Is it possible to sell without broker?

It can work if you offer a broker at least some commission if he or she finds you a willing, able, and ready buyer. Of course, if you don't offer any commission at all, brokers are not showing your property and that's that.

Truly shop around when looking for a listing broker. Don't use the first broker who impresses you - they likely won't be the last. Many people who are worried about using a listing broker are not willing to give up a large chunk of the sale price of the home, but some brokers are competitive with commission rates.

Also, in this market, some agents are offering rebates. For instance, if the brokerage requires a 6% commission and the agent has a 50/50 split with his or her brokerage, he or she will rebate you a portion of their 50% commission. For example, if the total commission is $30,000 and there is no buyer's broker involved, your agent will make $15,000 on the transaction. His or her policy might then be to rebate 20% of his or her final commission to you, $3,000.

I would say one of the biggest pitfalls would be the time and money you would spend marketing your own property. For example, if you list your property on your own, you will need to take out initial advertisements in the NY Times, Craigslist, other newspapers and websites. These can be very costly and are an UP-FRONT cost. If your apartment does not sell for 5 months, you are going to constantly be paying for this advertising until your apartment finally sells. If you use an agent/broker, you will not pay for any services until your apartment has sold. Therefore, if your apartment takes 9 months to sell, you won't pay for anything until it is time to cut the commission check at closing. This can save you a lot of time.

Additionally, do you work during the day? What if the perfect buyer for your property is relocating from San Francisco and is only in town for two days. On the second day, he wants to view your home, but you are working and can only show him the property at night. He has tickets to the Rangers game, however, and is going to buy another apartment instead. If you had a listing broker, he or she would be able to give access to the apartment during the day. The buyer would see your apartment and give an offer.

See how a broker can be a great asset? Of course, the services of a broker take a good chunk off of the final sale price, but in many cases they make a sale possible in the first place - one that would have been much more difficult to make on one's own.

its possible. My friend bought his W.V. apt from the owner directly. The guy listed his apt in NYTimes and did the open houses. I guess the first buyer he had fell thru and then my friend was the buyer on the 2nd round. This was 2005 so there was even a slight bidding war.

I've done it successfully and brokers won't blackball your property if you pay them. Just state clearly on any ad or marketing material that brokers representing buyers will be paid 3% (or 4% if you want to make it more worthwile for them) but that any buyer with a broker must clearly label themselves as such in the beginning of any process. And be prepared for loads of brokers to waste your time pretending to represent buyers but actually just trying to get your listing.

PS - my friend wasn't using a broker to buy so the whole deal was done without any brokers!

These days brokers don't have the power to blackball your property.

To sell an apartment these days requires a credit worthy buyer.

How much does an agent spend on marketing/selling a typical manhattan apt.? It seems outrageous for someone to pay $30,000 to have an agent place a couple of ads then have them sit around in your home waiting to greet potential buyers, regardless of the list price.

I think selling without a broker is normally only worthwhile if you locate your buyer through a personal network -- e.g., sell the place to a friend or acquaintance. It does happen, by the way, and once happened to me. I suggest you tell everyone you know you're planning to sell your place 1-2 months before putting on the market. One of my friends found me a buyer, and his "commission" was a nice meal!

Although my FSBO experience was very positive overall, I don't think I saved much money -- between the cost of paying for things that would've been "free" with a realtor and also the discount I had to give my unrepresented buyer, I netted about what I would have had I listed the property. I do think I saved time and effort by not having to stage the property or deal with the hassle of showings, keeping the place clean, etc.

If you decide to market your property on your own, keep in mind that no almost no buyer is going to pay you what they would pay for a listed property. Unrepresented buyers viewing your property realize you're saving 6% and want in on it. My experience is that they often expect to receive the entire savings and rarely expect less than a 50-50 split. Unrepresented buyers also realize it's going to be more of a hassle to deal with you, as a non-real estate professional, than it would be to deal with a realtor and expect to be compensated for that. The savvy ones sometimes feel that they can negotiate you into the ground, so be prepared.

If your buyers are represented, then then there's the issue of a broker's commission. The only way to get them and their brokers to see your property is to offer to pay 2.5 - 3% commission. If you're going to price aggressively and offer a 2.5-3% broker commission, then why not just price at the market and have your property listed with a broker, who is going to aggressively market it, deal with showings, handle the administrative process (which in NY is a nightmare and a half), as well as give you an objective eye, staging tips, etc.? My feeling is that most good brokers are worth the additional 3%, and you'll see the money back in the purchase price as well as save a lot of hassle in the process.

My advice would be to try your personal network and, if committed to FSBO, possibly make a short (2-3 week) effort to find an unrepresented buyer. If that doesn't turn up anything, just list the property with a broker.

you can easily try it for a month or two and then make a decision of how you want to proceed. just remember that you'll have to figure out what your property is worth and then discount it a few %. definitely provide the buyer's broker option of 2-3%. many buyer's brokers look on craigslist, trulia, etc when searching for properties and the last thing you want is to have them not bring in their buyers. the people that pay the most are the laziest and have their broker do all of their work for them.

i am a broker and will give a very frank answer. Yes, you definitely can sell on your own especially if your property is in a hot location and in prime condition.

Now, here comes the other side of the coin. Time, expertise and exposures are some of the elements a good broker will bring you.

How do you know if your unit is priced correctly? Showing nowaday does not imply Sunday for 2 hrs. It could be anytime and do you have the time to jump out of work to show to a potential buyer who might be from out of town. A broker spends lots of money advertising and we have places that an ordinary person would not know about. We ensure there is max exposure as we make out paycheck only upon selling.

Lastly, a good broker could give you suggestion on how to stage your place or little fixes here and there to make your place more attractive than a similiar unit down the blk.

Best of luck and feel free to contact me w any questions. Jamie Ng ng@metropolitanpropertygroup.com

Can you sell your place without a broker? Yes. Is there value in having a broker? Yes. At the end of the day, they provide a service that may greatly increase your chances of selling.

Is there value in having a broker? Yes. One percent.

Yes, you can, and I have, sold on my own. But it’s best to be clear-eyed about what you’re getting into, and it helps to be knowledgeable about the process and prepared to spend considerable time on the transaction. Here are a few suggestions: You’ll find more info in my book The Co-op Bible and my website, www.highrisesociety.com.

Get an idea of what comparable apartments are selling for. As president of my building’s board for many years, I had a pretty good idea how units were priced. Often sponsors have to issue amendments in buildings in which they still hold shares, and those amendments may give updated prices. And now there are a variety of resources, including Streeteasy, that give fairly up to the minute recorded sales prices for most buildings.

Once you’ve priced the apartment, create a slick one page brochure with photos and basic data about the apartment

Test the market among the potential buyers in your own building. In many buildings people like to trade up or down so you have a built in audience. Post the brochure on the bulletin board or slip one under each door.

Arrange for an open listing by contacting the head of several brokerage firms in the area, so that the arrangement is institutionally sanctioned. The way these work you don’t sign any contract, you market the apartment yourself, and only pay a commission (usually 3% as opposed to the usual 6%) if the broker brings the buyer to the deal. If the buyer comes on his own or you find him, there’s no commission.

Hold an open house. In this market probably more than one. The cost of advertising for the apartment and open house in Sunday’s NY Times in print or online, which is still where lots of people look, is only several hundred dollars. In a good market, open houses bring in real traffic. Some buildings have restrictions on open houses, some don’t allow them at all, which can make it much more difficult to sell on your own because unlike brokers you don’t have a built-in customer base.

You have to be prepared to answer questions about the building. Topics most often asked about are: sublet policy, cash reserves, renovations, finances.

You should take care that the buyer you choose has the resources to close and get approved otherwise you’ll have to start the whole process all over again. To do this you want to ask for at least basic financial info before you proceed to contract.

You have to help shepherd the application through completion to board submission. Normally, brokers will get involved in putting together the package, but assuming there is no broker, you’ll have to help fill that void otherwise you and your buyer could have a problem.

I've always been a DIY person. I am not at all anti-FSBO. In my experience, if your home is priced below market and is in impeccable condition, it'll sell with or without a broker. If it's a disaster, but priced way below market, it'll sell with or without a broker, eventually.

But if a FSBO is priced at or even very slightly above market, people tend to think you're a greedy, clueless jerk. I get this from my buyer clients all the time: there's a scheduled open house in a building, and when we show up there's a flyer for a fsbo on another floor. We say, let's check that out too. Invariably it's priced higher than the one with the broker. We look around politely as the owners hover, cookies at the ready, pointing out their clever renovations. And when we leave my buyers shake their heads forlornly.

Whatever you do, don't be the people with the homemade cookies and the overpriced apartment.

Tina
(Brooklyn broker)

A good property properly priced absolutely will sell without a broker. I was a FSBO long before I became a licensed real estate agent, and I did very well on my own.

You need to take on a small part-time job to do this. This is the part you need to understand going in. The commission you save is your paycheck for your work. It may come as a surprise to you how much work and time are required to sell an apartment.

When you start buying ads, as you go along, you might want to evaluate which ads are drawing qualified persons and which ads are not. I suggest you check out Street Easy, which sells ads to FSBOs for about $200 as an initial charge, according to a staffer I spoke with last week. Only FSBOs and agents with exclusive listings can post of SE, which keeps things nice and tidy.

I routinely offer FSBO properties to buyers, but only when the FSBO has agreed, in an email, to pay me 3% if my buyer closes -- although I work as an agent for the *buyer*. In such a transaction you represent yourself, and the only broker involved represents the buyer.

I also offer FSBOs free marketing to buyers. If you'd like to know more about this, send me an email at kharby@rutenbergrealtyny.com.

Karla Harby
Charles Rutenberg Realty