Selling Your House Without a Realtor

Posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 5:10 pm in Financial Planning

If you’ve ever sold your house or condo, you’ll know that real estate agents take a standard fee of 6% of the purchase price. That’s $6,000 out of every $100,000 that you get for your home. Some agents charge even more – up to 8% in certain sought-after areas. Once you add that to the appraisal fee and the taxes and legal fees that make up your closing costs, you’ve taken a big bite out of your profit. In this market, of course, many people are actually making a loss on their homes, which just makes handing over all that money to a real estate broker even more painful.

Some realtors will agree to take a cut on their commission when the market is tough, as this can help you to lower the price and shift the house more quickly. But you can still count on giving up at least 4% of whatever you sell for. It is possible to cut out the agent and save a lot of money, but you do need to know what you’re doing, especially in a buyers’ market.

If you’re going to be successful in selling the house yourself, you must start by setting a fair price. Yes, it’s your home and you probably have a rather emotional attachment to it, but this is a business transaction. You should consider investing in a professional appraisal that will take current market conditions in your neighborhood and the real state of the property into account – and that removes all the emotion from the pricing process.

Then you need to deal with the legal aspects of selling your house. For around $500 you should be able to find a real estate lawyer who can supply contracts and advise on the sales process. If this is too much, you can locate forms and legal regulations for your state on the web, or at a retail store that deal in legal contracts.

Marketing is often the make-or-break step when it comes to selling your home without a realtor. Spread the word to everyone you know, put notices on boards everywhere in your community, and think about printing flyers and paying the paper boy to deliver them for you. People are increasing looking online for anything they need, so use sites such as Craigslist and Zillow to advertise. If you post ads in local magazines and newspapers, see if they have online classified ads too. Take some attractive photos, and don’t forget to emphasize your property’s selling points like a large yard, walking distance to schools or stores, or a new roof. Put “for sale by owner” a sign out on your front lawn.

Make sure your house is clean and in good shape before you start showing it. That includes the exterior and the garden, as many people like to drive by first to get a feel for the place. Create a welcoming atmosphere inside too. The old cliché about the smell of coffee or baking bread helping to sell a house really is true!