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Folks - I need some input. I am in the process of selling my home and buying a new home. Since my home is underwater, I will be pricing it competitively. My question is more around whether I need a selling agent in the traditional sense to list my home. This is because there seems to be services out there which will list your home in the MLS and depending on the scale of services would also handle calls from buyers and work with me to show my home for a less than 6% commission that a traditional realtor charges. Should I focus on using one of these services and instead only have a buyer's agent to help me look for a new house? Has anyone had luck using these services? Realmart is an example. I don't know how good they are.
I personally think shelling out 5-6% as a seller is ridiculous. Housing market will be very strong in spring and summer so timing works for you. If you price it well, you should be able to sell it without a seller's agent. It is up to you if you want to sell it FSBO or want to pay a 2.5-3% to a buyer's agent. Pay a realtor to pull comparable sales over last 12 months in your town to analyze listing price, list on MLS and host a couple open houses every other weekend. See how it goes.
Btw, what do you mean by underwater? Market value below what you purchased or below what you owe to your lender? Two very different cases.
I personally think shelling out 5-6% as a seller is ridiculous. Housing market will be very strong in spring and summer so timing works for you. If you price it well, you should be able to sell it without a seller's agent. It is up to you if you want to sell it FSBO or want to pay a 2.5-3% to a buyer's agent. Pay a realtor to pull comparable sales over last 12 months in your town to analyze listing price, list on MLS and host a couple open houses every other weekend. See how it goes.
Btw, what do you mean by underwater? Market value below what you purchased or below what you owe to your lender? Two very different cases.
Sorry let me clarify. Market value less that what I purchased. When you say pay a realtor for comparable sales, what does it mean? Can I ask them for this information for a cost? Will they do it?
Also, realmart.com has two offerings, one with a flat fee that just gets you an MLS listing and buyers can contact me directly and I would need to pay 2.5% to the buyer's agent or another with a flat fee plus 1% to realmart and 2% to buyer's agent. This service provides some level of handholding from them in helping to host open houses etc.
I sold my home in Tinton Falls without a realtor and did a FSBO. I listed it on Zillow and sold it in 28 days. You can get a Keller Williams Realtor to list it for 4-4.5 % if you don't want to go through the hassle. I was retired so didn't bother me showing the home. DM me if you have any questions. Spring is right around the corner and the potential buyers come out around the end of March and beginning of April.
You don't need a realtor for comparable sales either...
Good luck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adviceseeker
Sorry let me clarify. Market value less that what I purchased. When you say pay a realtor for comparable sales, what does it mean? Can I ask them for this information for a cost? Will they do it?
Also, realmart.com has two offerings, one with a flat fee that just gets you an MLS listing and buyers can contact me directly and I would need to pay 2.5% to the buyer's agent or another with a flat fee plus 1% to realmart and 2% to buyer's agent. This service provides some level of handholding from them in helping to host open houses etc.
You don't need a realtor for comparable sales either...
Good luck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adviceseeker
When you say pay a realtor for comparable sales, what does it mean? Can I ask them for this information for a cost? Will they do it?
One can look-up township records, Zillow, etc. to find sales history but I would rather pay a realtor a couple hundred $$ to pull comps for me. Be honest and tell them you're looking to list yourself but need comparable sales for your own analysis. It would hardly take them 15-20 minutes to run a report and email it to you.
The comp reports they pull has pictures of the house and details such as room dimensions, description of the condition of the house, listing price v. selling price, days on market, etc. All very valuable information for you to price your house.
Dave, we did that as well. we interviewed a few agents after receiving phone calls from them telling them we weren't sure if we were going to list or not and they brought us a lot of comps. At the end of the day we saved 35,000 dollars and listed ourselves and all we had to do was hire a attorney for the closing. We spent roughly 900.00 versus $35,000. Makes no sense for people using a realtor if you are selling.
We showed the house same as a realtor and were able to answer all questions buyers had instead of a realtor saying, we will have to check with the sellers and get back to you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by davenj08
One can look-up township records, Zillow, etc. to find sales history but I would rather pay a realtor a couple hundred $$ to pull comps for me. Be honest and tell them you're looking to list yourself but need comparable sales for your own analysis. It would hardly take them 15-20 minutes to run a report and email it to you.
The comp reports they pull has pictures of the house and details such as room dimensions, description of the condition of the house, listing price v. selling price, days on market, etc. All very valuable information for you to price your house.
I wouldn’t buy a house from a FSBO. I know a lot that feel that way. FSBO tend to be less open to negotiations and there tend to be some unreasonable people (some, NOT ALL, FSBO's are people that talked to realtors and disagreed with their professional opinions and are emotionally attached to their houses, and cannot see why the house that just sold for $XXX was actually worth more than theirs)
Sure you can sell it yourself, and feel like you saved a lot of money, but I find that I get higher offers on realtor listed properties (people looking in my town tend to be busy and do not have the time to schedule 5 appointments to see houses. Just easier to talk to an agent and get them to show you a bunch in one day)
If it was my first house I wouldn't but now that I have a better idea of how everything works I'd FSBO. Of course my inspector would be a total badass and that's where the real negotiations would take place, but on our last purchase the seller's agent was the actual seller which is basically FSBO with a veneer of a license as it was her first sale.
I actually came down 20k from my initial asking price and buyer and I saved a lot of money on the transaction. I disagreed with the 3 realtors who wanted to list my house and I sold it for 30k more than they recommended and saved over 30k as well. Even if you get higher offers 15k to 20 k you still have to deal with the commission and what actually have they done to merit 35k??
Lazy people use realtors or those with no business sense....
Quote:
Originally Posted by sonofagunk
I wouldn’t buy a house from a FSBO. I know a lot that feel that way. FSBO tend to be less open to negotiations and there tend to be some unreasonable people (some, NOT ALL, FSBO's are people that talked to realtors and disagreed with their professional opinions and are emotionally attached to their houses, and cannot see why the house that just sold for $XXX was actually worth more than theirs)
Sure you can sell it yourself, and feel like you saved a lot of money, but I find that I get higher offers on realtor listed properties (people looking in my town tend to be busy and do not have the time to schedule 5 appointments to see houses. Just easier to talk to an agent and get them to show you a bunch in one day)
It really all depends. I've been to a number of open houses that sold on the first weekend. If you live in a "hot" neighborhood and/or your house is easy to sell, it probably makes sense to try fsbo. On the flip side, I did not enjoy dealing with fsbo or looking at houses when the seller was at home and wanted to show their house. I never negotiated with the owners directly but it would imagine it would be unpleasant. So In most cases, list with an agent.
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