[manaboutown]

Friends of mine over the last twenty years or so have sold maybe a dozen homes FSBO. They always use the best photographer they can find which in CA has cost them $500-$700. They consider this money well spent! Then they list on the local MLS at a cost of $125-$250 through a broker who does this for folks. For a few bucks they buy the purchase contract forms they will need at the local Realtor Association office. Right now they are preparing their condo in Hawaii for sale. They may even put it it on Craigslist before going on MLS this time.

Most homes as lived in by folks have too much "stuff" in them. My friends remove and store their extra "stuff" and "stage" their homes when they put them on the market. Professional stagers are available and may be worthwhile hiring, maybe not, depending...

The homes they have sold have been in the $500K to $2M range so they have saved a lot of money on commissions.

Now they are experienced and know how to price their homes but I advise getting an appraisal. The $400 cost mentioned by a previous poster is a very worthwhile investment. If you overprice the property it will not sell, go stale on the market and eventually sell for less money than it could have brought if originally priced right. On the other hand if you underprice the property you will obviously lose money that way. The appraisal will also show a potential buyer the current market value of the property.