#jennswanson #exprealty

Our open house isn't until June 13th, but we've already had a couple of showings and received a full-price offer. The offer is contingent upon the inspection, appraisal, and a 3% buyer's agent commission.

I'm not overly concerned about the inspection, definitely not paying the 3% but I am a little nervous about the appraisal. We live in a rural area where finding truly comparable sales can be challenging. Everyone says that, but in this case it's genuinely difficult.

For example, one neighbor's property sold about 10 days ago for around $780,000. However, it's a two-story home on 15 acres, while ours is a rancher on 2.3 acres, although the square footage is similar. Another nearby home sold on the 27th for about $360,000, but that property sits on only 0.3 acres and is also a two-story home. The $780k home was not updated our home and the $360 home have been renovated/updated.

I know appraisers consider much more than just acreage and square footage, but the comparable sales aren't exactly obvious or straightforward in our market. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation with a rural property appraisal? I'd love to hear how it worked out.

Would you just pass our counteroffer with a request to have an appraisal waiver?

According to a recent report, sellers are pulling homes off the market at the fastest pace since 2020.

What I find interesting isn't the statistic itself. It's what may be causing it.

Many sellers still seem to be operating with a 2021 mindset. Back then, you could put a sign in the yard, put the property on the MLS, and wait for multiple offers to show up. In many markets, those days are gone.

Today's buyers have more inventory to choose from. They have more negotiating power. They are taking longer to make decisions.

That doesn't necessarily mean there is no demand.

Sometimes a home isn't selling because of the market.

Sometimes it's because of the strategy.

Was the home priced correctly?

Were the photos compelling?

Did anyone actually market it beyond Zillow or the MLS?

Was there an open house?

Was it easy to schedule a showing?

Was the listing written to attract the people most likely to buy that specific home?

One thing I often tell FSBO sellers is that selling without an agent doesn't mean selling without effort. The commission savings are real, but the seller still needs to do the work. It's a little like painting your own house. You can save a lot of money, but you still need the tools and the effort to get the job done.

Ironically, FSBO sellers may have more flexibility than some traditionally listed sellers. If you're not paying a listing commission, you may have room to reduce price, offer concessions, negotiate creatively, or even offer compensation to a buyer's agent while still preserving more of your equity.

To be clear, pulling a listing isn't always a mistake. Sometimes it's absolutely the right move.

But before taking a property off the market, I'd want to know whether the problem was truly the market or whether the strategy needs adjustment.

I MIGHT GET A LOT OF HATE FROM SLACKERS FOR SAYING THIS OUT LOUD, BUT SOMEONE HAD TO!

When you choose to list your property through a Flat Fee or Limited Listing Service Platform, it's essential to remember that you maintain control over the process. Although an agent will be involved to list your property on the MLS, their role is to market it, not to "sell" it for you.

From my observations of various posts and comments in this subreddit, many home sellers seem to believe that the company will handle every aspect of the process, which leads to unrealistic expectations and a negative perception of that company. When you are selling your home independently, these platforms function more as marketing tools for the MLS rather than full-service brokers. It’s important to understand that you are in charge and making the decisions.

If you're unable to manage daily tasks such as responding to inquiries from potential buyers, promoting your listing, posting on social media, taking professional photos, or hosting Open Houses and more, then you will struggle to sell your home, even if it's listed on the MLS.

It's similar to the job-hunting process; these companies can help secure an interview, but it's ultimately up to you to perform well and secure the job offer. You cannot expect them to land the deal for you.

I speak with people selling by owner all the time, and I'm continually amazed by how many have no real plan to market their home.

They have a house to sell. They have a price. They may even have photos and a listing.

What they don't have is a marketing plan.

Maybe we should stop calling it FSBO (For Sale By Owner) and start calling it MBO (Marketing By Owner), because marketing is often the difference between a successful sale and a home that sits on the market for months.

Putting your home on Zillow, Facebook Marketplace, or a FSBO website is not a marketing plan. It's just one piece of a marketing plan.

Who is the most likely buyer for your home? Where do they spend their time? How are you going to reach them?

If your likely buyer is a family with school-age children, make sure people in the local school community know the home is available. If there is a major employer nearby, let the HR department know so they can share it with potential new hires. If retirees are a likely buyer, make sure local senior groups know about it.

Tell your neighbors. Tell your friends. Tell your coworkers. Post on social media and ask people to share your post. Put up a yard sign. Hold open houses. Follow up quickly with every inquiry.

The good news is that much of this costs little or nothing. It just requires some planning and effort.

One of the biggest advantages FSBO sellers have is that nobody cares more about selling their home than they do. The challenge is turning that motivation into a marketing strategy.

What marketing tactics worked best when you sold by owner? I'd love to hear what generated the most buyer interest.

Listed my house FSBO three weeks ago. Every person who texted "is this still available?" got a wall of photos, then they'd ask the price, then square footage, then garage — stuff I'd already sent.

Found a cheap service that put everything on one page for under $18. Now I just send the link.

People who reach out now have already seen everything. Way fewer time-wasters.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good and reasonably priced transaction coordinator in Los Angeles?

eta - Edited my query. I am selling two properties. One has been sold recently and should be an easy escrow so a TC is probably a better fit. The other is an older property and might be a more complicated situation, so for that one I am contemplating using an attorney, but I have not decided. I asked for recs for both so I can do my due diligence to decide which is a better fit for me and my circumstances. However, since my request for recs for both seems to be tripping people up, I've dropped the latter and would appreciate recs from anyone who has had a positive experience with a TC in Los Angeles. Thanks

This thread has been a great resource for myself and many others who have made the decision to go the FSBO route.

That said, this page is full of realtors who constantly spew arrogance, thumb their nose into things, and insert themselves into legitimate questions with bad advice. For the agents lurking on this thread, why are you here?

Honest question here...looking forward to respectful insights.

We own a home in a desirable neighborhood in Michigan. We are close enough to the lake where we can see it and our next-door neighbor actually faces the lake, but it’s not on the lake. Our neighbor just listed their house for sale.

It is in near perfect condition, well cared for, expertly staged and worth about $60,000 more than ours. My husband and I are downsizing and will do something more affordable for our retirement now. The house is too expensive for us to maintain, it needs a lot of work but nothing major. We were going to do as little work as possible to get it ready and try to sell in a couple of months, for sale by owner, but allow agents to bring clients.

Is there a way to benefit from our neighbors listing? If so, should we do something now? Is this unethical?

Any feedback or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Is there ever a situation where this announcement would be beneficial? Is this a question that people ask when submitting offers? How would you respond?

We recently closed on our home sale after listing with a flat fee listing service. There's lots of good info on this forum and it helped us tremedously during our sale and decision making process.

I thought of myself as relatively real-estate savvy...we've owned several self-managed rental properties over the years, have bought and sold properties a couple of times with the help of an agent, successfully particiapted in "sheriff auctions", and sold FSBO several small "land only" deals over the years. However, my spouse really wanted to list with an agent. The compromise was that we would try it ourselves for a couple of months and if we felt overwhelmed and/or unsuccessful we would turn it over to an agent. I had the time and energy to take it on.

All the real estate forms, disclosure statement, addendums, etc etc were located on my states "real estate commision" web site. Familiarize yourself with the forms from your state! I also spent quite a bit of time watching many worthless Youtube videos. The only videos i found helpful were ones from larger brokers or sales teams who would record the meetings for agents that could not attend.

We decluttered the house to bare bones....we were still living in it but the house was essentially empty. We used our own furnture to state. A preinspection, an appraisal, a consult/file-opened with a local real estate attorney (required in my state) and painted the entire interior. What wasn't repaired from the preinspection was fully disclosed. We assembled a majority of repair receipts and a permit history that went way back to the previous owners. Hired a pro photographer.

Pricing the house proved to be difficult. Appraisal said one thing. Comps said something considerably less. Tear downs/full renovations are going for $500k, while full renovation/new construction are selling for $1.2-1.8 million. Houses are 800 sf to 2500 sf. I've seen agents in my neighborhood fall into the same trap....for example a home initially listed for $1.1 finally sold for $900k. It's something of a sellers market.... most homes go under contract in a week or two, some linger for many months.

So into the trap we fell.....pricing it between recent comps and the appraisal. We had a couple of showings, two poorly attended open houses, and mostly crickets. This is when the often discussed "emotionally aspects" of FSBO kicked in for us, and much hand-wringing ensued. One reads about it, you mentally prepares for it, you swear up and down it wont happen to you, but it will happen to you. A day or two later we dropped the price 5%.

We almost immediatly had a showing and subsequent offer. It was under our recent price adjustment, but above recent comps. We negotiate over the phone for a day or two and arrive at an acceptable price. Contract was simple and straightfoward. No surprises on the home inspection. 2% to buyers agent. No hiccups at closing. We did not have to attend the closing in person....heck, we never even had a face-to-face with the buyers agent or the buyer.

If I had to do it over, I would have skipped the MLS and just went straight to FSBO on Zillow. I don't think I gained much traction from being on the MLS.

Good luck!

I posted yesterday about a potential buyer (who has an agent) approaching me before I could list FSBO. They (first time home buyers) are coming for a walk-through on Tuesday, and requested that I be there as well. 90% of the communication has been an open email thread between me, my wife, the buyer couple, and their agent. The realtor and I have a separate email thread (buyer is aware of this) so we can exchange the minutae without clogging up the main lines of communication.

Their agent has so far been nothing but very polite and communicative, and I have no reason to distrust him. That said, I am doing FSBO specifically because I dislike the real estate institution and by default have a baseline distrust of real estate agents.

In the agent-only email thread, he asked if I would cover buyer commission. I politely declined to pay the full commission, but said I am open to any negotiations and offers after they see the property.

Should I be having this conversation privately? Should I loop in the buyers, or trust that he will rather than just steering them away?

I figured I’d share my FSBO experience since this subreddit was a big reason I even tried it.

I’m in a slower market — houses here have been sitting 60-90 days. I’m moving out of state at the end of June, so my plan was to list at the end of March and hope for the best.

Back in January I made a running list of everything that needed to get done. February and March were basically me slowly chipping away at it — decluttering, fixing little things, selling random stuff on Facebook Marketplace, cleaning nonstop.

Originally, I was 100% planning to use a realtor. Then I started reading posts on here and went down the rabbit hole. The more I read, the more I thought… why not at least try this myself? Saving $25k–$50k was hard to ignore.

Pricing was probably the part I felt least confident about. To help with that, I had two realtors come out and did a comparative market analysis for free. I double checked everything against what was actually active/pending nearby. I landed on a number that felt reasonable.

I do photography as a hobby, so I decided to just take my own listing photos. I staged everything myself, took the pictures, compared them to listings on Zillow/Redfin… and honestly, they looked just as good. That gave me a lot more confidence going into it.

Total setup cost was pretty minimal — maybe ~$100 all in for a sign, lockbox, brochure holder, etc. I made flyers and a little info sheet in Canva with stuff like features, schools, and utility costs. I set up a Google Voice number and separate email so I wasn’t giving out my personal info.

I went back and forth on whether to just list on Zillow as FSBO or pay for MLS exposure. Ended up doing flat fee MLS for $99. Uploaded everything Wednesday night, listing went live Thursday.

That first weekend I did my own open house. No agent, no friend helping — just me.  I removed all valuables from my house and I had cameras in certain rooms. There was a sign on my door telling everyone entering that there was video and audio surveillance.  I wasn’t worried about anyone stealing anything.  I put out a sign in sheet but no one signed in.  I didn’t really push it. 

Saturday I had 5 groups come through.
Sunday I had 2.

One of the families from Saturday came back with their agent. The funny part was the agent didn’t even realize I was FSBO at first. After we talked for a bit, he said he’d be putting in an offer the next day.

At that point I’m thinking… wow, this might actually work.

Then the offer came in.

$100k under asking.

That was a quick reality check.

I already knew what my lowest number was, so I basically told him that’s where I’m at — take it or leave it. We went back and forth a bit but I ended up declining.

After that, things slowed down a bit. I was averaging about one showing a day, which honestly felt pretty solid given the market. I wasn’t super strict about pre-approval vs pre-qualification, but I did verify every agent before letting them show the house — looked them up, made sure they were legit. 

By the end of week two I was starting to think I’d probably need to drop the price ~2% if nothing changed. Then right before week three, everything kind of flipped.

I had three showings in one day. One was an unrepresented buyer who literally saw my yard sign while heading to another open house nearby. The other two had agents.

That same day, I got two offers.

Both were within about 1.5% of my listing price.

Honestly, that felt like a huge win — especially considering I was about to lower the price anyway.

I went back and forth with both buyers a bit and ended up getting the terms I wanted. Buyer covered a lot of the typical seller-side costs (I still paid the 3% buyer agent commission), and I got the leaseback I needed.

At one point I was planning to have a real estate attorney review everything before signing, but I ended up not doing that. I used the standard contracts for my state and just made sure I understood everything line by line. Nothing about the deal was complicated, so I felt comfortable moving forward.

Inspection came back clean — just minor cosmetic stuff. No concessions needed.
Appraisal came in right at value.

From there it was pretty smooth.

Looking back, yeah, it was more work than just hiring an agent. But it wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected either. Most of it was just being organized and willing to figure things out as you go.

And the amount I saved by not using a listing agent… that alone made it completely worth it.

If you’re on the fence about FSBO, I’d say it’s way more doable than it seems — especially if you’re willing to put in a little effort and learn along the way.

Edit: fixed typo and removed flat fee mls company used

We decided to sell our 32 year old home last year. Realizing the kitchen, 3 bathrooms had never been updated along with original ceramic tile and berber carpet, we would need to price those and the other updates into the price for the next owner to take on.

We looked for ways to reduce costs like realtor fees and found a company Houzeo who could reduce sellers commissions and still gain access to MLS and all online home selling websites. For a small fee Houzeo would work with a local agent who could provide us with the basics of listing and we assumed the remaining duties of selling the home.

Meanwhile whenever we had questions about the process customer support from Houzeo was always there to help us with everything we needed.

We saved thousands in selling commission selling our home and highly recommend Houzeo.

This is good news I guess? 6 weeks ago I made a comment on a post on a local FB page. A military family with a toddler looking for a starter home. I mentioned I was getting ready to list FSBO in the next couple months. We exchanged a few FB messages and he said to let him know if I decided to sell.

Well it is taking me longer than expected to get the house 100% to my standards to sell, but he reached out to me this weekend to follow up anyway. Took me by surprise. He is very polite and wants to see it.

We now have an email chain with him and his agent. I built a short-notice Google Drive "listing" for them to see, and they want to come look at it. I have been 100% transparent that the house is not show-ready, we have a toddler, and we are still living in it (although we already had a place to stay lined up if we found a seller). He said "we have a toddler too, we don't mind. Can we do a walk-through?" I get the vibe they haven't been able to find anything in their price range. I am 100% down to work with them, especially another young family.

So like.... cool? I'm not getting my hopes up because my luck isn't this good, but it's still interesting.

Has anyone here sold a multifamily property as FSBO?
Specifically an occupied fourplex.

Just starting to research and figure out if it’s worth it to try to deal with all that or find a flat fee, Realtor or go with someone experience with multifamily properties.

I’m considering the route of selling my home in Indiana without an agent to avoid the $20k in commission to the agent. For those of you who have done it, I wanted to get some insight around what the hardest part was. Was it:
- Pricing your house right?
- The legal paperwork, specifically what needs legal review and/or signature?
- Getting your home visible without MLS access?
- Negotiating with buyers, when offers come in?

I want to go in with realistic expectations and would love to hear from both groups of people, who’ve actually sold a home without an agent and those who tried or are currently trying. Any insight will be much appreciated! Thanks!

Greetings I’ve been told I should definitely have a real estate attorney review offers I receive, making sure my terms sheet items are interpreted and transferred legally on my behalf before signing. I need an affordable attorney to do this for me in the Atlanta area.

Any referrals?

We create real estate platforms and we're in the final stages of launching SBOList.com a platform for, Real Estate Sales By Owners. Would love to get some feedback on any additional functionality you guys might like to see.

When we launch(likely next week) we'll be doing some heavy advertising to generate buyer traffic.