Anyone ever sell their house without a realtor?

[porkrind]

Since I have some time in which to sell, I thought I'd try selling it myself and same myself a load of cash. Has anyone out there done this and can offer some advice? Thanks!

[pagerbear]

1. Non-realtor listing services

Some areas have flat-fee listing services that aren't realtors. The fees are much less than realtor commissions.

[megatherium]

2. A friend of mine found a fisbo sign

in the garage of the house he bought; apparently the seller had tried going that route and found it unproductive before finding a seller's agent.

[madmax]

3. I sold my first house myself

I would suggest you have a lawyer lined up before you find a buyer. He can help you with the negotiating process. Don't be afraid to ask any potential buyers about their qualifications such as down payment, years on job, etc.

We put an ad in the local paper and sold it to the first couple that came along for our asking price. It's not brain surgery - you can do it. As long as you know the true market value of your home what do you have to lose? You could save yourself a lot of money.

[cally]

4. I've sold three houses

without a realtor. I bought a book through NOLO press about how to sell a house yourself. I also got a copy of the form real estate agents use from the realtor we were buying a house through. The first question you will be asked is by buyer's realtors--will you share a commission. That means you will not pay a commission to an agent for selling the house, but you will pay a commission to the buyer's agent. It's a good idea since that agent ends up handling all the paperwork for you and it offers you protection.

I've also used agents. I wouldn't try to sell my own house in a depressed market. It will likely sit on the market too long and the property will seem stale when you do list it. The last time, my husband and I decided we would try to sell it for 4 weeks and then list it. We told agents this and many brought clients through. We ended up selling it at 3 and 1/2 weeks.

[Melsky]

5. I'm in ESCROW right now baby!

And I'm very happy about it.

I bought this house in December of last year. It had been on the market for 10 months. I sold it in less than a month in a similar real estate market.

Most real estate agents are not going to promote your house. They will put it in the MLS, maybe take a bad quality picture of it or two, and just wait around until someone buys it. That is what the woman who had this house listed last time did.

I made a web page, and I advertised it for free at www.craigslist.com and my livejournal, and also on all the message boards I frequent.

I almost sold the house to someone from the craigslist ad. But she was having problems with her sale, selling a vacant lot so our sale fell through. But I ended up selling it to a friend of someone who saw my post on DU.

I have a backup list of two people who are interested if (Goddess forbid) my sale does not go through.

For handling the transaction, I hired a real estate agent to do all the paperwork for a flat fee. That was the hardest part, finding someone to do that for a reasonable price. They wanted a full fee, when I already had the buyer and a sale lined up. I only called about 10 or so before I found one.

This is the web page
http://catclipart.homestead.com/deserthome.html

I think it's really important to take TONS of pics. People want to see everything. The woman who had this house listed before had a horrible pic of the front of the house. It looked like the front yard had junk and trash in it. It was cactus. We almost didn't look at this house.

Sit down and make a huge list of all the things you like about your house and use this on your web page.

Tell everyone about it. Make flyers and give them to people at your work, your family, neighbors, etc. Post them up on any public bulletin board you can find.

I think that real estate agents need to offer more fee for service options, less give me 6 percent of the sales price and I will sell your house.

I'm sure there are some good, motivated listing agents out there, but from what I have seen they are few and far between.

I did use to be an agent. What a bunch of freeping money grubbing idiots. I hated it. But I love to market property. The things I learned in Real Estate School didn't help me much. I would get the Nolo press book someone reccomended in a previous post, it's a good one. Then when you find a buyer, call around to agents and find one that will do the paperwork for 1000 bucks or so.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

[DemoTex]

6. I just sold my house in Dallas on my own.

I was lucky; the buyer contacted me. The house had been off the market for about a year. I was planning to list it with a real estate agent in April. The buyer and I both knew a woman at a title company in Dallas. She helped with the contract and that kind of thing. Since it was a cash deal, there wasn't that much to do. We closed last Tuesday. It was the easiest real estate transaction I've ever been involved in.