Have any of you tried for sale by owner?

[Swetha Mandava]

Either as a seller or buying an FSBO? How was your experience - what was the biggest pain point?

With purchase prices so high in San Francisco, i'm wondering why more people don't try the FSBO model.
I do see how it could be stressful and wondering if anyone succeeded. Love to hear tips and lessons learned. Thanks!

[Bill B.]

I've only sold two properties ever. Both FSBO. A cabin in MN and a primary in Vegas. Both were super easy, barely an inconvenience. I've found selling based on my net was a great bargaining tactic.

I listed each about 2% under market ($5k on the cabin and $8-9k on the primary). But I listed them as “net to me”. Many buyers underestimate the total cost to close. They assume they’re getting much of the savings from not having a realtor. (The 2%). But an average seller pays 1-2% on top of realtors fees. So ended up netting almost 100% of the no realtor savings. 

Now. MN and NV are both title states. So there is almost zero work selling with a large company like fidelity title in NV or Edina title in MN. I probably spent 2 hours total on each property sale. I don’t know how it works in an attorney state.