The Job

Taking pictures – fsbo

Taking pictures if you are a for-sale-by-owner.  (You get a broker to put your house in the MLS, as I do but you do everything else!)  Your first task is to grab your digital camera or  your smartphone and take a few shots of the interior and the exterior of your house. You need a good picture from the mailbox. We would call an identifier type of shot to let people know which house is the right house when they’re looking for it as they drive by.  It doesn’t have to take too long.   You probably already know what pictures need to be taken – what pictures you want to see in the listing.  You’ve got a good idea of what looks nice and then what doesn’t.

Taking pictures – agent

Taking pictures with an agent – you don’t take these pictures.  The agent generally takes these pictures, or quite possibly the agent has an assistant to take the pictures.  Sometimes the agent pays for a professional photographer to do a shoot of your house.  This is probably the best choice.

The difference is whether the agent pays for it whereas if you’re selling it for sale by owner then you are probably paying for it.

The other difference here is that the agent uploads the pictures and if you’re a for sale by owner, then you have to upload the picture yourself.

Answering the phone – fsbo

Well guess what!   You get to answer the phone. You need to have a good voicemail and you need to be conscientious about checking your voicemail.  People will usually find it acceptable having to leave a message, but they don’t find it acceptable for you not to return the message as quickly as possible.  They will call you when they have questions about your house or if they want to set up a visit for your house.

Answering the phone – agent

You don’t have to answer the phone at all.  The agent or more likely, the agent’s office will answer the phone.

If the people have questions about your house, they will have to be connected to the agent who may then have to call you and ask you the questions. Possibly the agent’s assistant will take care of this.

If the prospective buyers are wishing to set up an appointment, there are a couple of possibilities.  One is the fact that the agent will call you to be sure it’s okay to set up an appointment at a particular time.  Or they may have subscribed to a Showing Service who will have the ability to call you.  The showing service may even want to have your schedule already pre-approved.

Setting appointments – fsbo

As a for-sale-by-owner, the prospect will call you, and you’ll tell them when it’s convenient to visit your house.

Setting appointments – agent

As a seller working with an agent, the agent or their assistant will have to call you to set up a time when it’s convenient for someone to see your house you’re still generally going to have to receive a call and make a decision about a convenient time to show your house.

Sometimes I get to work with a showing center and sometimes they have pre-approved times to set up a showing on your house without calling you first.

 Sometimes agents will use an electronic lockbox to hold your house key, in case they are setting up a showing for a different agent to show your house to a buyer.

Letting people into house – fsbo

Letting people into your house as a for sale by owner means that you are going to have to meet them and either show them the house, or at least let them have the run of the house to look at it themselves.   This gets into a deeper subject as to which is better to do.

 I do not recommend giving tours of your house to a possible buyer.

Letting people into house – agent

If you are working with an agent, theoretically the agent will meet the prospects and let them into your house, and in fact give them the tour of it.

Agents have different ideas as to whether they would prefer you to leave completely for a showing, or just be scarce during the showing. You need to discuss that with your agent.

Negotiating – fsbo

Negotiating as a for-sale-by-owner is fairly straightforward.  It involves sitting down with the buyer who expresses an interest in purchasing.

You both sit down at the kitchen table and construct the contract –  who is buying, who is selling, how much is being paid, what goes with the sale, and when it’s going to be paid for.

 Then it’s done and the paperwork goes off to a closing company.

Negotiating – agent 

Negotiating with an agent includes an extra step or two.

If the agent has someone who wants to make an offer on your house, they will sit down and construct an offer for you.

You will receive that offer, and decide if it is acceptable to you. If not, you will indicate what would be acceptable to you.

 The agent will then transmit that counter offer back to the prospect to see if that counter offer is acceptable to the prospect. This may have to go back and forth a time or two before it becomes an agreed contract, or it may never become a contract.

 I and when it finally does become a contract, then it’s off to the closing company.

Inspections – fsbo

As a for-sale-by-owner, when you have sold your house and there is a contract, there will likely be some inspections needing to occur to your house. You will have to set up and coordinate those inspections at such times that will be possible for you to do them if you need be there.

Inspections – agent

As a seller working with an agent, when you have sold your house, and there is a contract, you will still need to set up a time and coordinate these inspections at such times that they will be convenient for you.  Sometimes the agent can meet inspectors even if you can’t. 

 

The Salary

Median price 339,000/10% – Zillow 300,000/7.1%

I looked at a couple of different sources concerning the median price of houses today in 2020 they range from one group at $339,000 and rising about 10% a year, to Zillow who computed a total price of $300,000 rising approximately 7.1% per year.

So for our situation, we will just say the median price is $300,000, and then we’ll know that it could be higher than that.

Percentage commissions, 1, 2, 3, or 4%

Agents are often paid a percentage of the sale price of the house.  They agree in advance with the seller on an amount the seller will pay for the total transaction.

The total amount to be paid by the seller is often split between the listing agent whose sign is in the yard, and the selling agent, who is working with a prospective buyer.

For our purposes we can’t say that there is any “normal” commission amount, so we can pick a hypothetical figure of 4%, split two ways for the two different agents.

If the house sells for $300,000, and if the commission is halved between two agents, then each agent would receive $6,000 in commission. 

Listing/sales agent

If you did not use an agent to list your house, but instead sold it for-sale-by-owner, then you would save the commission generally paid to the listing agent.

Much of the time, such a transaction will still involve an agent working with the buyer.

So in this hypothetical situation, the seller would save $6,000 in listing commission, but would still probably pay $6,000 to the selling agent as commission. The seller has not saved all the commission but has sold saved $6,000. 

The Time Line

Anecdotally, I’ve got to tell you at this time,  I am in Tennessee, and a friend of mine just sold his house in 6 hours after he put it on the market. One of my neighbors took almost a week to sell his, but there were inspections involved.

 So I feel like the time is pretty good to save your money and go for-sale-by-owner if it all possible.   But I am biased.

 

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