# Has anyone ever sold their own home?



## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

Has anyone ever NOT used a real estate agent to sell their home? 

What was your experience like? How did you get buyers to view your home without using MLS? What mistakes did you make, and how would you have improved if you were to do it again?


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

I have not sold my home but I just helped the owner sell a 2.2 million townhouse complex so I feel able to answer this question. We started in August and it sold in January and the closing was on the 15th of March. 

We put an ad in the Toronto Star. That's it. 

The most irritating thing about it was the number of agents that called to tell us to list with them. Most claimed they had buyers. I told them that if they had buyer to bring them by and we would be happy to pay a commission. Of the hundreds that called only two brought buyers. 

I had a friend who "tried" to sell her house privately. All she did was put a sign up outside her house. Again she got tons of phone calls from agents and some people trying to get a steal. She "tried" for 2 weeks which really isn't a decent time frame IMHO. 

People do sell their houses privately and are successful. There are also websites that specialize in FSBO listed properties. They charge around $500 which seems a bit high to me, but they may provide additional assistance I am not aware of.


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## Oldroe (Sep 18, 2009)

My parents sold their farm private and the lawyers fees were huge. They save a little, don't think it was worth the aggravation.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

You could try reading the lengthy list of testimonials on a site like Grapevine
http://www.grapevine.ca/testimonials.cgi

Of course they aren't going to publish Untestimonials by people who weren't happy with their experience.


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## Dana (Nov 17, 2009)

We know a couple who have only ever sold their houses on their own. They have never used an agent. They can't understand why we used an agent when we sell. 

This couple tend to live in high-demand neighbourhoods. In all three instances, it was word of mouth. They sold their first house to a neighbour's sister, their second house to a co-worker's relative and the third to a neighbour looking to upsize. They had time on their side. It took a few months for each house to sell. In each instance, they didn't have to be out of their current house by a certain date. They advertised locally but I don't think they put a sign on their lawn.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Oldroe said:


> My parents sold their farm private and the lawyers fees were huge. They save a little, don't think it was worth the aggravation.


All agents do is fill out the agreement of purchase and sale. The lawyer's fee's would have been huge anyways IMHO. Not sure how much they sold it for but the bigger the property the more benefit to the owners getting together to hammer out the details.


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## Oldroe (Sep 18, 2009)

It was mid 500k farm. The lawyers worked out the purchase agreement and I always thought they hired the wrong lawyer. Running for fed. politics ect. Dad still thinks not worth it.


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## Maltese (Apr 22, 2009)

Alexandra said:


> Has anyone ever NOT used a real estate agent to sell their home?
> 
> What was your experience like? How did you get buyers to view your home without using MLS? What mistakes did you make, and how would you have improved if you were to do it again?


I sold my last home using Comfree in Manitoba. I paid $499 to them. For this fee they put a sign in front of my property and advertised on their website and in their weekly booklet. Once the buyer completed the offer to purchase (provided by Comfree) and I accepted it, we turned it over to our lawyers to do the rest. 

My parents have sold all their homes privately without any hitches. As well, my ex-next-door-neighbor sold their home privately without any problems.


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## bean438 (Jul 18, 2009)

Berubeland said:


> I have not sold my home but I just helped the owner sell a 2.2 million townhouse complex so I feel able to answer this question. We started in August and it sold in January and the closing was on the 15th of March.
> 
> We put an ad in the Toronto Star. That's it.
> 
> ...


Comfree is 600 bucks to list. This gets you web listed plus listed in the magazine, sign, paperwork, etc. Well worth the money.

Agents most likely do not have a buyer when they call a private listing. My dad had this happen, and he told the agent he would give them a 24 hour exclusive listing for 1% commission. They turned him down. 5K for no work since the buyer was "ready". 

Agents are bottom feeding scum.


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## real_money (Feb 16, 2010)

bean438 "Agents are bottom feeding scum. " 

Tell us how you really feel.

I said the same thing in another post, only I used nicer words and I got chewed out. Good to see people feel the same as I do.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

I'm with Bean on this one. 

As for an MLS listing I read today in CREA's response to the competition Tribunal about some cheaper MLS listings available. You may still have to pay an cooperating broker (buyer's agent) commission. You can decide what to set this commission at. 

Best Value Realty (Ontario) $109 - www.bestvalue.biz 
Remax 1% commission + 2.5% to buyer's agent - www.saveoncommission.ca
Calgary Discount Realty $579 - www.calgarydiscountrealestate.com
Donald Hewie Brokerage flat MLS fee + 1-3% commission - www.hewie.com
MLSBy Owner - $279 - $599 flat fee - www.mlsbyowner.net

In any case these kinds of services are popping up left right and centre now that the competition board is onto them.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

bean438 said:


> Agents are bottom feeding scum.


Well said lol


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## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

I have seen quite a few signs in my area (King West in Toronto) with signs by Property Guys. Trouble is, none of them seem to be selling. I think realtors will refuse to show a "independant seller" house to their clients. I would love to try to sell my own house, but would hate the stress of my place sitting unviewed for months on end.

I am watching what's happening with MLS with great interest...


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## canehdianman (Apr 7, 2009)

real_money said:


> bean438 "Agents are bottom feeding scum. "
> 
> Tell us how you really feel.
> 
> I said the same thing in another post, only I used nicer words and I got chewed out. Good to see people feel the same as I do.


I think the only people who don't feel that way are the agents!


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

@ Alexandra 

You are correct that realtors will refuse to show your property. In fact they often won't even show lower commission listings by other real estate agents. 

The MLS listing service above for $109 is available in Toronto. You can pay the other half of the commission 2.5% but you will still save 2.5% - $109 or about 10,000 plus HST (depending on your house price) 

Also for those who are interested I should have a post going up on www.milliondollarjourney.com about this very issue. I read the entire case and put my conclusions on the whole issue up for the whole world to comment


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Berubeland said:


> @ Alexandra
> 
> You are correct that realtors will refuse to show your property. In fact they often won't even show lower commission listings by other real estate agents.
> 
> ...


I think you might have to pay the buying agents commission. The fact is that when you sell yourself, you only really save the selling agent commission. 

Eventually there will be lots of buyers without agents but right now - if you don't pay it then you are reducing your buying pool by quite a bit.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

Four Pillars said:


> I think you might have to pay the buying agents commission. The fact is that when you sell yourself, you only really save the selling agent commission.
> 
> Eventually there will be lots of buyers without agents but right now - if you don't pay it then you are reducing your buying pool by quite a bit.


Well, the listing your property on MLS for $109 is a good start. Even if you give your buyer's agent 2.5%, you still save some coin. 

But the question is, how does the buyer make appointments with the seller to show the property? I would assume the $109 listing does not offer any of the brokers service. WOuld you just put your home number on MLS and wait for calls of interested people?


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

http://www.bestvalue.biz/buyers.htm

How will buyers contact you?
Under current Real Estate Board rules, we cannot put your personal contact information in the public remarks section of the listing.

However, there is a simple solution that allows buyers to contact you directly.

Our solution is to add a link to the MLS® listing that buyers can use to see your contact information. This link is located on top of the main picture when your listing is shown on MLS.ca or REALTOR.ca

This makes it easy for buyers to contact you, all they have to do is click on one link!

Important Note: 
You should be aware that some agents don't like that idea that you have the option to sell privately. For them, it means that they have one less chance to make a sale. Of course, that is only true if the buyer would have used their services in the first place, which is likely not the case.

Moreover, such agents are of the view that the MLS® system should not allow the option to sell privately. But this is really just another way of saying that they don't like competition or different business models for that matter. To them, the only choice you should have is to whom you are going to pay a 5% commission rate.

The good news is that many agents are coming to the realization that the real estate industry is changing. Our service is all the evidence you need!


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## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

So what has been these people's strategy for still getting the realtors to show people their home? If I list independantly through Best Value Realty, would I put right on the listing that I am willing to pay the buyer's commission for those who have agents? Or is that a stupid strategy?

The fact is that I think my house will sell itself. It's a perfectly-maintained, fully-updated Victorian 3-bedroom home with a separate basement bachelor apartment in King West. When we bought it, we won a bidding war, and the home had only been on the market for a weekend. We have made amazing improvements to the place, and the few homes in the area that are for sale are being snatched up immediately. 

I think we could get $800,000 for it without any effort. The thought of handing over $20,000 to someone for literally no work makes my stomach turn. 

But I also know from experience in selling in the past that I get very nervous when my for-sale home sits on the market for longer than a week or two. 

My husband and I have thought about taking out huge one-page ads in the local papers to try to get people to come to a weekend open house. Has anyone ever done this?


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I think you should try to sell without offering anything to the buying agent. If it doesn't work you can always change your offer later on. You also don't have to offer 2.5% - maybe try 1%?

Not sure about the newspaper ad - I think if you can get it listed on MLS and have a sign out front then that is good enough. Newspaper ads are expensive.

The limiting factor is going to be that most (I think) of your potential buyers are probably under contract with an agent so they won't be able to buy your house without compensating their agent.

<start rant>

This is one of the problems of a system where the seller pays both agents. In an ideal world (which we might see eventually) the buyers should pay their agent for services rendered (percentage amount, fixed amount, per hour amount or whatever) and the seller does the same.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Dear Alexandra, 

Do you need to sell your house? By a particular time? It's not a fire sale. So who cares how long it takes. 

If I were to sell my own house I would put an ad in the Star that it's a private sale and the asking price. 

You can put a sign up. I suggest a rather large one so people driving by can easily see it.

I might also create a simple webpage with my address and phone number and a recently created email such as [email protected] 

Then place ads on Kijiji and craiglist with the link to your website

Then do the MLS link for 109$ Use the same webpage as your link off the MLS.

See what kind of response you get. 

Realtors will not show your house you have to do it. 

You cannot simultaneously say I don't want to pay you and sell my house. That's just silly. 

I would suggest you hire an appraiser to value your house. 

Your outlay for the ad is about 100$ per week. 109$ for the listing. Several hundred for the sign a couple hundred for a website and some time. 

So initially your costs would be under $1000. Your savings for doing this would be 39,000 plus HST another $6000 or so. All in you would save 44,000


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## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

No of course, I didn't mean that realtors should show my house on my behalf and then not get paid for it. What I meant is that some realtors working with a family to BUY a house might refuse to even show their family my house that is for sale by owner.

I actually do think that time is important. I think right now I can get a very good (maybe even inflated) price for my house. I am not sure what will happen next year.

Anyway, I read your article over at Million Dollar Journey - thanks for that, it was very well written Rachelle.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

You might be right Alexandra. Unfortunately Real Estate Agents may not show it, but it is a hot market so when you market the property you have to expose it to as many people as possible. 

Are you willing to offer the buyer's agent a commission? You can post that on your MLS listing. If not they won't show your property.


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## tdotcitizen (May 7, 2010)

*selling my new condo*

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum and I found it vey interesting. I have a brand new condo in Toronto(two bed two bath, never lived in and it's in good location) for sale and I don't want to get an agent. It is going to cost me alot. selling a condo is different from a house. What's the best way to advertise? Any good website? Is it possible to ask an agent to get some money and advertise it on MLS?


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## tdotcitizen (May 7, 2010)

Hi there,
I'm selling my condo in Toronto( twobed twobath, never lived in). I dont want to pay for any agent. selling a condo is different from a house. What's the best way to advertise it? I put it on kijii and Craigslist but no response! you said that we can put it on MLS for $109? How it works and how can I do that? Is there any other good website that I'm not aware of? Since nobody is living there at the moment and I'm paying the rent each month so I would love to sell it as soon as possible. Any help would be appreciated






Berubeland said:


> Dear Alexandra,
> 
> Do you need to sell your house? By a particular time? It's not a fire sale. So who how long it takes.
> 
> ...


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## tdotcitizen (May 7, 2010)

*selling my new condo*



Berubeland said:


> Dear Alexandra,
> 
> Do you need to sell your house? By a particular time? It's not a fire sale. So who cares how long it takes.
> 
> ...


Hi
I'm selling my brand new condo(two beds and baths, never lived in) in Toronto and I don't want to get any agent. It is going to cost me alot. Selling a condo is differetn from selling a house. You mentioned about the MLS! How can I put my condo on MLS? How it works? What's the best way to advertise it? Is there any website just for selling condos? Any help would appreciated.


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## tdotcitizen (May 7, 2010)

Hi Berubeland,
I'm selling my brand new condo(two beds and baths, never lived in) in Toronto and I don't want to get any agent. It is going to cost me alot. Selling a condo is differetn from selling a house. You mentioned about the MLS! How can I put my condo on MLS? How it works? What's the best way to advertise it? Is there any website just for selling condos? I want to sell it soon because I'm paying two rents right now.Any help would appreciated.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

I sold my last two homes privately, the first to my brother and the second using a website called bytheowner.com. Both times I had three local agents come in for an assessment and pitch on how they would market it. I wasn't impressed with the efforts they were planning on investing in the process and since my wife and I are both in sales we thought we were well equipped to sell our homes. 

The sale to my brother was easy and it was a great house so other than a couple of appliances that needed replacing within a year or two he hasn't had any problems and still lives there 7 years later. He had actually sold his house in Toronto privately as well and his home had appreciated by about 40% in the 3 years he owned it so he make a killing.

The second home we listed at $609,000, set up some signs and I spent a lot of time writing a detailed and articulate listing for the website along with around 30 pictures. Then we put a big ad in the local paper for the Saturday edition. By Saturday afternoon we had two competitive bids and over the next week went back and forth between them and ended up getting $615,000, saving about $35,000 in real estate fees. Total cost for the website and ad in the paper was around $800. We had no problems at all with this transaction. 

Our current home was just assessed at around $740,000 and we paid $580,000 for it almost 4 years ago. We were thinking of moving to a bigger home but love our neighbours and live on a nice quiet street so I think we are going to stay. If and when we do list it, it will be privately for sure.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

tdot:

Why did you post the exact same thing 4 times?

Patience please.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Also Tdot if you are trying to get a hold of me starting a topic is a great way to get my attention, i don't always check out older posts.

If you are paying two mortgages I suggest renting out the place first so that you don't have to be so panicked about selling. 

The link you are looking for is here http://www.bestvalue.biz/

Put an ad in the paper as well. 

Best of Luck. 

You may also want to check out what the prices of other condos are selling for in your building and price according to your desperation. 

Why are you so desperate? What is going on with you? I suggest you chill out or you are going to rip yourself off when it comes to negotiating. Experienced people can smell this a mile away.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I think to use 'For sale by owner' costs around $500 to list with them. 

Avoiding RE agent fees.

I would put up a bulletin in the mail room or wherever the posting board is. Someone might pass through that likes the building and contact you.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

@ Alexandra

What did you decide to do?


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## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

We are still debating whether or not to sell. I would love to, my husband is more reluctant. My goal would be to sell high now, wait until the market cools down considerably, and then re-buy in the same area for cheaper. My husband is not sure that prices will go down enough to make the bother worth all the effort (and stress).


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## dagman1 (Mar 3, 2010)

Why not market your current property as an investment property? That way maybe you can do a buy-rent back transaction all in one. That way you'll transfer the risk to someone else and don't even need to move.


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## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

This just in the news...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...aking-up-real-estate-industry/article1574959/

Looks like this is a trend that is gaining momentum.


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## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

dagman1 said:


> Why not market your current property as an investment property? That way maybe you can do a buy-rent back transaction all in one. That way you'll transfer the risk to someone else and don't even need to move.


Interesting idea. I'm not sure that investors will want to buy my house though...I am hoping for an emotional sale (i.e. someone sees my gorgeous Victorian three-bedroom home with original hardwood, doors, etc., falls in love, and just has to have it, even at the inflated price I am asking) ;-) Smart investors would run far, far away.

Still working on my husband (and on finding a good rental at equivalent value and space).


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

Of course RE agents are worried because it isn't that hard to do their job.

This is coming from someone who's mom has been an agent for nearly 30 years.

You list the house there is work here (comparibles etc) let's say a full 8 hours of work.

You then let MLS do it's thing, if you show the house and do open houses, let's say you work a full week 40 hours per house you list (this is optimistic IMO). You get paid 3% on a $100,000 house that's $3k hey that's not that great and 10 years ago that's the way it was sometimes 5% split between agents.

But with houses costing on average $350k that's $10k even at only 3% of $5k each for a week of work?  Why do you think there are hundreds and thousands of RE agents now? It takes a few short months of courses to get your license and bam you have the ability to make a huge amount of money if you can even sell one house a month!

Eventually you will see agents move to a fee based structure $2500 to sell your home done deal. It will take awhile for brokers to swallow this but I'd bet as an agent you would move a huge amount of property on this fee structure!


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

I agree that's what it looks like on the surface Jamesby but when I wrote my post on CREA I was reminded again of why I did not pursue a career in Real Estate myself. 

Basically as an agent you are the one running around and selling the house however the whole system is designed to part you from your commission. 

First of all using the example of 5% real estate commission, the typical transaction goes like this. 

Commission 20,000 - 10,000 for other agent and broker
- 5000 or even more for you broker

This leaves you $5000 out of 20,000 then... you get to pay for desk fees, business cards, signs, any ads, brochures and gas for your car, your car, and then.... groceries. Then there's annual courses you must take, membership fees for CREA, OREA, and your local Real Estate Board then I believe there's also a fee for MLS access and I think you have to pay an additional 35$ per ad you put on the MLS. 

Furthermore agents are encouraged to "appear well off" so they generally have very nice cars (at least compared to me) and look very nicely dressed all of which costs MONEY. 

So basically while the homeowner pays out A LOT. Way too much in my opinion, the real estate agent him or herself may occasionally have to don a disguise to go to the food bank  That's because there is a hell of a lot of middle men and blood suckers taking the guy who actually does the work's pay away from him. 

That's why IMHO it's very difficult for investors to get service from Realtors. They have to go for the lowest hanging fruit (read naive buyers) just to survive. They don't make enough money to spend hours pouring over the MLS or meeting someone at 30 properties before making an offer.


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

Yes you have described the inner workings well. That's why my Mom decided to become a broker herself to cut out the middleman.

The "perception" thing can work both ways, a lot of buyers don't want an agent that drives a BMW because obviously they charge too much haha, my Mom drove a Pontiac Transport minivan seemed to work well enough.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Well not only that but the COMPETITION now really dilutes the limited pool for everyone. When I had my condo, I received numerous calls and voice mails out of the blue from interested agents who wanted the listing, if and when I decided to sell. They even sent flyers in the mail. "Pick me, pick me!"

I think the trend regarding comfree and similar services is really starting to take off and is unstoppable at this point. A lot of homeowners remain annoyed that we have to fork over 4-5% over our selling price to RE agents. Given how high values have become, that comes to a LOT of money for the work they do. I do acknowledge that a given agent typically only makes 2-2.5% on a sale since the buyer usually has their own agent.

It will be interesting to see what sorts of changes the industry will make in the future. Though I fully expect to see feel-good TV ads touting the benefits of your "friendly neighborhood agent". Stay tuned.


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## dagman1 (Mar 3, 2010)

Berubeland said:


> So basically while the homeowner pays out A LOT. Way too much in my opinion, the real estate agent him or herself may occasionally have to don a disguise to go to the food bank  That's because there is a hell of a lot of middle men and blood suckers taking the guy who actually does the work's pay away from him.
> 
> That's why IMHO it's very difficult for investors to get service from Realtors. They have to go for the lowest hanging fruit (read naive buyers) just to survive. They don't make enough money to spend hours pouring over the MLS or meeting someone at 30 properties before making an offer.


I think this is spot on. In the end, although 6% is a lot to pay on the sale, most real-estate agents aren't making a killing because the pie gets divided so many ways.

The problem with the real-estate industry is that it is lacking competitiveness: the CREA has masterminded a model to squeeze every possible dollar from the consumer and distribute it to maximum number of middle-men throughout the chain, all under the guide that they are assuring a minimum level of service and competency. By the time the Competition Bureau is done with the CREA, you should see some serious fat trimming.


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## marko (Mar 27, 2016)

*Yes*

I did and it worked great


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

marko said:


> I did and it worked great


Thanks so much for reviving this thread, inactive for nigh on six years, to share that pithy insight.


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## AlMansur (Jan 25, 2016)

I tried to sell on my own, via FSBO, costing about $250, unsuccessfully. 
The market is not mature enough to do it in ON, especially as the buyers do not have to pay, not directly anyway (in the end, it's the buyer that pays via the seller).
Most people do not like the paperwork or the negotiating part, not to mention taking time off to show the viewings.
With so many Realtors in the GTA, the average commissions is about 4% and going down (2.5% to buyer's agent & selling agent commission is negotiable).
I believe some changes are coming, that would make it a little harder to qualify as Realtors, this year.


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## kaswardy (Feb 18, 2016)

I am a buyer without an agent looking in Mississauga for a Semi-Detached or a freehold Townhome. How do I go about finding buyers? I have tried Kijiji and found a few homes there, Comfree hardly has any homes listed. What are the other avenues on finding a home listed by buyers?


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

Try "the Property Guys". I haven't used them, but I think they are similar to Comfree.


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## bpcrally (Sep 12, 2010)

Comfree certainly sounds like an interesting way to sell your home, but it really depends on the seller I suppose.

As a first time home buyer currently in the market, we have an agent who we've known for years. We feel we like having an agent because he's already turned us off a couple places due to things we may not have noticed or known about. 

We found a house we were interested in and it was listed by owner through comfree. The issue was the owners were pretty stubborn about not paying our agent commission before we even saw the house (I had only mentioned that we had an agent helping us). I told them we werent comfortable coming without our agent. Frustrating because the house has real potential, but they were already priced high, and then they want us to cover out agents commission so they can save on both the buyer and seller commission. 

It seems like a great service and all, but again it all depends on whos selling the place.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Ease of selling your house / property depends on location and demand ... here in Toronto, you can ask your neighbour(s) and most will show an interest in buying, no advertising or useless real estate agent needed at all. Just a RE lawyer.


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## nobleea (Oct 11, 2013)

We've bought a couple houses without an agent, but never sold one.
I tried Comfree several years ago to sell my condo and got a decent amount of showings but no luck.

Going to try and sell our current house privately next month. We already have two parties who are seriously interested and we'll arrange a showing with them next week. If neither of them make a reasonable offer, then we'll go with a realtor. It's all about pricing. I don't need or even want to wait several months to get top top dollar. Dealing with the hassle of being on call for showings and always having to clean the house. There's a cost to that. Combine that with the realtor fee you'd have to pay and I'd be ok with selling for 10-15K less than what a realtor things they can sell it for. Realtors play such a game to get you signed up. Initially they'll say they can list for X and sell for Y, you get excited and sign up, then 30-45 days later they say the market's turned and we should drop the price. The price is dropped to something more reasonable which was the price they thought it should list for all along.

I'll let everyone know how it goes.


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## Ethan (Aug 8, 2010)

I sold my first house without a realtor. It was an infill house with a basement suite and in a row of identical houses. An investor bought one of the 3, and told us he'd be interested in buying ours if we ever wanted to sell. When it came time to sell I called him, he came over that night and offered me the same amount a few realtors had informally told me they'd list the house for. Receiving full asking price and not having to pay realtor commissions seemed like too good of a deal to pass up, so I sold my house in 1 day to the first buyer.

I still think I hosed him


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## sunnyDee (Apr 2, 2016)

Although the survey results might be biased, it appears as though having your property listed on realtor.ca helps in grabbing the attention of buyers (at least in Victoria):










I've seen several companies offer DIYers a listing on realtor.ca for under $1K. I believe they are called a mere posting.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

How you sell your house depends on the market. In a hot market, you can easily sell your house yourself. It doesn't make you an expert, or smart, or whatever. You may be saving money in realtor fees, or you may be walking away from money on the table because you listed it yourself. In a hot market, it's easy to move properties if it's priced reasonably.

Life is a lot different in a flat or down market. Those markets are much harder to sell period, getting more exposure usually is better than getting less.

As an investor, I don't usually have time to find a for sale by owner property, I don't think I'm unique with this, so you take out a portion of buyers right off the top by doing it yourself. Things are better today because you can now get your listing on MLS but, a good realtor will actively sell places to their buyers to get the commission (it's how they make their money), so many realtors will actively steer clients away from private listings and point out many more drawbacks to those houses because it's not in their interest usually.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

For the readers of this old thread, keep in mind that I suspect it is a little biased towards those who were successful in selling their home on their own. Anyone who tried and then was forced to seek out a real estate agent is unlikely to post on this thread, although it would be nice if they did.

One consideration I would give is what exactly is the plan for selling your house. If you are planning on buying another one, my next question would be, what is the plan for that. Are you going to sell first, then buy or buy first then sell.

In the above scenario, if you decide to sell your property first, then you can probably take all the time you want to do so. Since you are still living in it, the costs to hang on to it, are really just going to your personal living expenses. Selling on your own might have a better chance of success.

If, however, you are buying the new property first and then selling yours, there can end up being a time where you own two properties. During that time, all the costs to maintain the 2nd property (the one up for sale), which would include, property taxes, insurance, utilities, condo fees, if any and of course the interest on the debt used to hang on to it until someone buys it and you can pay it off. This can easily add up to a few thousand dollars per month. In this scenario waiting around for buyers can also be costly.

All of it depends on the value of your house and the state of the market you are selling into. Just something to consider. If you were going to use an agent for both buying and selling, you should be able to negotiate a pretty good rate, by offering them both deals. Of course you are only technically paying for the one where selling is performed, but the agent is being remunerated on both.


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## Durise (May 16, 2016)

Hey, Alexandra, If you still searching for a house you can contact me. I have a seller who is want to sell his own house. The position looks great. So contact me.


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## samy44483 (Mar 31, 2015)

our experience with realtors seems to be if you list with them and it doesnt sell within 2 weeks they lose interest and dont want to spend any money advertising
we sold our house ourselves in edmonton for full price


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Durise said:


> Hey, Alexandra, If you still searching for a house you can contact me. I have a seller who is want to sell his own house. The position looks great. So contact me.


If you're going to respond to an original poster of a thread, you may want to look at the date of the thread (this one started years ago 2010 and I don't think Alexandra is even on the forum anymore last activity was 2012).


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Berubeland said:


> I have not sold my home but I just helped the owner sell a 2.2 million townhouse complex so I feel able to answer this question. We started in August and it sold in January and the closing was on the 15th of March.
> 
> We put an ad in the Toronto Star. That's it.
> 
> ...


Grapevine. I believe you can also list on MLS through them with an extra fee.


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## Taraz (Nov 24, 2013)

Berubeland said:


> @ Alexandra
> 
> You are correct that realtors will refuse to show your property. In fact they often won't even show lower commission listings by other real estate agents.
> 
> ...


That's not true at all. These days, a realtor will call you in advance to negotiate a cut (at least, that's what happened when I tried to sell and some of his clients wanted to look at my condo). I ended up selling to someone else.

I think the big thing is location. If you're close to other houses or condos, you're more likely to get interest from people who look at nearby properties and notice your sign. If you're out in the middle of nowhere you may be out of luck. I'd suggest kijiji and/or something like Comfree where you can pay a bit more to get listed on the MLS as well as the Comfree site. 

Another Tip: Put a bunch of info sheets with photos, contact info, details, and prices in a plastic folder on your sign. People will grab one and take a look as they go by. It worked for my mom and for me when we sold our own homes.


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## chantl01 (Mar 17, 2011)

carverman said:


> Grapevine. I believe you can also list on MLS through them with an extra fee.


If you are in Ottawa, then I highly recommending going with Grapevine if you are selling yourself. Grapevine now includes an MLS listing as part of the basic package, which is under $200. But even the Grapevine Signature package, which includes customized and directional signs, is regularly on sale for under $300 with Grapevine. If you are saving $10K-$20K+ by selling it yourself, I say go with the best package available to do so. 

The most important thing in any case is to ensure you have really good photographs showing off the place. Bad photos will turn off potential buyers before they ever consider visiting. We also paid for a professional appraisal, at about $500, so we knew exactly what the value of our home was at the time we put it on the market. We find that selling our house ourselves turns it into a much more human transaction, where the buyer and seller can actually communicate about their needs and priorities. We struck an unusual deal with our buyers that worked for both of us. Something that never would have been possible with realtors involved. 

A good real estate lawyer is all you need to ensure everything is legal and above board. $750 for a real estate legal transaction. I believe the realtor compensation model is outdated and needs to change. I'm all for paying reasonable sums for good services, but if I've put $100K in renovations into my home, why should the realtor(s) then be entitled to an extra $5K in commissions for selling it? I just made the job that much easier for them.


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