So the wife and I are in the very early stages of wanting to sell our house. We mainly want to sell to move into a bigger house due to the fact our family has went from 2 to 4 since we bought this house 5 years ago and we just need more space.

We are wanting to move out towards Pataskala and have found a few houses we like. I posted another thread about places buying your old house if you buy their house and have only found one builder who does that and I am not too impressed with what they have to offer. This would be the best option but there doesn't seem to be too many people offering this.

So questions

1. Anyone ever tried to sell their house without a realtor? What do you need to do and any tips would help?

2. If looking for a realtor, What is their average cost?

3. Anyone know a realtor haha, I currently live in Blacklick Ohio, Just east of Columbus near Reynoldsburg

In all honesty, I am not too concerned about making a profit on this as this was originally bought to be a "starter" home. We bought for $175,00, Owe about 150,000 and according to Zillow it is worth about 163,000 right now. If I could get that I would be perfectly fine honestly.

Realtor fees are typically jsut rolled into closing costs which most home buyers expect the sellers to pick up these days (at least 3% of home purchase price). There is a lot of crap that goes into selling a home, I would suggest spending a few thousand to have a realtor. What sucks for you is that the tax credit expires at the end of April (closing must occur by end of April) so I think there will be fewer people looking to buy this spring and summer as everyone is buying now. There is a lot of activity going on now due to the tax credit. People often don't look at homes in the fall/winter. Expect to have your house on the market till next spring/summer.

I tried to sell my house without a realtor before the housing bubble burst. I used some do it yourself kit that had signs and stuff, but I just ended up wasting the entire summer. I did finally get a Realtor but by then it was October/November and nobody was looking. Because of that I didn't sell until the following spring. Maybe someone else is better at it than me, but I highly recommend getting a realtor.

I'm pretty sure the commision is 6% to sell your house. 3% goes to your realtor and 3% goes to the buyers realtor.

You might want to PM LJ. He lives near there and I bet he can give suggestions about a realtor.

I'm a Realtor, however I'm not a practicing sales agent.

You can expect to pay from 3-6% for agent fees.

As for selling by owner, it can be difficult from my understand because your house won't be listed on the MLS for prospective buyers to search for. Sure you can put an ad in the Dispatch or whatever, but when someone is looking to buy a house, they go find a Realtor and the Realtor searches the MLS for the particulars. If your are selling without a Realtor, you won't be listed on the MLS and no one can search for your property.

If you are going to sell, list it today. The first time homebuyer credit expires in a couple months so there will be some demand for houses around $150k - $200k.

And if you sign a contract by the end of April on a new house, you get the home upgrade tax credit which I believe is $6500.

I sold my house 5 years ago here in Jacksonville, FL. I tried the sell by owner route but found that was very much a hassel and wasn't generating enough traffic. I had Watson come in, they charged 6.5% but they told me they would have my house sold in 14 days, well they held true to that, took 17 days and my house was sold. Made 50 grand profit and got out of debt, lived debt free ever since!!!

I have sold all of my home (3) ..for sale by owner
first home (40,000 profit) second home ( 25,000 profit) third home ( 30,000) location, location, location

You'll have to ge a lawyer anyways so have the lawyer draw-up a sales agreement.
Make copies, make fliers of the home w/ picture and the stats ( room size, property tax, schools, whatever) make copies for the open house.

Make a big sign or buy a sign for the front yard and have a few open houses on the week-end

Mark up the home a little (7%) to give yourself wiggle room ....and see what happens
Be prepared for Realitor to show up wanting to sign you up..... Just say NO ........

Have three open house.....have people sign in to go throw the home... Not willing to sign in ...don't let then see the home...( protect your self and your home) those that sign in will undersatnd and be serious looker. It is your home and you don't want just anyone wondering around.

Fab4Runner wrote: You might want to PM LJ. He lives near there and I bet he can give suggestions about a realtor.

I don't know any realtors in this area. Everyone I ever dealt with is in Westerville.

thedynasty1998 wrote: I'm a Realtor, however I'm not a practicing sales agent.

You can expect to pay from 3-6% for agent fees.

As for selling by owner, it can be difficult from my understand because your house won't be listed on the MLS for prospective buyers to search for. Sure you can put an ad in the Dispatch or whatever, but when someone is looking to buy a house, they go find a Realtor and the Realtor searches the MLS for the particulars. If your are selling without a Realtor, you won't be listed on the MLS and no one can search for your property.

If you are going to sell, list it today. The first time homebuyer credit expires in a couple months so there will be some demand for houses around $150k - $200k.

And if you sign a contract by the end of April on a new house, you get the home upgrade tax credit which I believe is $6500.

I believe one of the expensive packages from one of the do it yourself companies includes MLS listing.

Never heard of that before. Maybe they list it on zillow and those types of websites, but I doubt they get it onto the Tempo system.

thedynasty1998 wrote: Never heard of that before. Maybe they list it on zillow and those types of websites, but I doubt they get it onto the Tempo system.

they used to. It was like $4500 for the package though. It was through Help U Sell. They acted as the listing agent but took no commission, just the money up front and let you do all the showings etc.

We sold our last house ourselves. Hadn't really even finished getting it "show-ready" but put the sign up anyway. Left for 2 hours to go to a HS football game. Came home to a message on our machine saying "call us tonight". They showed up 5 minutes later, walked around for 10 minutes and left saying...."you'll hear from us tomorrow". Called by 10 minutes later...."we want to give you your full asking price, and we'll be back in 5 minutes with a check for $500". Done, thanks, see you later. Man, people really hate me when I tell this story......lol

BTW, used a lawyer to draw up the paperwork/contract/etc. Didn't have $150 in the whole transaction, including the sign.

If you use a realtor, and list/sell for the 163,000...you will clear just enough to get out of your loan without bringing anything to the table (153,200). That's asuming the buyer doesn't ask for a lower price or for you to pay any closing costs. In this market, it's a buyer's market, so I wouldn't have any high expectations going in. If I were in your shoes, and just wanted to get out, set your price at 165,000, leave a little room to go down but make sure you can still cover the 150,000 after realtor fees, and move on to the next house. Your equity, if you have any, is gone if you use a realtor.