Anyone tried to sell their home on their own?

[tabsmonsters]

DH and I are in the process of finding a realtor to sell our home. The 7% percent commission is really bugging us. As it looks, we may not make a dime off this place, let alone getting back the 16k down payment. I was just wondering if anyone has ever successfully sold their home themselves and what kind of advice you can give. I know the market is tough right now, we are very nervous!
Thanks!
Tabby

 

[azelgin]

The last time I sold a house without a realtor was four houses and over twenty years ago. It seems most buyers just don't feel confident enough to handle the transaction on their own. Even the one we sold twenty years ago, the buyers brought their own realtor and paid the commission out of their own pocket. Yeah, I know it hurts to see that line where the commison to the realtor comes off of your settlement papers, but I never had much luck on my own. If, you do decide to do your own sale, a good title company will be your best friend. In my opinion, they are the ones that end up putting the whole thing together for you. Don't bother with a newspaper add except in the weekend reality section. We never had any response from daily paper adds.
Best of luck to you.

 

[palabeco]

The only problem with selling yourself is that you don't know who you are letting in your house to see everything you own. With a real estate company, at least the prospective buyers are prescreened ie..they make sure they can afford to buy what they are looking for, they check employment and I'm sure know all of their personal info,if a red flag comes up, they won't take them on as a prospective buyer.

We tried to sell our house ourselves 12 yrs. ago, and went with an agent after about 6 months, and barely made a profit. But I felt safer after seeing what came to my door before that.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Quote:
This is a very good point! This day and age you really don't know exactly who you will be letting into your house, let alone if you can trust them or not. We had a break in 3 years ago and ever since have been very leery as to who comes to my house or who I even let in. None of the door to door salesmen get to come in EVER, so what would be the difference on someone else just coming in to go through your house. The 7% commission might very well be worth you and your families safety.

 

[Smoky73]

Wow, realtors out here do not screen anyone!

Someone calls to see a house and you take them to go see it- no questions asked. I know, I work for a Re/Max agency. All the person needs to be able to qualify for a home is a letter from the bank saying how much they are qualified for. We do not get any personal information at all on either of the parties, especially if its not our client. We get a check for Earnest Money, but the broker doesnt retain any info like SS number or banking history, emplyment history etc. The person who gets all that is the bank or finance company, the ones putting out the money. Thats it.

 

[EllyMae]

We sold our last house by owner. In fact, I was having a garage sale and the guy walked up and said,"Can I make an appointment to see your house?". He ended up buying it later that same evening! So I tell everyone that I sold my house at a garage sale, lol.

 

[newchickenfamily]

Quote:
I second that! The other thing is that when Realtors hold an open house any old Joe-Schmoe can walk right in and look at everything you own! With that said, there is always risk whether you have an agent or not.

 

[Big Hen]

Why wouldn't an agent screen? Who would waste the gas driving people round if they can't make the sale? I'm sure some do but I don't think it's the majority.

My son just sold his house in OR w/o an agent. He used a flat fee listing company which worked well. Most areas have fee-for-service company such as MLS for owners or discount agents such as Zip Realty which typically charge 5% in our area. Also the commission is negotiable. If an agent can't sell you on why you should pay 7% how will they sell your house?

 

[miss_thenorth]

As much as the commission hurts, sometimes it is a necesary evil. When we lived up north, we bought our house private, and sold it private.

It was a small town, and there were two real estate agents in town. One who had rheumatoid arthritis so bad, it took her 1 minute/stair, and the other agent was extremely unethical.

it was a small town, so advertising a private sale home consisted of putting up flyers at the grocery stores and putting a sign in your yard. Word of mouth did the rest. Everyone else in that town knew the real estate agent situation, too.

When we tried to sell our house in SW Ont, town pop 26000, bordering the city of Windsor, we needed a real estate agent. there are just too many houses for sale in that area, pretty much all identical to the one we were selling, so we needed the networking, advertising ,and of course the MLS system so other ppl could find and see our house online. I don't think we could have sold our house (in LaSalle) as quickly if we had tried it ourselves.

 

[brahma-momma]

Quote:
I second that! The other thing is that when Realtors hold an open house any old Joe-Schmoe can walk right in and look at everything you own! With that said, there is always risk whether you have an agent or not.

same way here too. i was lucky selling my property . my house had burnt & i sold the land without having to lift a finger to clean up the rubble from the house. i just got it out by word of mouth i was selling as is and sold it within 3 weeks.