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Only a member of the mls can list your property. You can look for a discount real estate broker online. Some sites like Zillow let you offer fsbo but this is not part of a multiple listing service. You can also just stick a sign in your yard if your community allows it.
But first find a real estate attorney who will be willing to help an amateur at $250 per hour just to read the contract you write.
Have you searched this forum? There is a ton of material on FSBO. I did a FSBO 3 years ago. Learned much from reading old threads and contributed in a few as well. Did not use MLS. It's all buried in this forum--both pros and cons.
The best is living in a not too old run of the mill development with a lot of other not too old run of the mill homes
with yours being in good to nice non-remodeled condition ...and that has good curb appeal.
Then all the lookie-loo's driving by to see all the other properties advertised for sale...
On point: Calling that home at a $225,000 negotiated sale contract price... How much of the (5%? ~$11,000?)
in time and services hidden within the sales commission ...would you expect to avoid by FSBO?
Just google MLS only real estate, flat rate real estate, or limited representation real estate along with your city. That should pull up the agents that do MLS only entry if your state allows that.
I used a flat feel MLS service. Cost me a whopping $99 for a 6 month listing on the MLS. They also provided the disclosure documents for my area.
I wouldn't recommend the service I used (xflatfeemls) simply because their disclosures were outdated (and still are), but luckily the buyers agent provided me with the updated forms.
Just an FYI....I offered the buyers agent a commission of 3% and through in a free 1 year home warranty. I saved a bundle by not using a listing agent. If you are interested in doing it yourself be sure to read up on what disclosures are required in your area.
Zillow will let you list a property for free without being a Realtor. There's also Craig's List and Facebook Marketplace.
If you put "consideration to Realtors" or some such verbiage in your advertisement, then they will know that you'll pay their 3% portion of the usual sales commission and they will bring their clients to see your property. (Add in the 3% to your original asking price to cover Realtors) That will knock the usual 6% sales commission down by half to 3%, although that puts you back into the sales commission arena again.
It does seem that there is massive amounts more paperwork when a Realtor is involved and they like to play games with the transactions. Sometimes it seems it's more about doing the deal than getting it done. At least, for the Realtors we dealt with the last time we did a FSBO. After five weeks of fussing about with negotiations, the pending sale involving a Buyer's Agent fell through and we sold it to someone else not using a Realtor. That sale went through in four days.
In our area, all property documents have to be written up by an attorney. Since our local attorneys already have boilerplate documents, we paid their 2 hour minimum fee (at $150 per hour) and still had time left over. The property we bought with the proceeds from the FSBO was through a Realtor and we had to pay twice that amount using their attorney.
FWIW....I listed my house on Zillow 2 days before it became Active in the MLS. Be prepared for a LOT of calls from listing agents trying to get you to list your home with them. Especially, beware of the "I have an active buyer" spiel some agents will use who are trying to get their foot in your front door in an attempt to get you to list with them. And if that isn't enough, be prepared to get a TONS of calls from investors with insultingly low-ball cash offers trying to entice you to sell to them.
I got so many calls from the Zillow listing, but none from qualified buyers who were ready to make an offer on my home. ended up having to mute my phone.
Just something to be prepared for if you decide to list on Zillow.
Save yourself the trouble and hire a professional real estate agent that will manage and arrange for all the private showings with qualified prospective buyers, host open houses, focus on proper marketing, etc. There are so many cheap people in this world that don't realize how much actual time goes into listing a house and getting it sold. Also listing it on the market with a realtor will most likely get you more money. Most for sale by owners don't have a successful sale on their own... been there done that.
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