# Private Sale vs. Using a Realtor



## fergusonsd (Dec 30, 2012)

I've recently completed a private purchase and the process was pretty smooth. However, that may have been due to the fact that the person I purchased from was a real estate agent herself and therefore, was able to draw up the agreements, amendments, etc. quickly and easily. However, not having a person on my side made things a little more difficult and anxious at times. This was exaggerated by the fact that it was my third rental property which made getting financing more difficult and time consuming. 

So my question is has anyone here purchased a house privately? What did you think?

Has anyone sold a house privately? Where did you advertise your property? 

Devon - www.fergusonfinancial.ca


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

I sold my house privately - just by sending an email to friends and offered $1000 to anyone who contacted a person to buy my house.

My only regret is that although I'm sure I got a solid price I wish I had the house independently assessed just so I would of had confirmation I wasn't underselling it.

Anyway, made $100K so I can't be THAT upset.


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## canabiz (Apr 4, 2009)

Devon, we sold our home privately last year. We listed on Grapevine (For Sale by Owner website for Ottawa and surrounding areas) and got a lot of traffic but nothing materialized.

We then went on MLS through a discount brokerage (the Usher Group) for $199 and got 2 offers within a couple of days. We had to pay 2.5% to the buyer's agent but that's par for the course.

I would be glad to do that all over again. I posted some more details about my experience (which is more relevant to the Ottawa folks) so if you are interested, feel free to do a search of my username and look for my posts this time last year.

Cheers!


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## hystat (Jun 18, 2010)

It used to be the case, that as soon as any potential buyer saw "for sale by owner", they expected a discounted price. It's the seller that does the extra work and the buyer expects the savings. I don't know if attitudes have changed. 

I would try a discount brokerage if I were to sell and in no particular hurry. We have rural waterfront and every spring there is a parade of cars (gawkers) looking on this street. Less direct comparisons so the right buyer may come along.


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

Offer 2.5% to agents even if you list yourself. Agents are ignoring properties that are not listed at 2.5%

And since buyers feel that a buying agent is free most do use one.


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## blueeyetea (Feb 27, 2013)

My husband and I bought my MIL's house from the estate and we did it through a private sale. Even though the estate lawyer could have handled the transaction for both the seller and buyer, my husband and I went ahead and got our own lawyer to oversee the transaction. I'm glad we went ahead and spent the extra money. 

Were you not able to have a lawyer look at the papers drawn up before you signed anything? I don't blame you for being anxious. Since she was representing herself, it's safe to say she doesn't have that much incentive to be honest with you, so I hope you were able to put conditions on the sale like house inspections, etc.


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## blueeyetea (Feb 27, 2013)

hystat said:


> It used to be the case, that as soon as any potential buyer saw "for sale by owner", they expected a discounted price. It's the seller that does the extra work and the buyer expects the savings. I don't know if attitudes have changed.


True. Having listened to some storied of houses being sold by owner, I've been under the impression that the owner often thinks he can get more money than what a real estate could have brough him. Either they think the house price quoted was too low, or they get fixated they should get back a fixed amount. I always thought that if houses in the neighborhood sells for $300K, then the private sale should be $300K minus agent fees.


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## SpIcEz (Jan 8, 2013)

blueeyetea said:


> True. Having listened to some storied of houses being sold by owner, I've been under the impression that the owner often thinks he can get more money than what a real estate could have brough him. Either they think the house price quoted was too low, or they get fixated they should get back a fixed amount. I always thought that if houses in the neighborhood sells for $300K, then the private sale should be $300K minus agent fees.


Then what is the point of not using an agent? The owner has to put in more work to sell the house (usually, unless he gets lucky), thus he should reap the rewards. I think its unfair to expect a discount. But obviously, everyone wants a discount, always. Its up to the seller to hold his ground.


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## canabiz (Apr 4, 2009)

blueeyetea said:


> True. Having listened to some storied of houses being sold by owner, I've been under the impression that the owner often thinks he can get more money than what a real estate could have brough him. Either they think the house price quoted was too low, or they get fixated they should get back a fixed amount. I always thought that if houses in the neighborhood sells for $300K, then the private sale should be $300K minus agent fees.


I can only speak from my experience but prior to listing the house privately, I invited 3 realtors who are familiar with our neighbourhood in to give us a market evaluation. They know full well we would not be under any obligation to sign anything but they were still happy to provide the evaluation as they were hoping to win our business and/or get our referral for future deals.

We then knocked 2% off the suggested listing price (all 3 came back with very similar #) and went private. We had visitors asking us if we would reduce the price further as we already *save* the realtors' commission by listing private. I stayed calm, cool and collected at all times and showed the realtor's market report to those folks and politely told them the property is already well-priced so if you are serious, bring me an offer and we will talk. 

That worked for me as they stopped haggling right after...people now have a lot of info at their disposal and they know which house is overpriced and which is not and I was not afraid to show them what we have. 

Cheers!


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

That's actually a pretty crappy thing to do. I'm in no way a fan of realtors but to take advantage of people and waste their time like that is pretty sleazy.

There are professional appraisers out there that only charge a couple hundred dollars to appraise your house. I would suggest going that way instead.


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## canabiz (Apr 4, 2009)

none said:


> That's actually a pretty crappy thing to do. I'm in no way a fan of realtors but to take advantage of people and waste their time like that is pretty sleazy.
> 
> There are professional appraisers out there that only charge a couple hundred dollars to appraise your house. I would suggest going that way instead.


That is your perspective but certainly not mine. Like I said the realtors came in knowing full well we would be under no obligation to sign anything.

We were planning to go with one if our private listing didn't come through after a certain amount of time so yes the possibility was there. Also, I have since referred said realtor to 2 of my friends because I was impressed with his knowledge and professionalism. 

and you are not going to sit here and tell me I am the only person in this world who has been doing that? Get a free market evaluation just to see where we are for a realistic perspective and striking out on our own?


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

canabiz said:


> That is your perspective but certainly not mine. Like I said the realtors came in knowing full well we would be under no obligation to sign anything.
> 
> We were planning to go with one if our private listing didn't come through after a certain amount of time so yes the possibility was there. Also, I have since referred said realtor to 2 of my friends because I was impressed with his knowledge and professionalism.
> 
> and you are not going to sit here and tell me I am the only person in this world who has been doing that? Get a free market evaluation just to see where we are for a realistic perspective and striking out on our own?


You are definetely not the only person doing that, and None is not the only person who thinks it's sneaky to do that unless you tell them ahead of time that your intention is not to hire any agents and do the sale by yourself.

OP, in a perfect world selling by yourself would be the best option, however it's not a perfect world. There are many agents who in order to keep the industry the way it is will not bring their buyers to anyone who is not represented, and I have heard of number of examples of agents who would only bring the buyer if you offer the other agent full 5% for double representation. They will also be happy if you never sell the house and end up getting an agent after few months of sitting on the market. You may want to consider hiring an agent at a flat fee, or at a reduced rate of 1% or even less, this way not only they do some of the work, but also you are not turning away any buyers represented by scumbags who wouldn't deal with anyone who is not represented.
Your goal should be not as much to save on the commissions, but to net the most amount to you after all fees are paid, and I think flat fee or reducend commission agents are a very good option given the circumstances I stated. I have done it with good results, so have number of poeple I know who sold recently.JMO.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

One person's sleaze is another person's free leverage. Everyone has to satisfy their own value system.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

none said:


> That's actually a pretty crappy thing to do. I'm in no way a fan of realtors but to take advantage of people and waste their time like that is pretty sleazy.
> 
> There are professional appraisers out there that only charge a couple hundred dollars to appraise your house. I would suggest going that way instead.


I guess this is debatable, but I think this is ok to do. Realtors who offer a free service just do it to try to get clients. They are very aware that they might only get one client for every N evaluations, but that's the way their business model works.

It's not unlikely that if the private sale route doesn't work out, the home owner might go back and use one of the realtors who did an evaluation.

If it was me, I would probably hire an appraiser only because I would have more confidence in their abilities than most realtors.


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

kcowan said:


> One person's sleaze is another person's free leverage. Everyone has to satisfy their own value system.


It's true, everyone lives their live's accepting different levels of hypocrisy.

There are undoubtedly other people out there doing it but the mob mentality doesn't mean it's any less unethical. There are lots of ways to cheat the system that doesn't make it right. I get pissed off when people waste my time. If it's unintentional that's fine but when it's thought through and intentional it shows a real lack of respect for other people.


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## canabiz (Apr 4, 2009)

Four Pillars said:


> I guess this is debatable, but I think this is ok to do. Realtors who offer a free service just do it to try to get clients. They are very aware that they might only get one client for every N evaluations, but that's the way their business model works.
> 
> It's not unlikely that if the private sale route doesn't work out, the home owner might go back and use one of the realtors who did an evaluation.
> 
> If it was me, I would probably hire an appraiser only because I would have more confidence in their abilities than most realtors.


This.

We took an incredible amount of risk going on our own as it was our first time selling a home AND we absolutely had to sell this one before we took possession of the new build.

To say that was a stressful time would be an understatement but we managed to pull it out  I also have nothing against realtors, some of our good friends are in the industry and we are working with one to find another property, but the game is no longer the same with those discount brokerages popping up all over the place to give you exposure on MLS and the public having the info at their fingertips (Internet, social media etc), as I alluded to earlier

Sorry for going off tangent a bit, OP. Hope you find a happy medium  and remember if you can't sell your house privately, there is always the next realtor but it feels good doing it on your own and the savings can be substantial! It's definitely not rocket science.


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## RBull (Jan 20, 2013)

We did a hybrid version- listed with Property Guys as a a private sale which included listing on MLS for a small fee. We offered a 2% fee to agents after trying a flat $1000.

We had some interest from our Property Guys listing and accepted a private sale conditional offer, which in the end didn't happen. What we found is agents wanted to show our house but when they discovered the low payout avoided us. In the end due to immediate market conditions we raised our price substantially and took an agent offer. After the 2% we made out further ahead than our initial private sale offer. 

I think the decision how to list is very dependent on your individual market. The most important thing is to get an accurate appraisal(s)- we got an independent one and several agent ones, list at or slightly below market and your house will sell as long as there is activity and your home shows well. Do your homework and take the emotion out of the pricing. Interestingly we sold at the very top end of the appraisers range and about 5% above the agents price.


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