FSBO – For Sale By Owner
This impacts the sellers AND the buyers. Some good, some bad, but all are easily worked through if you know the lay of the land. Here’s the lay of the land:
A FSBO means that the seller is not using a Real Estate Professionals to sell/market their house, instead they are going to represent themselves in an attempt to save some cash. How much you ask? Generally, they save 3%, but they lose the major advantages of having a Real Estate Professionals listed at bottom – please read these.
If buyer AND seller do not have Real Estate Professionals, then call Jett Title right away.
1. Purchase Contract: Jett Title has sample contracts for you. Call for one or email a request for one at Mat@JettTitle.com
2. Good Faith Deposit Check: Jett Title will hold these funds in our escrow account until the deal closes or ir cancelled.
3. We are here to shepherd you through to closing: Jett Title will walk you through the process, and we are available to you by phone anytime you need us.
4. The Process: You agree upon a price, sign a contract, get that contract and good faith deposit check to Jett Title asap and we will begin our work. Title search, get payoffs of sellers’ liens/mortgages, prepare the deed and all other closing documents, set the closing date, send out a settlement statement to all, conduct the closing, record the deed/mortgage to make them official record.
5. If the buyer is using a lender, then the buyer needs to tell his/her lender that you choose to use Jett Title for title work and closing. Give them this email address and we will take care of the rest: Orders@JettTitle.com.
Real Estate Professional Commission. Regardless of how many Real Estate Professionals there are in a deal, the total sales commission paid by the seller is, normally, 6%. This is split 3% to the buyer’s Real Estate Professional(s) and 3% to the sellers’ Real Estate Professional(s).
Most FSBO sellers are willing to pay a 3% commission to the buyer’s Real Estate Professional, and put the other 3% in their pocket.
Some FSBO sellers will NOT pay any buyers’ real estate professional commission. This is a seller mistake, as many agents with buyers will not present this home to their clients!
The biggest advantages of listing your home for sale with a Real Estate Professional:
1. Getting the house seen by ALL potential buyers on the MLS. The biggest advantage of selling with a Real Estate Professionals is exposure. They will list your home on the MLS – the multiple listing system, which makes the seller’s home instantly available/searchable online on the most popular sales site available…by far. But, being on the MLS without the below advantages means little.
2. Prepare home to easily sell: The 2nd largest advantage is all the knowledge of how to get your home ready to sell (a HUGE issue very commonly NOT understood by sellers). Not having the home ready to sell is the quickest way to a) wait forever to sell your home, b) lose money by getting a lower price, c) miss out an ALL sellers who are in the market NOW, as they cross off YOUR home, and refuse to come back and look at it once you’ve wised up and fixed/changed everything needed to do to get it sale-ready. Once its been crossed off the list of buyers, they will NOT revisit. You’ve shot yourself in the foot already, and now you’ll have to suffer the resulting pain and financial cost. Seen $ to sell. You can triple your investment in sale-preparation.
3. Price home to sell in timeframe seller requires: Pricing is huge and Real Estate Professionals know what they’re talking about, even if you disagree with them – its their profession to know, not yours. They can ad huge value by either getting you more $ than you thought was possible due to being aware of market conditions and judging how your home really stacks up against its’ competition…or by getting your home sold when similar other homes are not selling.
4. Negotiating skill. Most folks cannot negotiate and allow their emotions and ego to get involved and they kill deals or make the deals far worse for them than a skilled and experienced professional Real Estate Professionals can. You can get taken advantage of, you can break the law if unaware, etc.
5. Connections/Overcome problems: Experienced Real Estate Professionals have effective networks of contractors who can fix anything you can imagine, quickly, thereby eliminating what may cause the normal person grave concern.
6. Hand-hold. Yes, sellers need to be advised when to back out emotionally and when to check their ego to get a deal done for the best interests of all parties. Whenever there is no real estate professional involved, we always get calls and explain the process, hand hold, reassure, etc.