How many people on this board have bought or sold without an agent?

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
xsocal land merchant_IHB

xsocal land merchant_IHB

New member
As an extension of the IHB Needs a Resident Bull thread I would like to know if there are any people here who have either sold or purchased a home without a real estate agent involved.

If so how was the experience? Did you save money? Would you do it again?

It would be interesting to hear the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

There is a wide range of experience and knowledge on this board that would allow FSBOs and nonrepresented buyers to conduct their own transactions.

How many people have managed their own rentals? There may be some interesting stories there.

I think we all can learn from others experiences.

Enjoy!
 
As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I have not personally done a FSBO but wouldn't hesitate to do so now as so many improvements to the process have been made. My parents sold 3 of their last 3 houses FSBO, never an issue, no lawsuit, no problems. Perfect transactions. They got asking price on two of the houses and over asking on the 3rd. I guess realtards aren't the only ones that can plod through a negotiation successfully..... He didn't let his emotions get in the way as you suggest. It was just business.

I manage my own rental. Tenant is a dream and just signed another 1 yr lease.
 
Bought and sold myself. Father has bought and sold himself. Sans agent have been better experiences and saves bucks for all involved. Have managed both my property and my father's with good and bad experiences.
 
xsocal:

My mom and brothers are agents, so I had plenty of experience between them. Bought and sold two properties for myself by owner. Not a problem, but you need to know what the process is like. And it is easy with all the CAR forms, which you need to know an agent to get.

If you have never sold a property yourself, I would recommend you collect horror stories from your friends and use them to "interview" top agents in your area and see how they will deal with the issue.

For example buyers who drag their feet, loan not approved due to fraud, down payment not "seasoned", lead paint not disclosed etc.

There are lots of things you can do to protect yourself and make it advantageous for you as a seller.

In the example above:

Buyers who drag their feet, should have clause in sales contract, if escrow more than 90 days will cost $200 per day for buyer.

Loan not approved, should get buyers pre-approved and verify credit and downpayment has been in same account for 3 - 6 months under same name.

Lead paint not disclosed, should have given them pamphlet if home is older than 1978. It is better to over disclose than not disclose. When you sell your home it should be inspected so all known defects are disclosed.

If you show the buyers that you have all your ducks in a row and are serious, then you won't have buyers who will take advantage of you. They know you are serious and if they don't go thru with it you will keep their deposit, which should be substantial, min $25K or about 5%.

irvinefsbo
 
A co-worker father died and sold his place FSBO and it worked out great. He said the RE agent doesn't do much, its all the escrow company. He got the standard RE form and did his own deal by listing the house for 6% less than the rest of the homes for sale (netting the same amount as if he had a RE agent). It sold much faster this way probably due to the lower price, to the other neighbor's dismay!
 
My father has sold a couple of homes FSBO with no problems.

If I ever sell my home, I will do it FSBO and pay for the services I want with one of the agents or lawyers who work that way (get it listed, review the paperwork, etc.) Before we decided to keep our home, we had a very bad experience with an agent. I am unimpressed with the majority of the "marketing" I see by agents as evidenced by all the poor grammar/spelling on most of these listings. I was also turned off by 95% of the agents that came to show my home as they all seemed like used car salesman to me (no offense to used car salesman).

I think we need a thread about bad experiences with agents, as I'd bet there are more bad experiences than good experiences. Just my opinion.
 
Bought a house that was FSBO without using an agent. We had a good attorney and had absolutely no problems. At the time we knew the neighborhood very well and knew the prices. We also were familiar with the house. When we sold the house we used a realtard and she lived up to the moniker. Once again it was our lawyer who really took care of us and who ended up saving us from some significant mistakes that the realtard was making.
 
I sold both an apartment building in Laguna Beach and a high end condo in Newport Beach in summer of 2006 without a Realtor (with the full support of my Realtor Mom). I created flyers for the local Real Estate offices and offered a 3% commission to the buyers agent. Both properties showed well and were priced properly. They both sold within 45 days for full price...both without buyers agents. (the buyers took the 3% as a discount). Escrow guided us through the process and kept us on schedule to closing. Both myself and the buyers had experience in buying and selling property. It's not brain surgery!
 
Yes, you can have a very successful real estate transaction without a realtor, as long as you do your "homework" and price your property right. I am a realtor, and a very good one, but I've worked with a lot of agents that, quite frankly, give the rest of us a bad name. If you're lucky and get a good escrow officer, they can guide you through the transaction flawlessly. Private escrow companies are the best way to go. They don't have business handed to them so they do their best to give excellent customer service since they rely on repeat business and referrals. More importantly, aside from praying, you need to follow up with the buyers LENDER from the get go. They're the ones that can make or break the deal. Good lenders let you know what's going on every step of the way from the initial pre-approval letter and fico score all the way down to final funding. When a lender doesn't return calls that usually spells TROUBLE and I wouldn't expect to see loan docs anytime soon. Also, I recommend for all FSBO's to do their homework in terms of timelines in a sale. You need to know when to give contingency removals otherwise your buyer could drag their feet in a transaction and change their mind about going through with the sale when they see prices dropping in that neighborhood. Talk to friends, neighbors, and relatives and get referrals for good escrow officers, title officers, inspectors, etc. All of these individuals have to work with each other in order to make your transaction go smoothly. Good luck!
 
I bought a vacation home FSBO. You can buy the standard purchase contracts and fill them out with the other party. Just make sure you use a good Escrow/Title company, and they'll take care of the transaction.
 
We just did our own rental with no agent. Good experience, probably much better than with an agent. It was my perception that the agent was trying to keep the owners from renting, because the property was for sale until a few weeks ago.
 
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