Selling house privately

[funkedelic2]

Okay, so hopefully i just get constructive criticism but sure I'll get the usual hate and realtors telling me how essential their services truly are.
I'm not usually a cheap person and do believe in you get what you pay for. I'm simply looking outside the box and avoiding paying 10-20k for something I can achieve myself for free.


Here's the situation. My fiance and I are looking into building a new house in our existing neighbourhood. The house we are in now was also a new build and I picked out the lot and all the finishes. The house is currently 2 blocks away from the new phase and the new show homes. The house was built in 2011, it is done up like a show home. 95% of everything in this house is upgraded. It is in excellent condition and shows like a brand new show home. Everything is modern/contemporary and is still very current with the new home trends. It is fully developed with an oversize double garage, fully landscaped and we built an oversize deck last year. It is 2 blocks away from a new elementary school coming up and very close to the coulees and a 5 minute walk from a huge major park being built that will open in 2018.

I live in Lethbridge not Calgary just to be specific. The housing market here has been growing even through the economic down turn. The development my house is in has been steadily increasing in popularity. Houses do not sit for months at a time and my neighbours house actually sold within 1 week of it being on the market. I should also mention that the development will be completely finished by early next year and there are very few lots remaining. The ones that have sat for a while are ones that are considered ridiculously expensive due to them having amazing coulee views.

Now, given all this information, I'm convinced that I may be able to sell this house myself. Like mentioned earlier, we are 2 blocks away from show homes and we have tons of traffic that passes by one of the main roads that is close to my house. I am in no rush to sell it but if we do sell soon we have a lot in mind that we have already priced our new home on. We are going to try to stay in our house until the new one would be done but considering the possibility of selling early and being mortgage free for a few months and camping out with the parents for a bit. Not ideal but something to consider.

I'm wondering if anyone on here has successfully sold their house privately without the use of a realtor. I have considered putting it up on kijiji and seeing if we have any bites. I would price aggressively since we would be avoiding realtor fees. We have a very good idea of what it should sell for after having a few realtors take a look. All 3 valued it way higher then we thought and all of them had the same to say about the house selling very quickly because there isnt a whole lot out there for the price point and the development being quite popular lately.

I have also thought about listing with property guys or even just paying to have it show up on mls but not hire a realtor. I'm sure that not a lot of realtors would want to bring their clients over if I'm selling privately but the mls listing may entice a lot of people to come and see the place. I want to do this to test the market and if it doesnt sell we could always just hire a realtor. We aren't in a position of urgency and by no means have to sell our property, so we wouldn't be losing anything. I would hate to list it with a realtor and have it sell within days and kick myself for not trying to save myself some money first.

Obviously there are many other factors other then the sale of the home to consider such as the legal stuff. I won't be attempting that myself and we would use a lawyer. We would have to do a considerable amount of research before attempting to bypass using a realtor in the first place.

Just thinking it may be a good idea, maybe not
who knows. Just want to hear some feedback and would love to hear from those that have been successful with private sales.

[ExtraSlow]

It's certainly possible. My brother has bought and sold a couple places in Airdrie without a realtor.

I think getting it listed on MLS through comfree or one of those services is pretty essential. You may need to offer a commission to the buyers realtor, but I don't know how that works.

Give it a shot?

[yellowsnow]

If you're not in a hurry to sell, I'd say give it a shot. I used comfree, and they were able to list my house on the MLS too without the use of a realtor. Having your home listed on MLS is essential. I ended up selling my house ~$20k more than what many realtors estimated they could sell my house for. I took a lot of effort to properly stage my house too. Comfree took the photos for us, and I was happy with how they looked. I lived in the inner city though, and there was quite a high demand for my area back then.

I think I paid around $400 to comfree. I elected to pay the buyer's realtor full commission. So I essentially saved half the commission. If you don't offer the buyer's realtor any commission, then I doubt you'll have very many showings with buyer's who are working with a realtor.

On the flip side, my parents tried using comfree, and they lived in Panorama. They had 0 showings in the first week, and freaked out. They ended up going with a well known realtor in the area, and was able to sell within 2 weeks. So if you think the demand for your area is high, and you price it accordingly, I think you will do fine.

[Mitsu3000gt]

My parents sold their last 3 houses by themselves, saved ~10-$15K on Realtor fees each time. Quite unbelievable actually, given the relatively low effort required on their part. Think about how long you have to work at your job, 8 hours a day, before you make $10-15K. Probably at least a month, if not more, unless you're ballin'. Handing that to someone for a MLS listing and a few open houses is insane (yes I know I'm simplifying it but a lot of them don't do much else haha).

Coworker sold his place downtown recently. He got a realtor that came highly recommended. The realtor tried to play the usual game of undervaluing his place for a quick sale. He fired his realtor, bought a mid-range com-free package, listed his place for $40,000 above what his realtor suggested, and sold it in 3 days. Paid the buying realtor a small commission. Had he trusted the realtor he would have been out like $50K+. Pretty crazy.

My GF's mom just went through three realtors before finding one that wasn't trying to list low for a quick commission (the common commission structure of 7%/1% encourages this). Once proper photos were up it sold in a month or so, for WAY more money than the previous realtors suggested, but she could have so easily done everything herself after I heard how little was done.

The only thing is a lot of realtors tend to ignore their fiduciary duty and skip over your place if they think they won't get as much commission, so it's probably best to advertise the commission you're willing to pay to the buyer. Even if you pay them full commission you still save half, which is decent, but probably still too much considering the buyers probably found the house themselves in the automated emails that get sent when you're shopping.

The other thing is that as a responsible seller, you also have to do a ton of due diligence to make sure the realtor isn't screwing you over - you end up doing most of the work yourself anyway.

If you've got some super obscure property, you may need a realtor, but if you have a normal place and a normal situation, you should be able to sell it yourself no problem and save a shit ton of money. Nothing to lose by trying it yourself first. And GET GOOD PHOTOS, so many listings get skipped over because people walk around with their cell phone for pictures. Professional shots shouldn't cost you much more than $200 and staging can make a huge difference if your place needs it.

[gwill]

Sold a house to a lady a few months back who put up a for sale sign in her front window. She wasn't on a busy street but was in a decently desireable area for first Time home owners. It sounds like based on the area your in and all the traffic that you could try something similar. If your close to all the show homes and you get high traffic by your house try putting up a for sale sign.

Biggest hurdle you may have is timing the sale and purchase of your next place. Be prepared for this to go sideways... Living with family is great for a couple months but you may end up in a short term rental when that isn't as fun.

Why not pop into the show homes near by and offer a finders fee to them? If their inventory is low like you said your house may be a good alternative for them. I would regularly send buyers to other builders if I knew I didn't have what they needed...

[funkedelic2]

Thanks guys! Great advice so far. If I list on MLS what would be a fair commission to offer a buyers agent? 1-2% or a flat rate? I think I would try kijiji/Facebook and having a sign up for 2-3 weeks. See if I am getting any interested people and if that is a bust I would look on paying to list it on MLS.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by funkedelic2
If I list on MLS what would be a fair commission to offer a buyers agent? 1-2% or a flat rate? I think I would try kijiji/Facebook and having a sign up for 2-3 weeks. See if I am getting any interested people and if that is a bust I would look on paying to list it on MLS.

Shouldn't it be the regular 7/3? So half is yours therefore 3.5/1.5
I guess if the buyer's agent is 2%, you can get them at 1%?

I was asking my realtor what happens when I like a place that's for sale by owner; he said that he talks to the seller and if they can't work something out before a showing, I'm free to to make the deal without him as my realtor.

[leftwing]

Alternatively, has anyone used a realtor in a hands off capacity, JUST to list the home on MLS?

Ex. Want to sell house, ask Realtor to list property on MLS, that is their only duty. You will take the pictures for the listing, create any marketing material you want, do any of they showings and essentially market the house yourself, using the Realtor only to list the house on MLS.

This way you have a "Re/max" sign on your front lawn, and Re/max name next your your listing on the internet, but the Realtor really has no invested interest in selling the house for you. In return you pay him say $250 for his name and the MLS exposure, and can offer $3000 (or whatever) to any Realtor who brings you a buyer.

Is this a thing people do?

[funkedelic2]

Originally posted by leftwing
Alternatively, has anyone used a realtor in a hands off capacity, JUST to list the home on MLS?

Ex. Want to sell house, ask Realtor to list property on MLS, that is their only duty. You will take the pictures for the listing, create any marketing material you want, do any of they showings and essentially market the house yourself, using the Realtor only to list the house on MLS.

This way you have a "Re/max" sign on your front lawn, and Re/max name next your your listing on the internet, but the Realtor really has no invested interest in selling the house for you. In return you pay him say $250 for his name and the MLS exposure, and can offer $3000 (or whatever) to any Realtor who brings you a buyer.

Is this a thing people do?

I heard a radio ad from a realtor that was talking about his different plans to suit different needs. He went on to say that he can list your property on MLS for $750. Now whether you get the actual realtor sign and all of that, I'm not sure. I think anyone can get their listing on MLS themselves without using a realtor. I know 1% realty offers their buying agent $3000 and they still do a lot of business so I don't see why you couldn't do that yourself. As someone else stated, if a buyer wants to see a house that is being sold privately, they would try to come to an agreement with their realtor. $3000 is better then nothing so I think you would still get exposure.

[JordanLotoski]

^^ Keep in mind 99% of agents have buyers agreements in place with their buyers. Offer 3.5/1.5 if you want to have any chance of actually selling

Good luck

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

I'm really intrigued about this option. I was originally looking at renting my old place out and try to build more equity, but seeing as the rental market is falling apart (from a landlord perspective), I'm seriously tempted to sell the place and cut my losses, but only having a bit of equity into it right now, I'm loathe to give half of it to a realtor to sell a vacant place.

I'd ideally be looking at listing a townhouse for roughly 315k, and after fees with a traditional realtor only walk away with 300k (if I got asking price), whereas if I listed myself, using one of these com/MLS/etc packages, I could more realistically walk away with closer to 310k (if I got asking).

[phreezee]

Is ComFree having a real sale or is it just a marketing ploy?

Ultimate
(MLS® included)
$399.95 (1)
regular price $1,299.95

[Sugarphreak]

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[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
I think something to be considered is the additional value a realtor might be able to bring. First by doing an in depth comparison so that you get a good idea of what price you should be expecting so you don't sell it for less unknowingly, and then by providing negotiation services that could net a higher sale price. If you are somebody that gets nervous and caves easily, a realtor can be a nice buffer/adviser so that you don't fold too quickly on your sale price.

The downside to that of course is if you hire a realtor and you are dissatisfied and want to switch or do it yourself, you get stuck with paying them anyway if the place sells at any point during the contract term.

I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with the paper work and negotiations... I think if you can do both of those, maybe give it a shot. Then if you find you need help, consult with a realtor.

I don't tend to cave once I get a number in my head, which could also be to my detriment, but the place will be vacant, and there's a few comparable units that sold recently, so I know the market value fairly well. It looks like with the $400 package from Comfree, you get MLS listing, as well as an adviser to help determine the value, and 30 high res pics, and they even help with negotiations and paperwork. Since it's not like I'll need to be concerned about getting out of the way for showings and such, this might be the best route to take for me.

[Sugarphreak]

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[sputnik]

I bought my house privately about 6 years ago.

No SWAT teams busting down the door yet.

It was nice to be able to negotiate a price with the previous owners face to face. At the end of the day a good lawyer is really the only tool you need to protect yourself.

That said. The realtor business is basically a cartel and now that things are getting tough in Alberta realtors are forcing buyers to sign agreements to require them to buy through them.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I wonder if you just said "buyer commission negotiable" if it would be enough to get the buying realtors to do their job and show the house - there's no way they should be making $10K+ just for letting their clients have a look at a house they likely found themselves. I bet a few grand would be enough to get some traffic especially in this market, and once the clients have viewed the house you have what you want anyway assuming they like it of course haha.

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by sputnik


No SWAT teams busting down the door yet.

Haha. I see what you did here

[Sugarphreak]

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[gwill]

If you don't offer full commissions you will limit a large portion of the buyers who get represented by a realtor.

I worked for a builder who refused to pay 3.5/1.5 and would lose deals left and right from realtors who didn't like a smaller commission. I don't blame them either... Why take a smaller cut when there is a lot of alternative houses that will pay them what they want.

Now it becomes morally and ethically wrong when a realtor kills a deal over a smaller commission. Once they start looking out for themselves and not listening to clients directions it can be a very grey area.