I am thinking about taking advantage of this hot market and sell one of my rental property.

Properties are selling in 1-2 days of listing where this rental is located. I am thinking of selling via For Sell By Owner and save the realtor commission.

Do you guys have suggestion of selling without realtor? Should I just get a realtor? Or try to go without a realtor. All my property transactions so far were with a realtor. If trying to sell without a realtor, What service do you recommend? Any pitfalls I should be aware of?

Thank You.

not much gets to me about RE investors except-- big except-- when they say do I need a Realtor? -- do you like giving 6 or 7% of YOUR MONEY TO A STRANGER?

You need a contract (you should have some around and you need an atty (usually for the lenders so find an atty approved by many lenders-- yes ask them).

Did you like your last closing atty-- then call him or her and talk. Most sales contracts deal with 80% real estate company gibberish. Look on line there are many options-- short and sweet. list property with legal- how the deal is structured-- WHAT you want. A time frame-- list stipulations-- like who the atty will be-- the atty will hold earnest money also-- we always place "we pay 50 % of atty fee" when using our closing atty. Yada Yada.

You can do FSBO but they charge also-- run an ad in the newspaper or Zillow. Showings by you say SAT from 11 to 4PM-- aka open house. Sample contracts for offers.

Do the title companies not have attorneys they use?

Bought and sold wo realtors several times .... problem you might run into is with first time home buyers.

If you had success in the past with a Realtor you may try negotiating the Realtor Fee to save some money.

You need to do some home work on FSBO - such as listing on the MLS. Buyers agent fee - How will you deal with a picky buyers. Is the buyer qualified or just kicking the tires?

Do you want people calling you up at all hours about buying the house.

Setting the LIST price and deciding the least you will take for the property is the most important.

Do you want to sell AS IS or spruce up?

How long will you leave it for sale?

HOWEVER Please understand most Realtors are only interested in getting the property SOLD and normally, maybe not your Realtor, that means getting the Seller to reduce the price.

Good Luck.

Do you know your local laws? Things like water heater straps, tempered glass shower doors, low flow shower heads, etc? Do you know the forms your Recorder and Assessor require? Part of what your realtor commission is for is for the agent’s knowledge of these laws/regulations.

I recently paid a realtor $15,000 for a sale here in NV. My agent had both ends of the transaction. I gave the realtor a key, I sent my handyman to install water heater straps and three times I went to the realtor’s office to sign/ notarize papers —listing, contract, deed. Everything else, my agent took care of. No fuss, no muss. Well worth it!!

I am an attorney and a broker ("realtor" is a trade association, btw, not a license). Keep in mind that with a broker you pay the commission once and then only if and when a deal closes. With an attorney you will pay him to review every proposed contract (an offer is really a proposed contract), whether it is accepted or not and whether you close or not.

Does your state have disclosure laws? If so, you had better fill out a property disclosure with your attorney's help BEFORE you show it to anyone.

I am an attorney and a broker ("realtor" is a trade association, btw, not a license). Keep in mind that with a broker you pay the commission once and then only if and when a deal closes. With an attorney you will pay him to review every proposed contract (an offer is really a proposed contract), whether it is accepted or not and whether you close or not.

Does your state have disclosure laws? If so, you had better fill out a property disclosure with your attorney's help BEFORE you show it to anyone.

I agree with Ken. You want to be on the MLS.

The market here is insane and what smart sellers and agents are doing is listing on Monday with a "coming soon" and showings that start Friday. Have professional photos. This creates a frenzy of people driving by, trying to peek in windows, etc. Then the appointment schedule fills up for the weekend. When the weekend hits there's a nonstop parade of potential buyers and you will get multiple, multiple offers over asking.

Get an agent, get on the MLS and price it even a bit under market.

15K spent on something you should know as a RE investor. Those of you familiar with the game-- what work other than listing does the agent perform? certainly not 15K worth and certainly nothing you couldn't find out from the closing atty.

zill and a few well placed ads-- pre approved means ABSOLUTLY NOTHING. Anyone can get that letter.

so require application for the loan within 10 days and proof of app. 20 days bank or lender approval-- lawyer to contact purchaser to set up closing.. Why are you all making this so hard?

myob, doing it myself costs me a lot of time and aggravation. As it was, when I decided to sell, I went to show the house to the realtor. I signed three sets of papers, and I collected roughly $300K. I did not take time from my office, I did not meet with prospective buyers, I did not hold any open houses, I did not negotiate. I was happy to let the realtor handle it all.

Lordy TX-- exactly why you should fix it all and use that as part of your sales pitch. Don't sell a pig in a poke to people or hide defects. Be ethical.

Mike my last sale--- I wanted a new car. I purchased the place on Monday-- fixed a broken hip wall (it was sold to me as needed engineering work) -- Friday had open house (12 to 3pm) and Saturday had the contract. Monday morning brought it to the Atty. 4 weeks later or 5? went to closing and got my 40,000.00 check. December went to car max and picked up my Prowler. Yea trouble.

I've found that there are real estate agents and then there are real estate agents. So far over the last 30 years I haven't been impressed. Ended up doing most of the leg work myself and often the RE agent dropped the ball.

My most recent pending sale will be without them. $11K for a single 4 bedrm 1.5 bath house next door to my duplex.

In my case, it worked out better to hire an agent. I have used him before. He is very experienced and very knowledgeable.

I decided to sell my only tri-plex last month. I considered trying to sell it myself, but wasn't confident pricing it. The reason being I'm in a small town with few comparable tri-plex sales. In my mind I was going to list it at $160,000 based on a comparable sale from 15 months ago which was priced at $148,000.

My realtor thought in this hot market and the fact my property was much nicer than the other comp, we should list it at $180,000. It sold in two days at list. I had an all cash buyer that required no inspections and no appraisal. Fifteen days after the accepted offer we closed.

1. Do you feel comfortable knowing how to price your property? If no, hire a realtor. If yes, go to 2.

2. Do you feel comfortable reviewing an offer purchase? If no, hire a realtor. Go to 3.

3. Hire a flat-fee company to put your property on the MLS and schedule showings.

We have a flip under contract now. We paid the listing agent $699. I took the pictures, wrote the description, and set the price. I got text notifications to approve when someone wanted to view the property. Our listing agent was quite skeptical when I listed it at $149K when other properties in the area were selling for $60K, but I know our little microcosm very, very well. It was under contract in a week at full asking price.