How to Sell a House without a Realtor
Different Ways to Sell Your Home
How to sell a house without a realtor is the question most home sellers ask themselves which is understandable considering a 6% realtor commission will cost a seller over $16,000 based upon the average sales price in Texas of $277,900 (January 2021). Who wouldn’t want to save $16,000?
So what is the secret to selling a house without a real estate agent? There really isn’t one!
Data from the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) indicates that the “MLS does not deliver a price premium.” In 2007, NBER did an in-depth analysis that compared selling a single-family home on a for-sale-by-owner online platform versus hiring a real estate agent who placed the home on the Multiple Listing Service. Based upon their analysis, they concluded that the only advantages of using a real estate agent to sell your house are the amount of time and effort required to sell the house.
So why pay a realtor $16,000 if your house will not sell for a higher price? Most home sellers will say the ease of selling their home and the comfort in knowing a professional will guide them through the process.
Why sell a house without a realtor?
While selling a home using a realtor has some benefits, many homeowners choose to sell by themselves. Before looking at how to sell a house without a realtor, let’s look at the reasons why someone may want to avoid realtors.
Avoid paying commission
Most sellers don’t want to pay thousands in commissions and are willing to invest the time and effort to save the money.
Control the selling process
Most homeowners want to have a say in the selling process. If you sell by yourself, you’ll be able to choose how to market your property and which offers to consider.
Quick sale
If you know the buyer or your home is priced to sell, you can sell your home as quick or quicker than it takes to interview, hire, and sell the house using a real estate agent
Nature of the house
If you want to sell a home that needs a lot of work, has other unique issues, or just want to sell house as-is, using an agent may not be your best option. For a home that needs a lot of work, for example, an agent will likely advise you to renovate it first.
How to Sell a House Without a Realtor
There are many ways to sell a house without a realtor, and below we have provided information on several different ways you can eliminate a real estate agent from the selling process:
1. For Sale by Owner
When selling a home by owner, you are not engaging the services of a real estate agent and typically have two options:
Option One: Sell house as-is. This is the simplest and fastest, but to be successful, you will need to price the home accordingly. This means that the price will need to be reduced sufficiently to cover the cost of the needed repairs and improvements plus offer enough financial incentive to entice someone to spend their time and effort fixing the home. A simple formula to use is the total cost of the work plus 20%.
Option Two: This is very similar to selling a home through a real estate agent. To get the highest price and to sell home quickly, you will need to spend the time, money, and energy to get the home ready to be sold. The goal is to create a great first impression and ensure a buyer envisions themselves living in the home.
After you decide the best option for your particular situation, you will then need to do the work required to get the home sold, including:
Research the Market
Most sellers want to know “How do I sell my home fast?” The answer is rather simple, price it to sell.
A home that is priced slightly below market value will create excitement, but an overpriced home will create disappointment.
Therefore, it is imperative that you review recent sales of similar properties in your neighborhood and then go look at homes currently on the market. Use this information to realistically price your home, taking into consideration the location, condition, and desirability of your home versus the competition.
Pro Tip: We cannot stress enough the importance of setting the right sales price. A house that is in terrible condition but is priced right will sell much faster than a house that is in fantastic condition but overpriced.
Collect Information for Marketing
Gather the data you need for listing your home for sale, such as:
Property Data: You need comprehensive information about the home including, lot size, year built, finished interior square footage, bathroom, and bedroom count. Other quantitative information needed includes parking arrangements, cooling, and heating configuration.
Photos: You need great photos. Most home buyers will begin their search for a home online, and they love looking at pictures. This is one area where we believe hiring a professional is money well spent, but if that is not an option, seek help from family and friends and get the best possible pictures. If you can, also do videos or virtual tours!
Description: Your property description should not be novel. Make it short but at the same time capturing all factual information, grabbing the buyer’s attention, and making them dream of living in the house you describe. It is not a roman tub; it is a rejuvenating roman bath!
Advertise Everywhere
Your FSBO marketing efforts shouldn’t stop at a sidewalk, yard sign, or Craig’s List. To sell your house fast for the highest price, you need to go all-in, including:
- Creating sales brochures or flyers that can be placed on the yard sign and emailed
- List on as many FSBO websites in your market area as possible
- List it on Facebook, Trulia, and Zillow
- Share the Facebook post with family and friends
- Local classified websites
- A YouTube channel
Open House and Showings
You need to show it to sell it. You need to open the house to the public and make it easy for buyers to see it, on their schedule. This means putting a lockbox on the door and using either a house showing scheduling service or an answering service to answer calls and coordinate viewings.
You should also host an open house. Doing it on Saturday or Sunday is preferred and it works best on good weather days. You will want to begin advertising an open house at least one week before the event and erect signs on major streets near your property or a junction to lead potential buyers to your home.
Get Ready for Fielding and Negotiating Offers
Going FSBO is committing to being your own agent, which means you will need to field and negotiate offers from potential buyers. When doing so, please keep the following in mind:
Respond to all offers, even the low ones: Your goal is to sell your house and it only takes a few minutes to reply with a counteroffer. There are many times when we have received an offer that was $20,000 below asking and we countered very near asking and the buyer accepted. Sometimes, they really want the house but place a low offer to see how the seller will reply.
Pro Tip: Do not take low offers personally and always keep in mind that it does not matter what price the negotiations start at, it matters where they end up!
✔ Patience pays: Don’t be discouraged if your property takes longer to sell. Instead, find out why it isn’t selling and adjust. Call, text, or email the potential buyers who viewed your home and ask them for honest feedback. Many times, it has nothing to do with the price or the house, it just wasn’t the right home for that buyer.
2. Sell at Auction
The auctioning process is different from working with companies that buy homes for cash or the usual method of listing a home for sale. An auction presents the home to a group of prospective buyers, all at once, instead of showing the property to them and waiting for their offer.
People will bid on your home, and the person that puts in the highest bid is the buyer. One way of determining whether selling your home through an auction is the best option for your circumstances is to use a technique called the two-thirds rule. The market, seller, and property are the three main components that affect real estate transactions. If two of these components are in your favor, then an auction can be a good way to sell your house without a real estate agent.
Market: Selling a property through auctioning tends to produce the best results in a market where demand surpasses the supply (the seller’s market). An auction also produces good returns in a unique market, or for unique properties that stand out from other available options.
Seller: Your needs and your type of property can also drive you towards auction as a method of selling your home. If, for example, you’re going through a major change in your life and you want to sell in a set period for potentially the best price possible, under such circumstances, an auction may be ideal.
Property: The property that is hard to appraise, unique, or that has an interesting history is typically a good candidate for auction.
If you’re looking for a quick sale, (especially of a high-end property) and certainty that a purchaser won’t bail on you, an action can be ideal for you. Immediately after the auction hammer falls, the homebuyer has to put down at least 10% of the purchase price and provide the remaining funds in 30 days or less.
If the auction creates excitement or the appearance of a buying opportunity, you may get a large number of serious buyers that can help drive up the price as they bid against each other for the chance to win your home.
However, selling by auction is not cheap and there are no guarantees. Most often, you are required to pay the cost to advertise and market the property as well as the cost for hosting the auction, and you will pay these fees whether the home is sold or not. If the sale is successful, you will pay an additional fee to the auctioneer of roughly 2.5% of the sales price.
3. Sell with Owner Financing
Selling a home with owner financing is the same as FSBO except the seller will not be paid 100% of the sales price at closing. This can be a good solution if the seller is looking to generate maximum profits and does not need the money from the sale. Providing the financing creates a larger pool of potential buyers and removes a major obstacle of selling the home, the home may sell for a higher price.
Unfortunately, selling with owner financing also comes with added risks. Typically the buyer pays a portion of the purchase price in cash, say around 10%, and the remaining 90% is financed by the seller. Instead of the buyer making a monthly mortgage payment to the bank, they make the monthly payments to the seller. If the buyer fails to make the payments, the seller will be required to initiate foreclosure proceedings which can turn a potentially profitable sale into a legal hassle and financial loss.
There are various types of owner financing schemes, including second mortgages, contract for deed, wrap-around mortgages, but all of them involve the seller providing some level of financing and taking on the risk of a lender.
4. Sell with a Leaseback
In a sale with a leaseback transaction, you sell your home to a buyer who then agrees to rent it back to you. A residential sale-leaseback often comes in two forms: short-term and long-term.
Sale with a short-term leaseback: A short-term leaseback arrangement typically lasts for three months or less and is designed to provide the seller the extra time needed to complete the construction of a new home or buy another home.
Sale with a long-term leaseback: A sale with a long-term leaseback typically lasts for more than a year and is only available from investors or companies that specialize in the purchase leaseback business. A leaseback agreement can be tailored to meet the needs of the seller and many times will last for 5 years or more. There are many reasons people choose to do a sale with a leaseback, including to prevent foreclosure, settle a divorce, or due to its flexibility, many people find them to be a great alternative to a reverse mortgage.
5. Sell Directly to a Home Cash Buyer
The easiest and fastest FSBO method is to sell your home to a home cash buyer. Selling your home directly to a professional “cash for homes” company eliminates the hassle and risk, and allows you to get your money lightning fast. That’s where “we buy homes for cash” companies like OutFactors come in.
When you sell directly to a home cash buyer, it has all of the same benefits of an FSBO transaction and a few more, including:
- No real estate commissions
- Fast and free cash for house offers. Just answer a few simple questions.
- A quick closing. Get your money in 10 days or less.
- Sell house as-is. No repairs. No Cleaning.
- Avoid open houses. Only show the house once!
- No marketing or advertising
- No photos or virtual tours required
- You control the sale
- Short or long-term leasebacks are available
- No wasted time or effort
- Sell your house fast without the expense
The best part of FSBO to a home cash buyer is that you can get a free no-obligation cash offer in 1 day. You then crunch the numbers to compare the cash offer to a typical offer. Most sellers are surprised that selling for cash gets them the same net amount of cash but without the hassle.
What to look for in companies that buy houses for cash
Not all that glitters is gold, so we highly recommend that you do some research before requesting a free offer from a home cash buyer. A genuine quick home buyer should have features such as:
- BBB (Better Business Bureau) accreditation
- Local physical office
- Positive online reviews
- Managed by a licensed real estate agent
- Presence of a real website
- Use state-sponsored easy to read contract forms
If you decide to go the for sale by owner route, you have to ask yourself one question. Why wouldn’t you request a free, no-obligation cash for house offer from a legitimate home cash buyer? You have nothing to lose except a few minutes of time and potentially everything to gain.
Are you looking to sell your home fast?
At OutFactors, we are BBB accredited with an A+ rating and we pay some of the highest cash prices in Texas. When you sell to us you can avoid all of the work, hassle, problems, and cost of selling.
Our offers are truly free and fast, so why not get a cash for house offer from a legitimate home cash buyer and sell your house without a realtor the easy way? If you get started now, 10 days later you can be sitting at a table signing the closing documents and collecting the cash for your house.
To get a great cash offer on your home just enter your address and answer a few simple questions about your house. The entire process only takes about 2 minutes and personal information is NOT required. Yes, that is correct. No registration, no telephone number, no email address – not even your name. It is that fast and easy to get an offer!
If you like our great cash for home offer, just click on the “Offer Accepted” button and we will move forward with preparing the contract and completing all of the formalities to get the home closed in 10 days or less. And if after you have crunched the numbers our offer is below what you expected, you can just “x” out and go enjoy your day.
Cash Offer in 2 Minutes!
We are here to help!
We hope this article is informative and provides you with another option for selling your home that you may not have been aware of previously. We are here to help so if you have any questions please contact us.
OutFactors
539 West Commerce Street
Suite 1205
Dallas, Texas 75208
Contact@OutFactors.com
(800) 420-7030
How to Sell House Without Realtor | Home Cash Buyer | OutFactors – Dallas Fort Worth, Texas
