selling a house without a realtor

[Anonymous]

How do you do it? We have been approached by somebody who would like to purchase our house. Since we found a buyer who has agreed to our pricepoint, we don't really feel a need to work with a realtor and pay the commission (also our buyer is not working with a realtor which allows us both to get a bit of a savings and allows us to get more of our asking price).

However, we do want to make sure we are protected. I've heard there are people who are real estate lawyers. Does anybody have experience selling without a realtor. What are the steps and fees? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Find a real estate lawyer. you'll still need to pay some, but shouldn't be the 5-6% you'd have to pay a realtor. You need someone to represent your interests in a contract and if you are not familiar with it, I would definitely hire the lawyer.

[Anonymous]

check out "assist to sell" - just google it - they charge a flat fee

we used them 5 years ago and were very happy

[Anonymous]

a title company should be able to close for you both.

[Anonymous]

Why not just ask a realtor to represent the buyers only at 2% commision? I'm a realtor in MD/DC and I would do the work for both sides if both parties already agree they will sell/purchase. This way you have one professional involved.

[Anonymous]

2% is still a lot for someone to do almost nothing. you would still have to pay a lot of closing costs on top.

[Anonymous]

I bought my first house from the person I was renting from. I used a Real Estate lawyer I found in the yellow pages.

Worked out fine. No problems at all.

There were no agents involved and there was no need for any.

[Anonymous]

You don't need an agent. Find a real estate lawyer. You will pay them by the hour.

[Anonymous]

Here's an amazing Real Estate Lawyer. We have worked with him several times and he's a true professional:

James E. Bitner
Address:
2965 Chain Bridge Road
Oakton, VA 22124
Phone:
[phone] [phone]
Fax:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Love that a realtor replied suggesting a 2% commission. If that house were selling for $500K, that would be $10,000 for just doing some paperwork. That person is NUTS and reinforces my HUGE distrust for realtors. We just bought a house, and our realtor literally just unlocked the door for us. We found the house online ourselves (house was on the market for almost a year and the realtor never even suggested this property to us). She ended up taking home almost $20K for that task - oh, and she did a very small amount of paperwork (title company does most of it, not the realtor). For another transaction, we used a real estate lawyer and I swear, we paid like $600. Realtors are a dying breed, except for the very rich who don't care and don't have the time to search for a house.

[Anonymous]

Next time we buy a house we will definitely just use a real estate lawyer. Selling a house I think realtors can add some value (though certainly not 3%'s worth), but why buyers need an agent is absolutely beyond me.

[Anonymous]

To pp - you may not save money by ditching an agent because some seller's agents draft the listing agreement in a way that gives them both sides of the commission if the buyer is not represented. Buyers have no control over those terms.

[Anonymous]

OP here--thanks all for the comments and advice! very helpful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To pp - you may not save money by ditching an agent because some seller's agents draft the listing agreement in a way that gives them both sides of the commission if the buyer is not represented. Buyers have no control over those terms.

Realtors are going the way of the abacus... fees should relate more to services provided.

[Anonymous]

Don't know how it works here, but we were a FSBO in California. We read "FSBO for Dummies" and paid a small sum to an online realtor to get on the MLS. We offered a percentage to the buyer's agent.

It's all about the asking price. Shop comps and price accordingly.

It's not rocket science. You can do it.