selling without broker

Please email me info at rent2beds@gmail.com
I am not a broker

good luck -

There are no issues with selling on your own. I did it. While on your side you will not have a broker, have you considered what you would do if a broker came to you with a buyer? Since normally a seller would be paying a brokers fee, if you had a broker, they would split a fee with a buyers broker. you need to consider what you would say if a broker called or came to an open house with a potential buyer.

You have access to running credit scores on potential buyers, you just need to get their approval. Even though I do not think preapproval letters are the best thing in the world, I would make sure that any accepted offer is contingent on them proving that they are at least eligible for financing. And make sure you have a good attorney at least on your side since that is the only professional you will be relying on.

As to advertising, you mainly are left with the NY Times and Craigslist.

Good luck with the process. As much as I have a hangup about the 6% that brokers want, it does save a big headache.

Brokers and their employers have a shared interest in seeing FSBOs fail or sell at less than FMV. They also make selling their exclusive listings run smoother if they are seasoned professionals. They are unbiased facilitators, motivated to get a transaction done. The price is often 6%, not cheap.

Is it safe to assume you are doing this to maximize your return on the sale?

As a potential buyer I immediately look at a FSBO as a seller very sticky on price, possibly delusionally so. I prefer to deal so I would not even bother. I would recommend a quiet campaign within your building and circle of friends first. Then list the old fashioned way and sell to the market. You risk spoiling your one opportunity to sell and move on.

spinnaker1 I wouldn't exclude FSBO properties, but I agree with you that they are probably sticky on price, after all they are looking to save 6% so they probably aren't very negotiable. That's true.

Did you say brokers are unbiased? I almost had a sale fall through because i also let a broker bring me people and the "sure" buyer turned into a nightmare situation which caused major headaches, but i had another offer also.

I do believe that there are good brokers out there, but in my selling and buying, I have found a lot of very bad brokers who are not even doing the people they are representing a service.

When i was looking one broker told me that the sellers wanted the selling price and no less as they wanted what they paid 3 years ago. Forget the fact that when i followed up with the recent comps, within a month in that building, she had no idea about the sales and then tried to tell me that she heard it was a fire sale. Well it was a sponsor unit, which normally would set the high end of the market price. I did go back and look adn did not bid based on her telling us that another bid was recieved close to ask, i was not getting in a bidding war, nor was i going ot spend $50k more then market said it was worth. Well it is still on the market and another sale closed proving out the lower value.

My point is that you just never know what will happen. I am also concerned as i did have a broker on my side when both sides are claiming what the market is and telling me to quickly bid, when it turns out there was no rush. Someone is supposed to be representing my interests and it just does not happen. With all the technology out there and web sites such as this which show you in plain vanilla what apartments are selling for, what exactly is a broker doing for you in terms of negotiations? My own broker scared me off another apartment we were interestd in telling us that the asking price was fair, which i also considered about 50k to high. Meanwhile since that time the price has actually dropped $20k.

I would say do what makes you feel comfortable. I do not disagree with PMG that you are at a disadvantage because a broker will be more motivated to get you a buyer if they know what is in it for them.

i think this is a broad generalization. more important is the property itself and its price. if those work for you, why would you care if its FSBO or not? and, if you're represented by a buyer's broker, you will be insulated from the seller anyway.

Spin I would say it all depends on the person. When i was selling i priced around, maybe a bit above the market, knowing that i would need to negotiate. And yes i factored in not having to pay 6% in the price in terms of how flexible i was. I was not going to negotiate away the whole 6%, but somewhere in the middle was always fair in my mind.

If a FSBO is not flexible on price they are just set up to fail.

Get ready to deal with lots of contact from the bottom feeder brokers looking to convince you that you are hopelessly lost and incompetent without their services!