Once you’ve decided to sell your house, there are a lot of questions you might be asking. How do I know I’m getting the right price? How do I prepare my home to sell? When should I list my house? Do I need to find an agent or can I sell my house without a realtor? The short answer: yes you can. The longer answer? There are pros and cons, and plenty of paperwork for selling a house without a realtor. However, if you’re the do-it-yourself kind of person, selling your home on your own might be the best option. You can save money, stay in control, and handle the whole process on your own timeline. Plus, with modern technology, selling your home on your own is easier than ever.
Why Sell Without a Realtor?
A listing agent’s job is to price, market, and eventually sell your house. They work for commission – a percentage of the final sale of the house, and that’s the biggest reason to sell your house on your own.
The main reason anyone opts to sell their home without a realtor is to save on commission costs. The average listing agent commission is around 6%. Going without an agent can save you thousands of dollars depending on the price of your house. Other reasons to sell on your own include selling to a family member or friend or selling to a cash buyer. In those cases, using a realtor just isn’t necessary.
You can sell your house without a realtor, but depending on who you’re selling it to it might require a little extra legwork on your end. Selling to family or friends, or even a cash buyer, might eliminate your need for marketing your own property, listing on MLS, and the work of actually finding a buyer. If you don’t already have a buyer in mind, you’ll have to think like an agent to promote your property and find a qualified buyer. Luckily, in the age of the internet and social media, marketing a house for sale isn’t as tricky as it once was.
Once you’ve made the decision to forgo the realtor, your next questions are probably “How to sell real estate?” And “What’s the paperwork for selling a house without a realtor?”
How to Sell Your House Without a Realtor?
Traditionally, when you go to sell a house, you contact an agent and they handle the listing, photography, showings, open houses, marketing, and negotiating offers. In this quick lesson on how to sell your house without a realtor, we’ll share what you need to do to know how to sell real estate. It really breaks down to a handful of steps: Clean and Stage; Appraise and Price; Market; Accept an Offer.
The prep work is the same whether your using an agent or selling on your own: clean and stage the house, and repair any necessary damages. While an agent would handle the pricing and marketing, selling without one means doing that part yourself. Which also means you have more control over the situation. Research similar houses to set your price, and take advantage of flat fee MLS listings to get your property out there. These give you the same online visibility to potential buyers as a listing agent would – and you still avoid paying commission.
When it comes time to field offers, counter officers, contingencies, and negotiations, you may want to hire a real estate attorney to help out. While it’s possible to understand all the legalese yourself, there is a lot on the line. Working with an attorney to ensure both parties have dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s eliminates the risk of the whole process going south.
Prello Realty provides services whether you need an agent or not. Our flat fee MLS services include support with the negotiations and paperwork for selling a house without a realtor. Even if you’re selling on your own, you’re not in it alone. Just ask us, “How to sell my house without a realtor?” and we’ll provide detailed answers.
What’s the Paperwork for Selling a House Without a Realtor?
Marketing your house can be fun. Having an excuse to paint a wall, replace appliances, and keep the place tidy for showings can be fun. Having total control over what offers you’ll consider can be fun. But paperwork for selling a house without a realtor? Not quite as fun. There’s a lot more paperwork and regulations involved in selling real estate than selling your old Xbox on the Internet.
Similar to selling with an agent, selling on your own requires specific paperwork and information to be available to the buyer, their agent, and anyone else involved in the process. Keeping all the necessary documents organized and easily located will save you time and stress. Consider a secure cloud storage folder on the internet that can be shared when needed to whoever needs it, or at least put all the files in one place – and have backups.
Paperwork includes:
- The deed to the property
- Original sales contract
- Home Appraisal
- Property survey
- Certificate of occupancy
- Certificate of compliance with building and zoning codes
- Tax records
- Appliance records
- Information on upgrades and additions
- Mortgage and finance documents
- Pre-listing home inspection
Depending on your type of property, age of the house, and location there may be additional required pieces of paperwork – another reason to consider contacting a real estate attorney to ensure you have everything you need. Prello Realty provides a number of necessary forms and contracts for our MLS listing and independent sellers. These include contracts, lead paint, and radon disclosures. We’ll also share our best tips for selling your house, even if you don’t use our full listing services.
While you can sell your house without a realtor, and doing so will give you more control over the sales process, more flexibility, and save thousands in commission costs. You’ll need to dedicate your time and energy, especially if you don’t already have a buyer in mind and need to actually market your house. Technology including MLS listings, and online guides can help you sell your home all on your own, or with very limited assistance.