{"id":9511,"date":"2013-05-24T11:32:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T17:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.signs.com\/blog\/?p=9511"},"modified":"2026-03-06T00:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T07:45:21","slug":"how-to-sell-your-own-home-secrets-from-a-former-realtor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.signs.com\/blog\/how-to-sell-your-own-home-secrets-from-a-former-realtor\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Sell Your Own Home: Secrets From a Former Realtor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thinking of selling your home? Now could be a great time\u2014interest rates are still low, and mortgages are more accessible to buyers than they’ve been for a long time. Even better\u2014the housing inventory for homes that are not short-sales or foreclosures is very low. Selling your own home, instead of using a Realtor for the transaction, can save you some money. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re up for the task, we’re here to guide you through it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I worked as a Realtor for four years and had the pleasure of working with both buying\u00a0and selling clients. During that time, the housing market was booming and so was business. I learned a lot about the psychology of home buyers, the most effective\u00a0\"FSBO\"marketing techniques for selling a home and the legal pitfalls that can happen during the course of a real estate transaction. I learned a few secrets here and there… and I’m willing to share these tips and secrets with you.<\/p>\n

I’ll also give you a heads-up on some of the real estate lingo you’ll run into during the process of selling your home, and you’ll get some advice from Realtors who are working in the business today, as well as from a real estate attorney.<\/p>\n

Should You Sell Your Home Yourself?<\/h1>\n

Selling your home on your own might not sound so difficult. After all, Americans are unafraid to take on new challenges. We learn basic plumbing skills to fix the leak in the sink. We learn how to trim our kids’ hair. We change our own oil, fertilize our own laws, tile our own bathrooms. Sometimes this works out well\u2014we save a buck or two. Other times, we end up taking our kids to the hairdresser to fix the crooked hack job we committed in the name of frugality.<\/p>\n

Should you sell your own home? The answer is… maybe. If the market is right, you’re not in a huge rush to sell, you’re practical, do your homework and stay focused, organized and diligent throughout the process, you might do well. On the other hand, if you’re not up for the task, selling your home without a realtor might not be the best idea.<\/p>\n

Will You Really Save Money?<\/h2>\n

Listing your home with a Realtor will typically cost you around 6% of the sales price. For a home worth $250,000, that\u2019s $15,000\u2014a fair chunk of change. Selling on your own will save you at least half of that\u00a0commission (if your buyer comes in with a Realtor, you will probably have to pay 3% or so to that person). So, you may save some money.<\/p>\n

\"Realtor\"<\/a>Then again, you may not. Savvy buyers know about the 6% Realtor commission. Unless you\u2019ve already priced your home below market value, they may automatically offer 6% less, based on the fact that there aren\u2019t any\u00a0Realtors involved. Frankly, they have a valid argument. If the exact same home down the street is priced at $250,00 also, but is listed with a Realtor, that seller will receive $235,000. Why should you receive more for your home?<\/p>\n

What typically ends up happening is that you discount the price of your home by 6%. Which means that you\u2019re making the same amount of money as you would when listing with a Realtor, but you\u2019re doing all the work of selling your home yourself.<\/p>\n

How Are Your Negotiation Skills?<\/h2>\n

The National Association of Realtors<\/a> reports that people who sell their own homes typically receive 10-20 percent less than those who list with Realtors, mainly because many sellers don\u2019t have the skills to negotiate the best contract. While the NAR certainly has a stake in that kind of survey, you might want to take an honest look at your skill set before you assume that you\u2019ll save money by selling yourself.<\/p>\n

Can You Be Brutally Honest With Yourself?<\/h2>\n

When you list with a Realtor, she\u2019ll come into your home, look around, and make recommendations about what you need to do in order to get the highest offer possible. While you might not agree with everything she has to say, she really has no reason to lie to you\u2014the higher your sales price, the higher her commission. Realtors have a lot of experience with buyers and their preferences. They aren\u2019t emotionally connected to your home, so they can see it with unbiased eyes.<\/p>\n

Last summer, I wrote a fun post called, “The Top 10 Signs The House Ain’t Selling.” It’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek and humorous, but several of the “signs” come from real-life scenarios. Check it out… and make sure none of them sound like you.<\/p>\n

Can You Leave Emotion Out of the Negotiation Process?<\/h2>\n

Speaking of being emotionally connected, this can be a real drawback when selling your home yourself. You have a lot of memories tied up in your home\u2014bringing home your first child, making snowmen in the yard, marking your child\u2019s height in the doorway every year when school starts. It\u2019s difficult to look at your home from a strictly financial perspective. This can bite you during negotiation.<\/p>\n

\"YoungI remember one situation where emotion cost a client money. Mrs. G had a beautiful home. She\u2019d raised four children there and had lots of great memories. One afternoon, a young couple drove by, saw the For Sale sign<\/a> in the front yard and knocked on her door to ask if they could walk through. Despite my recommendation against that kind of showing, Mrs. G let them in and proceeded to talk to them for four hours. The couple was expecting their first baby and they fell in love with the house. Mrs. G fell in love with them. She had visions of a new family growing up in her home, and she really liked the couple.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Mrs. G\u2019s home was worth $30,000 more than the prospective buyers could afford. Once I had spoken to them (and their loan officer), I told Mrs. G that they wouldn\u2019t work out\u2014they simply couldn\u2019t afford it. She had other ideas. She called the couple and offered to sell the house to them for $30,000 less than the asking price. They, of course, accepted.<\/p>\n

This seems like a nice, philanthropic gesture, doesn’t it? Mrs. G was in the process of completing her own purchase on a condo, but after the sale of her house closed, she found out that she couldn\u2019t obtain financing without the money she had basically given away. Emotions cost her $30,000… and the home she would live in for the rest of her own life.<\/p>\n

This kind of scenario is rare when homeowners hire a listing agent. Most of the time, clients take heed of their Realtor’s advice and aren’t present when buyers walk through. But when you sell your own home, you’ll be the one walking every buyer through.<\/p>\n

Real estate is a financial asset, much like your 401k and stocks. But you\u2019re not really emotionally connected to your 401k, are you? When selling your home, you absolutely must maintain an emotion-free attitude… or you\u2019ll lose money.<\/p>\n

Can You Be Firm With People?<\/h2>\n

Smart Realtors only show homes to buyers who have been pre-qualified with a lender. Otherwise, they\u2019d spend a lot of valuable time walking through homes with people who \"Lookie are just lookie-lous… playing \u201clet\u2019s look at nice houses we might be able to afford someday.\u201d When you sell your home yourself, you should also insist that prospective buyers bring a pre-qualification letter with them. Otherwise, you\u2019re wasting your time and potentially bringing people into your home who might have nefarious plans.<\/p>\n

One well-known scheme is for people to walk through a home, taking notes of all the expensive items they can then come back and steal later (or, if left unattended, they may take small valuables during the walk-through). Other people may want to enter your home with the intention of doing you harm. Realtors are aware of these criminals (and others) and are both wary and prepared.<\/p>\n

If saying, \u201cno\u201d to people makes you uncomfortable, you probably shouldn\u2019t sell your home yourself.<\/p>\n

Are You Willing to Do the Work?<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s tempting to feel as though Realtors make way more money than they\u2019re worth. For some rare transactions, that might be the case. But most of the time, your Realtor is spending many hours working on marketing your home and getting a contract to completion. When I worked as a Realtor, I regularly worked a 65-70 hour week. I had years of accumulated knowledge. I answered the phone when it rang (even at midnight) and went out in snowstorms to show homes or attend closings with clients. Was I worth my commission? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

Many people think that selling a house is easy\u2014you just throw a sign in the yard and wait for someone to come along and offer you money. You need to be prepared to put in the work required to sell your home.<\/p>\n

Rhonda Taylor, a Realtor with seven years of experience, told me, “I understand that<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Rhonda
Rhonda Taylor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

people are trying to save money. However, it\u2019s not just about getting an offer on your home. That\u2019s the easy part. My value comes in when all the unimaginable things that you can’t even fathom come up. I\u2019m a master at keeping things together and making sure it the deal closes. I have the resources and experience. I know how to market, sell and handle the paperwork required for real estate transactions. That\u2019s what I do for a living, and I’m good at my job.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Realtors deal with some pretty crazy issues. If you’re selling your own home without a Realtor, it might be advantageous to get inside their heads a bit and see what their daily work looks like.<\/p>\n

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Sell Your Home Yourself.<\/h2>\n

Despite my cautions above, selling your home yourself might be a really good idea, if you can do the following:<\/p>\n