FSBO experience
 

Anyone ever used "FSBO" (For Sale By Owner) to sell a home and your experience/opinion?

Thx

Call McLin Burnsed, the "Villages" Law Firm. (used for all Villages closings) Ask them any questions and pick up info. They are GREAT.

When we sold our home by ourselves they charged $700 to handle all of the legalities. That was seven years ago. They manage the closing, title searches etc. Closing costs are from the bank of the buyer if they don't pay cash of course.

Our buyer split the cost of the legal fees. Some will and some won't.

My neighbor listed his 2 BR masonry CYV seven years old for $229K on this website Villages4sale 3 weeks ago and sold it a week ago.

I totally agree. I bought a FSBO and was very happy with this method. However, if I was selling I would use the Villages Sales and pay the price. The reason I BOUGHT the FSBO was it had been on the market for a long time and was underpriced. It is not like other areas- nobody shops for FSBOs, they shop with a Villages Realtor. Just my 2 cents. If you are a buyer, FSBO is great.

As a buyer, I won't even look at a FSBO. They are almost always overpriced. I don't want to waste my time. If selling, hire a real estate company and let them earn their commission.

Fsbo
 

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond -
every little bit helps.

For your info - I have only owned my home less than 4 yrs, and 'tho I would love to hire a realtor ANY commission will mean my losing money on this sale which is why I must try to sell myself. Also, Gracie, I have already called 3 title co's re' handling the "closing"
Plus McLin & B. The cheapest was approx.$2400 with McLin coming in the highest at $4,000-$7,000 depending on the sale price. The cost of Title insurance alone (in my opinion a big "rip-off" and should not be necessary if whoever doors the title search does their job) is $885
Quoted by title cos. McL & B will, I am sure be more!

For some reason, selling oneself is not popular with buyers in The Villages. I have been offered less than 6%
By two realtors anxious to represent me. I live on the historical side ---- but on a golf course which may a plus.

Will check into The Villages4Sale and FSBO and hope I'm successful. Again, very many thanks to you all.



The guys for your input

Brandy4,

If you don't mind, would you let me know the name of the firm that had the lowest quote. Thanks

4 K to 7K for handling the legalities? I think you are WRONG.

I just called McLin Burnsed and the person who answered told me that they no longer do closings as of two years ago.

Depending on the county you are in the 4K to 7K (usually around 3% of selling price) represents the total seller closing costs. title insurance policy and research, survey, appraisal, DOC stamps.. ect.....minis the real estate commission fee if its a FSBO...

GracieGirl states $800? that figure only represents the lawyers closing charge for processing/handling the closing, and thats just the sellers side, the buyers also have a $800? fee on there side from the closing agent.

you can usually negotiate the closing costs, title policy with the closing agent if you have a policy existing, and the rest of the fees could be put to the buyer, if they are willing to pay for them, but customiery the seller pays all the closing fees in Marion, Sumter and Lake county.

just adding a little help....from a retired broward realtor..

So, who is correct? Does McLin and Burnsed do FSBO closings or not? This thread just reinforces my opinion that it is a bad idea to buy a FSBO, or to try to sell your own house. Real estate agents get paid a commission for a reason.

I would check with at least two MLS Realtors as well as a recommended agent at The Villages sales office to obtain opinions on what your home is actually worth right now in today's market. What a person paid for a home at a historical point in time may have little to do with what it will actually sell for right now. That is why an informed opinion - or three - of what it will likely currently sell for is important.

Good luck with your sale however you choose to proceed!

if you can handle the negotiations and have a phone, call a title company and its a piece of cake.

But remember back when you purchased your new home, get out your old HUD form and check it out. TV new homes closing costs are paid by the developer. Resales are a entirely different story.

The money comes from whoever is willing to pay it, but one side DOE'S have to pay it.

ZILLOW or TRULIA can give you a very close idea, without the sales pitch from a Realtor

While the cited websites are useful tools for obtaining ballpark guesstimates they are not suitable for actually pricing a home to be marketed. Many times their data on a particular property is incorrect and/or incomplete. I use them both as well as Redfin and Realtor.com as general guides.

A good Realtor will identify and utilize valid comps of actual sales and provide information on the direction the market is taking. Of course a Realtor hopes to land the listing.

BTW, I agree with retiredguy123's assessment that FSBO's are almost always overpriced. I rarely look at them although I recall buying a FSBO house once. I did overpay maybe 3% but I had a very tight time constraint to buy a house in order to avoid paying a relatively large capital gain tax on a house I had sold (under the tax law back in 1976).

I also sold a house myself as a FSBO from a one weekend newspaper ad in 1972 up in Rochester, NY to a fellow patent attorney. No problem, great guy; it was fun.

So you just never know. The main thing as I see it is to not initially overprice a FSBO so that it stays on the market a long time, thereby becoming "stale". If it remains for sale too long buyers tend to think there is a problem with it. Also carrying costs such as mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, maintenance and utilities, not to mention the time value of money, add up over time. A slightly lower price right now to get an actual sale may net one more than waiting it out for a higher price - if you can even get one.

If you have a neighborhood website try listing it on that or on the nextdoor site and also on TOTV. My neighbor just put hers on our neighborhood website and by word of mouth it sold at full price and 4 bidders. No open houses even.