Selling Home Privately...

[RituallyPure]

Do any of you have experience selling your home(s), or any other real estate privately? Disadvantages, other than added complexity?

[pickel]

Find a good realtor ( if you can ) and save the aggrivation and high blood pressure. I couldn't imagime having to deal with perspective home owners on my weekends off.

[Telexen]

I've seen tons of houses for sale privately (my parents have even tried to do it) ... within a few weeks every one of them found a realtor because it's not being seen much.

[RituallyPure]

The reason I'm asking is because there's a website that has just recently started up around here that is allowing people to list their homes privately, and be listed on this high exposure website. Lots of people are taking to this, to avoid those "dreaded commissions" and it's really dealing a bit of a blow to the local Realtors.. which is actually unfortunate.

[Ed_S]

Rarely happens, but this time Pickel & I disagree. IMO, realtor are greedy bloodsuckers equal to lawyers. I mean really, 6 or 7 percent of YOUR HOUSE for doing nearly nothing??
All they do is encourage you to spend a fortune to make the place perfect so their job will be easier!! Then once it's listed, they sit back & wait for a customer.

ALWAYS try to sell it yourself first. If nothing else, just put a "For Sale" sign in the yard. Can't hurt, and it might work.

In our case, back in '85 my wife saw a realtor putting the sign in a neighbor's yard, across the street from my Mom's duplex, which we lived in also. She told me, & after the realtor left I walked over & talked. I'd known the owners for YEARS, after all - but not close, so I didn't know they planned to sell. We looked it over, talked it over, & made the deal - all w/o the realtor.
But since they'd already purchased something else & couldn't wait until the contract expired, the realtor still got his cut. Did exactly NOTHING.

Years later, we had that same duplex for sale. My sisters insisted on a realtor, which cost us the sale. A co-worker of mine wanted it, was a done deal. Another sweet-heart deal for a realtor - except she blew it! Fouled up the paperwork, missed deadlines, and screwed up his loan applications! By that time, he wanted nothing to do with her, but couldn't wait out the contract clause that prevented us from selling directly to him! He bought elsewhere, & we had to wait out her contract before doing ANYTHING.

Basically, every contact I've had with a realtor has been bad news, and I'll NEVER deal with one unless there is simply no other option - and in that case, I'll do my level best to be the most hard to get along with SOB that realtor will ever be unfortunate enough to meet!

[RituallyPure]

I'll do my level best to be the most hard to get along with SOB that realtor will ever be unfortunate enough to meet!

My mother was a realtor. (oops, huh. ) Worked hard to become a realtor, and tried hard to be a good one. As a matter of fact, spend many days, evenings and weekends away from her kids, hauling around pissheads who couldn't decide "what they were looking for, exactly.." or "NEEDED TO SEE THIS HOUSE ASAP!!".. The idea that realtors are "bloodsuckers" who are overpayed for doing "nearly nothing" is .. well, stupid. Needless to say, I'm glad for her sake that she's no longer in the business and no longer has to run the risk of dealing with people who will actually blatantly go out of their way to make the Realtors life a living hell, simply because they've decided they hate Realtors in general.

[Ed_S]

RP, I'm sure your Mom did do her best, and I'm equally sure there are still some good people in the realty field, who do their best to serve their customers. No offense intended to those.

I just haven't encountered them, nor have many friends with tales similar to mine.

[RituallyPure]

I just ask that you reconsider intentionally being "the most hard to get along with SOB that realtor will ever be unfortunate enough to meet!" the next time, if ever, you're forced to encounter a Realtor.

[DaveLewis]

Getting away from the "realtors are useless" and back to the "should I sell my house privately" thread I'll throw my two cents in on the side of NOT selling privately - with maybe one big exception.

The best service a realtor can bring to the deal is some kind of pre screening of potential buyers. What are the buyers looking for, how much can they spend, is their credit any good, etc. Stick a "for sale" sign in the front yard and everybody that drove into town for an outing at Wally World will want to troop through your house. Not to mention their light fingered kids and the brother who just got out of jail for burglary and is looking for his next customer. People often want to buy privately because they can't get a loan, want to try to talk you into holding the note, want you to take a 71 Chevy Pickup as part or full down payment, or want you to immediately knock the realtor's commission off the price of the house "since you won't be paying it anyway".

Probably the only time I'd do a private sale would be if I really knew the buyer - i.e. a very close friend and I knew their situation and trusted them very well. Even then I'd be prepared for our friendship to go sour.

In short - pay the commission.

Just for the record I do not sell real estate. I've just seen and heard too many horror stories - and been involved in one or two myself.

[M_Six]

I agree with DL. Selling your house w/o a realtor can be risky. Realtors can add a layer of legal protection between you and the buyer. If you do sell it yourself, at least get a real estate lawyer involved.

Just FYI, the realtor who helped us buy our house saved our butts when we moved in. I screwed up getting the electricity turned on and the electric company was going to make us wait until Monday (we moved in on a Thursday) and the temps were in the very high 90s. That would have been a miserable weekend, but he knew some folks at the electric company and pulled some strings to get it turned on that day. I still owe him for that.