon.It’s alot of effort to sell yourself but if you are prepared for a little effort & leg work you can save a packet on real estate commissions. I hope you find this helpful..
YoungHouseLove says
We love it! Feel free to hijack anytime!
xo,
s
Anne says
Your story is heartening. I live near Charlotte, where our unemployment rate is +11%, home prices keep dropping, foreclosures are up dramatically, and I know of no one who has bought, sold, or been able to get a mortgage for awhile. It’s like you live in another land … and maybe one day our area will recover and we can entertain selling too.
Carolyn says
Congrats on the sale! We sold our house FSBO three years ago, and were surprised at how easy it was. The hardest part is keeping the house clean, and a realtor doesn’t help with that :)
Wendy says
I’m confused… did you already buy a NEW house? You mentioned having a buyers agent for your “new house”… how did I miss that?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Wendy,
Yup, we announced that about a week ago. Obsessed with it! Here’s that post for ya: https://www.younghouselove.com/2010/11/to-the-tune-of-katy-perrys-hot-n-cold/
xo,
s
Natalie says
Crazy story for you: My parents just sold their house in San Diego, CA…before it ever went on the market! About a year ago they had a couple come up to them while they were doing yard work and say “If you’re ever looking to sell your house, this is EXACTLY what we’re looking for,” and the guy gave them his card.
Fast forward a year, my Mom kept the card. She thought it would be a total shot in the dark, that those people had probably moved on…nope! They got their asking price, too, which is insane in this economy!
Molly Payne-Hardin says
Thanks!! This post was so-o helpful!! We’re not selling but I hope we will one day and I’m saving it for then :) … tho maybe by then you or your readers will have even more FSBO tips for us :).
Emily P. says
I commented a few days ago about going through the same thing right now (we also close mid-december). The only thing I would add to your list is to showing off why you love it! It was by coincidence that our buyers came to look on the same day we were having a Halloween party…but the 3rd time they showed up that day (with very little warning), my husband, myself, two friends, and our two dogs were already in costume. This happened to be a young couple looking, so once they saw that our house was fun and great for entertaining, they were officially sold! And I couldn’t be happier to pass it along to another young couple who will love it as much as we do. :)
Jill says
Thanks, Sherry. Got it now, and those figures are *slightly* less terrifying. Congrats on your quick sale (I never doubted it would go quickly) and purchase.
Shar says
I am on the other side of the coin. I purchased a home from a FSBO and I didn’t have an agent either. Normally, the conservative me would not do that. But, I lucked out, and here is why:
I got a better deal because the seller didn’t have that agent fee to pay out of his proceeds.
The people I bought the home from were great (like you two). Had they been jerks, it would not have been so ease.
I received a lot of advice from realtor friend and also mortgage broker.
So, I would say that if you go the FSBO route, be honest, up front and super nice to your buyer! As I am sure you two were!
Christeen says
Back again,
Thanks to the other Aussies that have replied to me. I really had no idea it was possible. Hubby and I are going to do some research this weekend. We could always give it a go and if it doesn’t work go the normal way I guess.
Thanks J&S for the space. The internet still amazes me. Here you have people from Australia interacting through a site set up by people half a world away. AMAZING!!
YoungHouseLove says
We feel the same way. You guys amaze us!
xo,
s
pawpaw says
Thanks Caroline and Ange for your responses… would be interesting to know how you go Christeen.
Thanks John & Sherry for being so accomodating :):)
Blanca says
I have dealt with Realtors from both sides of the negotiations and I can tell you I was very disappointed when we bought and when we sold. I really don’t think they are worth the money. I’m so glad you posted this because I can tell you I will never use a Realtor again. I have learned so much from your blog is ridiculous! I only wish I had known about it when we had our house. My husband and I were also DYSers and reading about your adventures makes me nostalgic for my house but when we are ready to buy again, I will be looking to you for advise. Until then, I’ll be checking in to read about your new DYS adventures. I can’t wait till December!!!!!
Nicolette @ Momnivore's Dilemma says
John and Sherry-
So happy this worked for you guys. Great tips.
Here at the estate (my joke for our 1100 sq foot home in Chicago)…we are entertaining the idea of…well moving.
I would do FSBO, but my BFF from childhood is an agent, so she kicks back all but a few hundred bucks. Lucky me.
The homes in Chicago on the market are mostly “handyman specials” which is a good thing, I married a blue-collar man! When I say dated, you hear the BeeGees in the background…
Hot messes…
Thanks for YHL…and may many happy days of white spray paint be ahead…
joquave says
Congratulations on selling your home! I’m sure you’re glad that bit is done and you can now focus on your new home. My husband and I too sold our house without a real estate agent and we would absolutely encourage anyone to give it a go.
Love your tips and would like to add a couple of things we learned:
1. Get a good attorney who is experienced with FSBOs. Our attorney was fabulous and really made things much less stressful.
2. There are some pretty kooky people out there. The people that bought our house and their agent were just plain crazy. You need to stay focused and keep a clear head (this is where a good attorney can really help)
3. If you sign up to list your house on the MLS you can state what percentage you will pay a buyer’s agent. We paid 2%. I know someone who paid one and a half percent.
4. There are some very questionable real estate agents out there. Just be polite and when they leave say whatever you want.
5. This may be the hardest part, but you need to put on an emotional suit of armor and think of this purely as a business deal. During one particular showing the potential buyers were on the second floor of the house, my husband was downstairs and discovered the baby monitor was turned on. Well, he got to hear some honest feedback (which you don’t really get when you don’t have an agent) and some of it was not so nice.
I hope I didn’t repeat any advice already given ….sort of went on a tangent there.
Anyway, good luck! Can’t wait to see what amazing things you’ll do with your new house.
Kristin says
Congrats on the speedy sale of your home! I have just loved your home-selling advice, and wondered if you had any tips for listing on Craigslist – did you have to become experts in HTML code, or do you know some shortcuts for making a listing look pretty on Craiglist? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Kristin,
We’ve heard that postlets.com is a great way to make a pretty ad for Craigslist, but we got a free 14 day trial from forsalebyowner.com (the promo code was on the “For Sale” sign that we bought at Home Depot for our front yard) and luckily that site’s coding worked on Craigslist, so we were able to copy and paste the ad from that site onto Craiglist and all the pretty pictures along with the formatting showed up. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Maya @ Completely Coastal says
Thanks guys!! I didn’t know about the MLS listing service for non-realtors. We just took our home off the market. It had been listed for 6 months with a realtor and only 2 showings!! So early next year we want to sell it ourselves with a new (lower) price tag. So thanks again!!!