Northern Virginia is a sellers market. Should I get an agent or go FSBO? (houses, buying)

[jmking]

Originally Posted by airjay75

You may well be totally right - I certainly dont have any facts that would indicate anything to the contrary, but it just seems surprising to me based upon my recent home buying experience. Once my wife and I narrowed down the areas in which we were interested, we just searched night and day for listings online (primarily using Redfin). The only driving around we did was to check out neighborhoods. Even if we saw a yard with a for sale sign, I would have immediately gone to my Redfin app to see the details. If a home didn't look to have at least some of the things we were looking for in its online listing, I would not have even bothered to go look at the house. I remember some listings where the house looked nice and it was in a neighborhood we liked, but there were no interior pictures included in the online listing - never went to see any of these houses because I just figured I would be wasting my time.

If most home sales currently result from yard signs, I would think that has got to be changing as the younger generations start to buy homes. For them, I think if you don't have at least a basic listing with facts and pictures available online, you aren't even going to get them to come see your house.

Your hunch is correct, the opposite is true. I just sold my home in two weeks with no sign at all, no sunday hootenanny open house.. All from the MLS. My independent realtor told me my house is on at least 50 websites that can be seen around the world.

[rootless_in_va]

One other thing you can do is contact multiple realtors to give you a listing presentation. No cost on your part, and you can get a sense (maybe) of what your house is worth. You can also ask them to give you a room-by-room review on what you need to keep/toss/change. We're going to go with a traditional agent, but I auditioned four of them to figure out which we wanted. Frustrating thing is that their pricing was all over the place, but a helpful question is to ask them to defend *why* they'd price where they'd price it. Even if you decide not to use any of them and to go FSBO, you're going in with a lot of information.

Personally, I'd never sell my house FSBO. I was, for a brief time around 1998, a realtor myself and had a couple of contracts nearly tank for last minute FHA inspection issues. Looking at all the paperwork and such, I thought "no way in hell are we doing this ourselves when we sell". I also tend not to consider FSBOs to buy-- I have the same sense other people have had, the "if they're cutting corners here, where else?"

[April Whritenour]

There are a lot of things to consider: pricing, home inspection, warranties, appraisal issues, mortgage programs (FHA), disclosures, settlement companies, earnest money, marketing, etc. You can pay a flat fee and have an agent do the ministerial duties for much less, but they will not be able to advise you. You can save money by not paying a commission to a listing agent, but most likely you will still be expected to pay a commission to the buyer's agent. How much money are you potentially losing if you are not well versed in this current market?

[BMWZ4RUlz]

FSBO's are funny. In theory you save money on the commission, but if you are cutting out X number of buyers because they never see your property on the MLS, you aren't saving anything. In fact, doing FSBO can cost you a ton of money. More commonly (not always), FSBO's are more stubborn and more difficult to negotiate with anyways, pass.

So bottom line, even if your listing agent isn't all that great, still better than going FSBO.

[vermonter16]

I'm still going back and forth with the whole process. Will probably be moved out of my current home in the next couple of months. I'm still not a fan of going FSBO but I still want to save money....so I'm toying with the idea of repainting the house myself, etc., power washing and restaining the fence myself, rather than hiring someone and then getting a realtor. I don't know....the jury is still out.

[midlifeman]

I finally decided to use a realtor, but man does it stink to pay about $28,000 in commissions. Luckily I was able to negotiate a 4.5% rate. I just didn't have time to deal with the process of selling the house.

[vermonter16]

Originally Posted by midlifeman

I finally decided to use a realtor, but man does it stink to pay about $28,000 in commissions. Luckily I was able to negotiate a 4.5% rate. I just didn't have time to deal with the process of selling the house.

I'd like to be able to do the same thing since my neighborhood sells so fast. Not sure how much luck I'll have but I will try. How did you negotiate the lower rate?

[kww]

Originally Posted by vermonter16

I'd like to be able to do the same thing since my neighborhood sells so fast. Not sure how much luck I'll have but I will try. How did you negotiate the lower rate?

as easy as asking, just make sure that lower rate does not come with a lower quality of work from the agent

[schmoe76]

I've bought and sold dozens of houses, and I'm not trying to say there are no bad real estate agents, there are, especially during booms. But in my experience, the good ones are worth their commission (my main guy charges 4%). There are so many things that can go wrong in a real estate transaction that I prefer to leave it to the pros.

4%? Is this 4% strictly his/her listing commission or does the 4% include the buyer agent's commission also?

If its the former, you can do better. Standard agent fees are 3%, and that isn't a discount agent.

If its the latter, than your agent is likely only giving back 2% to the buyer's agent, which is 1% less than what other sellers might be giving. Some unscrupulous buyers agents might be less inclined to show a property without full commission.

[Jlyles]

Yes, ask. There are plenty of great agents willing to speak to commission and services.

Originally Posted by kww

as easy as asking, just make sure that lower rate does not come with a lower quality of work from the agent