Has anyone done FSBO?

[eliza22]

Just wondering what your experience was like and if you'd do it again that way.  We are selling our house this spring and didn't know if this should be something to consider. 

Thanks for any advice!

[ddi741]

We did it vis FSBO.com
We did the MLS package so that the house would show up on the MLS listing. We also offered a 3% buyer's agent commission.

we did show like crazy. Some were via the MLS listing, but most were from the ads we posted in local publications.
We always made sure to mention the buyer's agent commission in any ad we placed.

We did 6 months FSBO and 6 months with a realtor but we eventually had to pull it off the market & rent it because we couldn't keep paying 2 mortgages (we had already moved into our new house)
We did this in 2010 right after the market crash and we were up against a ton of foreclosures in our neighborhood. (the 2 houses that sold in our neighborhood while ours was for sale went for $23k & $35k, we couldn't compete)

Overall it was a good experience and I would do it again if I wasn't in a time / financial crunch.

[halfpint]

I did it, but we didn't end up selling. This was more a result of not being able to go much lower on our asking price, and trying to pit our two-year-old home against brand new construction in the same development.

We used a local site, paid $350 for them to come out and take pictures, create a virtual open house video, and were a featured home in their print publication. I'm confident we wouldn't have sold with an REA, either, because we would have needed to list for even more to break even.

Rather than taking a big hit on the sale price, we're renting it out instead. We'll try again in a couple of years when the market (hopefully) comes up some more, and when our neighborhood is fully developed and we're no longer competing against being able to choose your own finishes for the same price.

ETA: I think this is an especially great option if you feel comfortable that your home is staged/shows well.  If it's an older home, you feel you might have questionable decor taste, etc., then it might be worth hiring an REA for advice, or bringing in a ruthless friend with good taste.  Watch HGTV, read your online resources, be relentless in taking down and storing personal photo collages, clutter, etc.  Young House Love and Veronika's Blushing both had decent blog entries on staging and prepping your home for sale.  

[kermit]

I did last spring/summer and would definitely do it again. I also paid the extra money to have an MLS listing and that's where most of the showings came from. It was a newer home but had a huge detached garage so I knew it was a place that would either sell quickly or take forever. It took about 5 weeks to get an offer. I'd bought and sold three homes at that point so I was pretty familiar with the process so I think that made it easier. Plus the buyer's agent was really great to work with, so I got lucky there.

[goober]

Only because you guys requested us lurkers come out....

We haven't sold FSBO but we purchased. Our realtor was very leery because all she had was bad experiences with people not knowing what they were doing and not having their stuff together. In fact our realtor only let us look at the house after we had exhausted every other option we liked. Needless to say we feel in love with the place and the seller had sold other houses FSBO so she had all her stuff together and got the whole thing done in record time. My realtor has now changed her tune about FSBO but my friends who are looking all have realtors who try to persuade them from looking at them.

Good luck!

[halfpint]

Oh, two other things I'll add - we budgeted to hire a professional appraiser, so that we felt confident going into any offer scenario. We also budgeted for a real estate attorney - in the event that we did get into an offer stage, we had one lined up who would assist with the process.

[eliza22]

Thanks so much for the advice! Gypsy & Kermit-did you use a real estate attorney too?

I'm very much into home decor so I'm pretty confident in my staging abilities.

What do you all think about getting an inspection done up front, correcting/addressing any issues and disclosing it to potential buyers? Is this crazy talk?

Thanks again for the help! I really wasn't considering this option but the more I think about it the more I like the idea of walking away with that extra cash to put in our next home.

[littlemisssunshine]

As a realtor I'd say you can definitely do a FSBO as long as your house is a fair value sale and not a short sale. Pay the money to get it into MLS, offer a buyer's agent commission, and make sure your house is immaculate and well staged with no clutter. Also, I would either pay for an appraisal or do a ton of research so you know what your house will sell for.

I would not bother with an inspection done prior to any offers. Any potential buyer is going to want to have their independent inspector take a look, and not take the seller's word on a prior inspection. You have good intentions, but the buyers won't know that. I'd certainly correct any issues that you know about so the home is in the best possible shape and fewer issues come to light in the inspection. Buyers will usually want the sellers to fix any issues before closing, so it's nice to be ahead of the game.

[Deleted]

We bought FSBO and the seller was also selling FSBO. He paid some service to get the place on MLS. We knew exactly what we wanted and weren't going to buy unless we found it so it made sense to us. If we buy again in this area we'll probably do it again. I did experience one real estate agent who told me she only spoke to people who had preapprovals but this was before the market tanked so she's probably homeless now.