For Sale by Owner - Any Advice or Tips?

I've sold all my homes (4) FSBO and I highly recommend it! All you really need help with is the paperwork and I've managed to find realtors or brokers who, for a flat fee, will handle the paperwork transaction of the sale for you. It's really worth the 3-6% commission savings to do it on your own. Just be sure you are ready for staging your home well (get tips on line or from realtor friends), showing it at realtors' convenience, keeping your house really clean, and consider marketing it beyond being on the MLS if you aren't successful right away. Being on the MLS in your community is key.. so make sure you pay to get on their so that you are accessible to all. Also, consider paying up to a 3% commission for buyer's agents. It would be great if you could save the entire 6% yourself, but in this market it's unrealistic and selling homes is difficult enough. Hope that helps! For more tips, email me directly. (no, I'm not a realtor)

My husband and I sold our house in 3 weeks by listing it FSBO (march 09). We staged it and listed it on craigslist for free advertising. Well a realtor was also looking for a house in our town for her clients and our house fit the criteria to a T. So that being said The realtor and my husband and I agreed and signed a contract that if she brought her buyer into the house and they put in an offer and we excepted it that we would pay her 3% commision for paperwork etc. Well with the market being as terrible as it was we figured what did we have to loose? In the end we walked away with $3,000 less than our goal but still a very fair price! Did I mention the other two houses down the road are still for sale over a year later :)

We sold our house at the good point in the bubble in Phoenix when houses were selling like hotcakes. We had a family friend who was a realtor who was willing to help us to an extent just out of friendship and she still advised us even in that market not to do FSBO. Most buyers agents are going to be unwilling to work with you because it is more difficult and more likely to have the sale fall through, so they aren't even going to bother to show your house. Why would they bother when there are a ton of houses on the market with agents who are highly motivated? Also, a huge part of getting your house sold is the networking that goes on between agents. Our buyer found our house because our agent put it in the system that was basically only available to other agents (not just MLS, but some type of informal networking thing thier brokerage did). You would be completely out of the loop on that. In this horrid housing market, I personally wouldn't consider it. I'd be too scared it would keep falling through or not get the traffic necessary to sell. And once a house has been on the market for a long time, that starts to be a negative against just because they assume something must be wrong with it. And the sheer amount of paperwork and hassle that I saw when we sold ours in a straightforward easy sale would definitely scare me off.

If you really want to do it, you definitely need to still pay the buyer agent's commission. They certainly won't work with you for free.

One of my friends in the Title business was telling me that 96% of the FSBO's that begin never close because no-one knows how to manage the contract. That's once the FSBO finds a willing buyer.

So, my advice, if your adamant about not using a professional to market your home and get you to the closing table is: find a close friend, title company, lawyer or someone who knows contract law in your state to help you manage the back end of the deal.

But truly, once you add up the cost of paying the title company, a lawyer, placing ads, buying signs, placement in the MLS, buying a virtual tour, making flyers etc a realtor's fees start to look pretty darn reasonable. And remember, if a realtor finds a buyer for you, they will be expecting their fee. So in the end, you may not "save" anything at all.

GL and happy selling!

I don't know the current stats, but when we sold our house 3 years ago there were some stats that showed that people who sell their house by owner actually made less money (even after the commission). Owners don't know how to properly price or market their house, etc. They also don't know how to negotiate additional requests from the buyers. In this climate, I would think you would want the sales and marketing power of a real estate agent. However, if you are not in a hurry you could just put it for sale by owner and see. I live in Elmhurst too and I am told it is still in demand so good luck to you.

as someone who has lacking credit I would love to buy for sale by owner. but with the economy everyone is struggling I am not sure you would get your money. my dad tried to do for sale by owner and the guy hung himself in the garage he like never got rid of it afterwards. and if you do a for sale by owner and have to kick them out or evict I had one landlord that had to clean an apartment of his and they had a dog they didnt let out for 6 months. there are pros and cons which one is the lesser of the evils.

When we were looking for a house to buy with my husband, our realtor was avoiding all "Sale By owner" houses because "they don't know how to do the paper work, disclosures... and she would have to do her job + their part".
I didn't like it from her because I thought it was a "lazy" person answer but I guess most realtors think the same and she was just honest about it.