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Are the <3.5% rates gone for good?
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Use a listing service like Circle One Realty if you’re in the Midwest. Google how to do comps for home pricing and double check what they do. The listing service will cost about 1k but includes everything from pictures to signs to appt mgmt; the only thing they don’t do is “show” your house. Sold three houses with them!
We do not use agents and do all of our own buying and selling. I’m sure there are good agents out there, but we have never found them to bring the value for us. We sold our last house in April and we do our normal research with comps and whatnot and landed on our price; the top agent in our entire city actually lived in our neighborhood so I insisted we meet with them because I told my husband they could definitely get us top dollar in this situation; he disagreed 😅 but we met with the anyway. They laughed at our price, ($1.29) told us we would be lucky to get $1.1 and the would do us a favor and list for 2%. So, we paid a listing service $500 (compass realty, not sure if they are national but basically have different levels of DIY, the $500 we paid was to list on MLS and provide forms to use; we paid for our own pictures ($200) and did our own showings but they will set up with a lockbox if you choose to go that route) and sold it in three weeks for $1.25. Just reinforced our resolve to never use agents.
I will say that it is a pain in the butt and you have to be prepared for the negotiation and dealing with the other agent and buyers which is not always fun and an agent can run interference on that, but we have literally saved hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it ourselves; my husband is also in finance so is just a really good negotiator which has served us well (thank goodness because I am terrible at it)!
The important things that come to mind are:
1) You are able to listen on your local MLS, right?
2) How well do you know the local neighborhood market such that you have a good pricing strategy?
3) Do you have an accurate sense of what needs to be fixed vs doesn't before listing it?
4) Do you have a good sense of whether it should be staged or not to sell better?
5) Are you set up with a lock box or a system so other buyer's agents can show your place when you aren't there?
All great points! Also I’ll add, unless your house already looks like it should be in Better Homes & Gardens, definitely go with a GOOD stager!! It is unreal what a great stager can do for your home and will more than pay for itself!!
1. Check to see if you can list on your MLS without an agent. 2. What title company are you going to use for your closing? 3. How are you going to vet your buyer? Are you going to get a preapproval or a prequal letter from a lender? Are you going to call that lender? If you have a cash buyer, will they show you proof of funds? 4. Are you going to pay a buyers agency fee? 5. Do you fully understand the purchase agreement? You will need seller's title insurance. 6. Who is going to hold the earnest money deposit for you? 7. How are you going to secure your home and keep track of all the agents that show your home? 8. Do you have a followup system in place? 9. Are you going to let unrepresented buyers in to your home? 10. How are you going to market your home? 11. Are you going to allow for a home inspection from your potential buyer. 12. Are you ready to negotiate the price and all of the potential issues that come up with selling a home?
After the issues I had with both buying and selling my last two homes, I would never do it without an agent. I have a legal background so the contract part didn’t scare me but it was dealing with the crazy random issues that popped up days from closing that scare me going forward. I would say with the recent changes to the commission rates, I would consider other avenues than going at it completely alone. The 6% we paid was every bit worth it to avoid both deals from completely falling apart days within closing. Btw we really considered doing it ourselves. So glad we didn’t. I’ll add, if you aren’t afraid of the deals falling apart, go for it… if everything goes smoothly you will save a boat load.
It’s so easy to do it without - you’d be surprised how little they actually need to do. Whole process for your state should be very accessible online. If you’ve already gone through the process once or twice then go for it