quote:

Did you contact the lawyer first?

The title/abstract company I use has a lawyer that oversees the closing. Unless there are unusual circumstances real estate closings are routine to those that deal with them daily.

I recently read in a real estate magazine that 70 percent of the homes are sold using the internet which is up from 60+ percent several years ago.

Hotpads.com is a good site to find homes or land for sale.

How do you find a reputable title/abstract company?

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Originally posted by frayedends:
I sold myself multiple times. First, yes get a lawyer.

That just doesn't sound right.

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Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
I sold myself multiple times. First, yes get a lawyer.

That just doesn't sound right.

Well, some say it is the oldest profession...

Did some more digging last night and it looks like for a few hundred dollars you can get a listing on the MLS.

Then I guess there's the question of whether or not buyers agents would show the house if they weren't getting a commission off it. I guess only having to pay 1 agent commission vs. 2 is better, but still weighing the pros and cons of having to show it myself if they don't have an agent.

ah decisions, decisions. There's also the decision to keep it and keep renting it. It's been a rental for the past 3 years and the tenant just vacated last month. Neighbor came over and asked if it was available as he knows a family looking for a rental.

I'm tired of the landlord game though. Keeping up one house is enough work.

quote:

Originally posted by ubelongoutside:
Did some more digging last night and it looks like for a few hundred dollars you can get a listing on the MLS.

Then I guess there's the question of whether or not buyers agents would show the house if they weren't getting a commission off it. I guess only having to pay 1 agent commission vs. 2 is better, but still weighing the pros and cons of having to show it myself if they don't have an agent.

ah decisions, decisions. There's also the decision to keep it and keep renting it. It's been a rental for the past 3 years and the tenant just vacated last month. Neighbor came over and asked if it was available as he knows a family looking for a rental.

I'm tired of the landlord game though. Keeping up one house is enough work.

As much as I hate to say it you are much better off with an agent. 99% of realistic buyers will have an agent since they don't have to pay them. That means you will have to pay 2.7% to them anyhow.

My agent worked for 2.3% so I had to pay 5% total. Realistically I would have had to pay 2.7% no matter what so I focused on the fact that for 2.3% I will have everything taken care of for me.

Buyers and agents are much more willing to deal with an agent who is just doing a business deal rather than a home owner who has an emotional attachment to the house.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:

quote:

Originally posted by ubelongoutside:
Did some more digging last night and it looks like for a few hundred dollars you can get a listing on the MLS.

Then I guess there's the question of whether or not buyers agents would show the house if they weren't getting a commission off it. I guess only having to pay 1 agent commission vs. 2 is better, but still weighing the pros and cons of having to show it myself if they don't have an agent.

ah decisions, decisions. There's also the decision to keep it and keep renting it. It's been a rental for the past 3 years and the tenant just vacated last month. Neighbor came over and asked if it was available as he knows a family looking for a rental.

I'm tired of the landlord game though. Keeping up one house is enough work.

As much as I hate to say it you are much better off with an agent. 99% of realistic buyers will have an agent since they don't have to pay them. That means you will have to pay 2.7% to them anyhow.

My agent worked for 2.3% so I had to pay 5% total. Realistically I would have had to pay 2.7% no matter what so I focused on the fact that for 2.3% I will have everything taken care of for me.

Buyers and agents are much more willing to deal with an agent who is just doing a business deal rather than a home owner who has an emotional attachment to the house.

This is the conclusion I'm coming to. If the house were worth more it would be a larger chunk and then maybe more worth it to me. Adding up the individual costs, and the individual hassle to me it's looking more and more like I'll just go with the agent and try to negotiate as low a percentage as I can.

Good marketing makes a difference in time on market and final sales price. Whether those differences are important to you are going to depend on your situation, but if you are losing money each month the house isn't sold and the difference between getting an ok price and a good price is significant, then a realtor might be worth it.

A very good realtor would essentially take the role of a marketing director for your product line--lining up the marketing approach to get your home in front of your intended audience, and building an emotional connection to your property with that audience to get them to choose your home at your price over some other at their price. You could, of course, do all of this yourself in the same manner you could also install your own floor or put up your own roof-- but you'll have to judge whether you can do as good of a job for the same amount of time/money as a pro. Many agents suck, so doing a better job than some of them will not be hard, but it is a job and you need to be willing to do it or be willing to accept just fair to middling results.

*Disclaimer: My wife and I are real estate professionals, and we work in an upscale market where poor marketing could effect the sell price by a significant amount.

Here's an article my wife wrote about just one aspect of the marketing, the photography. Even if you don't use an agent, you should pay to have professional photos taken: https://www.liveworkoc.com/hom...os-to-sell-your-home

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Aeteocles,

I see the issues from two factors: 1) whether it's in your skill set to do the job competently and 2) what are the risks/rewards and can you mitigate them.

I have done and still do my own income taxes. I have fixed and replaced leaky faucets in the past but this last time, I hired a plumber as the reward of doing it myself wasn't worth it.

I have used and will continue to use real estate agents as it's not in my skill set and I don't buy and sell often enough to warrant expending effort to acquire the skill set. The risks of flubbing a transaction involving my house isn't worth saving the 5% in commissions.

Full disclosure here, my wife is a Realtor so my opinion is based somewhat on that. Since it's highly unlikely that any of you folks are going to be her clients, I'll give you my honest opinion.
I have bought sold my own homes both before and after she was in the business and she's been doing it for almost 20 years now. I help her some as a non-agent and meet people in those professions and the buyers and sellers. The process is usually much longer than a typical sales transaction so you get to know many people pretty well before the closing table.
Lawyers, just like real estate agents and brokers, mortgage brokers, and others involved will have their own opinion from the point of view of their particular profession.
That all said, and I don't mean to insult anyone here honest, there is some good advise but so much bad information in some of these posts I don't know where to start so I'll just make a random list of things that come to mind. Take it for what it's worth, it's just my opinion.

There are agents, lawyers (yes even lawyers), mortgage people and others in real estate related professions that should be in another line of work. Sometimes it's honesty, sometimes it's competence or some combination of the two. Some are almost criminal, a few are. But there are a small number that are excellent in their field and mostly know their limits. There are a number of others, the majority, that fall somewhere in between.

If you are able to find a good honest and competent agent, lawyer, or mortgage person they usually can refer you to a couple of people in those other professions that they themselves would use (they should give you more than one, at least three is better, too many is confusing). They know who the good and bad ones are.
Just because your friend, relative, neighbor or coworker said they are great doesn't mean squat. This isn't a popularity contest so you need to do your due diligence finding that first key professional.

Yes you can sell, buy or list you house without assistance in most locations but there are many potential pitfalls. But if you still want to do it yourself.....................

Do you know your market well enough to not under price it? That's not as simple as you may think. The houses I sold both before and after my wife was in the business would have been underpriced because I didn't have access to enough information, including the pricing trends at the time.
Do you have the emotional detachment to not overprice it, show your home to all sorts of people that may not care for your taste while insulting your choices, qualify buyers, screen out tire kickers, potential criminals that want a tour to see your valuables, other sellers that want a look at your house to see how theirs compares?
Qualifying buyers. Will your house qualify for all types of loans? FHA USDA, etc.? Is it on a single private drive, require an easement, is it in a HOA neighborhood with fees, have a shared well or private water supply, etc.? Even if you write a contract, an unqualified buyer can tie up the property for months while you wait to find out they can't buy.

Saving the commission, FSBO vs traditional agents? Traditional agents don't get a penny until they leave a successful closing. Before that it's all in the other direction. Listing on MLS costs them a percentage of the selling price, paid at closing. Their respective brokers get a cut of the commission from closing. The listing and selling agents have to split the total commission. Advertising, web sites, search engine fees, signs, mileage related expenses on their own vehicle driving people around sometimes buying them meals. Those costs are unreimbursed and come from your sales commissions. Much of the showing happens when people are off work meaning evenings and weekends. Do you like and have experience negotiating prices, terms of the sale, contingencies, repairs, and have a thick enough skin to not let emotions cause problems? Should you accept a contingency based on the sale of their home when you don't know if it's priced well to sell in another market, already has a contract but may or may not close, etc.?

Internet brokers listing with a low fee just to get on MLS. Most around me charge a flat $500 up front regardless if you sell or not but will also take photos for an additional fee. Some claim to do limited paperwork. You do any showings yourself. If you want a selling agent with a customer to show your house they will only do that if they get paid one side (3% here) of the regular commission. You will be representing yourself and the buyer will have an experienced pro representing them. Reality is that most internet brokers want the $500, could care less if it sells, don't answer calls well if at all and the sellers eventually go with a regular realtor later. They are out the $500 plus lose 3+ months before they figure it out what they are missing. The bottom line, you get what you pay for and often less.

Selling a house on a web site from pictures. I won't say it's never happened but basically pure fantasy.

This is just a taste. I could probably write a book or at least a good short story. I'm not saying it can't happen, some haven't done it successfully and trouble free.

I'll just say that our experience has been that owners have an unrealistically high valuation of their property. We have seen this so often that when looking for houses (and we've spent years doing that!) we avoid FSBO's when possible. Recent experience in California has confirmed our opinion.

Having said that, we are going to be selling without an agent because renters really want to buy the house. Then the problem is getting a good valuation. We will use an appraiser familiar with the community. A real estate lawyer has offered to do comps, etc., but he wants quite a bit.

Ask for a broker price opinion. Usually a flat couple of hundred bucks, sorta like an appraisal, except with the additional leeway of being able to take into account the broker's opinion of anticipated trends, market inventory, time on market, etc.

An appraisal answers the question, "What is this house worth now?" On the other hand, a broker price opinion answers the question, "What should I ask for it?"