Sometimes using a Realtor or selling your house on your own is the best option and sometimes a professional home buying company may be the best option to sell your house. There are a lot of differences to all three options we will cover in this article.

Things that are important to you as a home seller like the price you receive for your house, how much work you want to do to get your house sold, how fast you may need to sell your house and what moving options will you have all have to be considered.

Talking with an Investor

An investor can usually be very flexible concerning the sale of your house because purchasing a house is a business transaction for them. Unlike a traditional buyer that is probably selling a house to buy a house, an investor is buying the house as an investment.

Features and Benefits

These are the reasons that people consider selling their house to an investor. House sellers will typically get a little more money for their properties if they list them on the MLS with a real estate agent. However, for many people the price they receive for their house is not the number one priority for them.

A Simple and Easy Way to Sell Your House

A private house sale with an investor is very easy to understand and even more simple to do. An added bonus is the ability of the investor to solve any problems that might be associated with the property like a judgement or lien against the property, reverse mortgage situations, foreclosure, and even if the owner of the house that needs to be sold has passed away.

For Sale By Owner – FSBO

For sale by owner is probably the first choice for many that are selling their house without an agent or Realtor. This might be a good option for you if you have the time and patience for all of the showings, evaluating all of the different offers, working with the loan company, negotiating the buyer requested repairs, dealing with a failed sale and so on. Another small problem is what price to sell your house for. You can use sites like Zillow to estimate what to sell your house for. Be sure to find properties within a mile of the house you are selling, the same square feet, the same year built and in the same condition. You can also hire a professional appraiser to help you.

Marketing Your House

Marketing your house is the top priority when selling your house on your own. The more people you get in front of your house, the better. You are trying to find that one person that has to have your house for some specific reason like location, close by amenities, your garden area or the remodel job that was done a few years ago to your house. This buyer will offer above list in an up market and put a lot of money down. If they are a qualified buyer, then you have found a great buyer for your house.

Putting up fliers and signs around your neighborhood can generate some calls, and there’s a lot of free websites where you can post information. But often just putting up flyers and an open house isn’t enough to find the best home buyer.

You might make a little more money on your house and certainly save on the real estate commissions by selling your house yourself vs selling to an investor, but it can take you a lot longer to get your proceeds. You also need to be moved out of your house on the day that you sign the papers at the title company. It is also a good idea to make an appointment with a real estate attorney to make sure you are following all of your state’s rules in regards to selling real estate. Not doing something like not disclosing something that should have been disclosed can cost you a lot of money and a possible law suit.

Understanding the time and effort involved in selling your house yourself will help you get through all the hassles. Another thing that will help is making sure you have the proper expectations for pricing your house. Pricing your house too high will keep potential buyers away, and pricing your house too low could cost you some money.

The bottom line is to understand what is involved, seek advice from professionals that can help you, and price your house right. Following all of these suggestions should help you find the right buyer and get your house sold.

The Paperwork

There is a lot of paperwork involved in selling your house. The title company can help you once your property is under contract. At this time, the buyer will be finalizing their loan, so they can close. But what about before your property is under contract? You will need to put in writing all of the details of the sales price including the amount of the earnest money, what will happen during the inspection period when the buyer is likely to want some things repaired, and what happens if the buyer changes their mind?

All of these concerns, plus a lot more, should be covered in the REPC (Real Estate Purchase Contract). You can find a copy of the Utah State approved REPC and use it. Be sure to study all the paragraphs and ask questions if you need to. There are also plenty of articles on the internet discussing the documents you might need when selling your house without an agent.

The Buyer’s Agent

There is a very good chance that the the best buyer you have to choose from is represented by a real estate buyer’s agent. This means that the buyer will owe their agent a percentage of the transaction. Three percent is the most common amount of commission these agents get, but the amount can vary and there is no set amount of commission. This commission is also typically paid by the seller of the property through a listing agent, but it can be paid directly from the seller of the house to the buyer’s agent at closing. And, the buyer’s agent’s commission can be paid by the buyer. It is something that can be negotiated between all parties if there is no listing agent involved.

Selling Your House Without an Agent is Not for Everyone

Selling your house without an agent can be a lot of work. When you are working with an agent, there is a long list of things that the agent will get done for you:

1. Getting the house in the best condition possible for all the buyers that will be looking at your house
2. Marketing the property on multiple internet sites, publications, large brokers and the multiple listing service
3. Getting the property listed on the MLS and managing the listing according to state law
4. Taking calls from potential buyers, buyer’s agents, advertisers trying to sell you stuff and people that just want to see your house for fun
5. Scheduling the showings from all the people that call you to look at the house for 7 to 10 days to reach all the buyers
6. Reviewing each offer for price, terms, and most importantly, to make sure the buyer is qualified with their lender and accepting an offer
7. Sending the disclosures to the buyer and scheduling the inspections and appraisals with that buyer and their service providers
8. Scheduling to the repairs the buyer requested and you agreed to do
9. working with the title company to provide anything they need and then close on the sale of your house!

This process typically takes 45 to 60 days. A real estate transaction can cost four to six percent of the final property sales cost for the agent commissions on the sell side and the buy side of the transaction.  Keep in mind that if an agent brings a buyer, which often happens, they will want the seller to pay them their 3%.  It is worth it to get a good buyer for your property.  So most of the time people will save about 2% selling a house on their own by not paying a listing agent (as of this writing listing agents are discounting fees from the traditional 3%). Like mentioned above, sellers will pay 2% to 3% to a buyers agent most of the time.

Agents are Qualified Negotiators

All of the tasks listed above require negotiation skills.  The most intensive areas of negotiation will be working through the offers, the repairs requested by the buyer, and the price of the house if the appraisal does not come in at or above the agreed upon sale price.

Sellers well versed in real estate transactions might be comfortable walking through the process and negotiating items at different points in the escrow process.  When a seller is comfortable dealing with a buyer or buyer’s agent, he can save the listing agent commission of 2% to 3% by representing himself.  Again, that is about $10,000 on a $500,000 house.

Hopefully the transaction is very straightforward.  Maybe your buyer will come in and make an offer without expectation for repairs or credits.  Maybe the seller that gets their price and is able to provide all disclosures and documents properly to the buyer or buyer’s agent might not see a need for agent representation.

Selling your house without an agent will definitely require good negotiating skills.

Keeping Things Personal

There are times when a transaction is among well-known parties.  Well-known could be family members, close friends or even business partners.  A lot of times situations like this come up when an estate is selling a house.  Often times estate sale houses require quite a bit of fix up before the house can be sold.  Many times one of the heirs or a neighbor will want to buy a property that is part of an estate.  And sometimes a house buyer that is a family member or long time neighbor wants to buy the house to fix up themselves.  In cases like this where everyone is clear who the parties are and what to expect in the sale, there may not be a need to bring on an agent.  Of course, there needs to be a lot of trust among all parties in this type of transaction scenario.

When a private sale is a possibility, usually the biggest hurdle is establishing a fair price for the house.  In general, find out what the nicest & newest remodeled house in the neighborhood is selling for (must be same size and style), deduct the cost to get the house to be the newest remodel condition, subtract the sales cost (- list agent – buyer agent – closing fees) and deduct a reasonable profit.  Professional House Buying Companies will typically want to make a profit of $30,000 on a $425,000 house.  A buyer that wants to live in the house will usually pay more than someone that wants to fix the house up to sell it because profit has to be made for the person reselling.

Even when parties to a sale know each other, legal sale requirements must be followed.  Adhere to all Salt Lake City or what ever Utah city you are in codes for disclosures and timelines.  The last thing you want as a seller representing him or herself is to find yourself in a legal battle down the road for a property you thought you no longer had any ties to.  Follow the rules to avoid legal ramifications and penalties.

Selling your house without an agent will probably be just fine if the parties know each other or are family and trust each other.  Perhaps get an attorney to review the paperwork and always use a reputable title company.

This can be a difficult decision once you realize how many choices and options you have when selling your house. All of these choices involve things like how fast or how slow it will take to sell your house, what moving options you have are determined buy how you sell your house and the condition of your house can play part in how you want to sell your house. You have a lot of choices including selling your house without an agent or listing your house. Here are some of the benefits again of selling your house to a professional home buyer:

• Very often a quick close in 5 to 7 days is possible. Free cash advance if we can’t close fast.
• Sell Now Move Later Program. 
• I use an easy and transparency process.   
• Of course we buy houses as-is with no repairs required.
• Relocation help for family members or tenants.
• And More!  Please ask us about your situation.

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