Parents refuse to hire a realtor...

[Nate Mur]

I'm trying to bite my tongue as it's not my place however:

My parents are approaching their late 60s and would like to sell their home and acreage to move forward in their retirement. They have asked for my current realtors contact info for some advice on updates however they absolutely refuse to hire one for the sale of their home. 

They believe the house will sell itself, (it will) and I've responded with not providing my realtors info as I don't think anyone should work for free and this isn't the 1980's, country land deals aren't done over handshakes and PBR anymore. 

There's some lot line confusions that were resolved by an agreement between neighbors and moving fence posts. Also some gray area on building code (built themselves) sale would be as-is. The area was very rural at one time but has now become just outside of town and a very desirable area for med pros and techies. (professions where people are most likely to be very thorough and precise)

They have a sellers contract written up by a real estate lawyer, is this enough to smoothly go through a transaction? Is there any firm reasons they should go through a realtor? My concern is they don't want to lose 3% on a sale but think the value is about 150k below what neighboring properties have sold for. 

Thanks in advance!

[Bryan Martin]

Quote from @Nate Mur:

I'm trying to bite my tongue as it's not my place however:

My parents are approaching their late 60s and would like to sell their home and acreage to move forward in their retirement. They have asked for my current realtors contact info for some advice on updates however they absolutely refuse to hire one for the sale of their home. 

They believe the house will sell itself, (it will) and I've responded with not providing my realtors info as I don't think anyone should work for free and this isn't the 1980's, country land deals aren't done over handshakes and PBR anymore. 

There's some lot line confusions that were resolved by an agreement between neighbors and moving fence posts. Also some gray area on building code (built themselves) sale would be as-is. The area was very rural at one time but has now become just outside of town and a very desirable area for med pros and techies. (professions where people are most likely to be very thorough and precise)

They have a sellers contract written up by a real estate lawyer, is this enough to smoothly go through a transaction? Is there any firm reasons they should go through a realtor? My concern is they don't want to lose 3% on a sale but think the value is about 150k below what neighboring properties have sold for. 

Thanks in advance!

It's hard to tell if someone needs a real estate agent or not unless you know a lot more details.  

For instance, if your mom worked in a local bank and dealt with deals like this all day every day, she would probably be able to handle it herself without causing too much harm.  On the other hand, if your dad is a former middle school science teacher and doesn't know the first thing about real estate, he'd be better off hiring an agent.

If in doubt, I would try to get them a agent they can trust, but you can only lead a horse to water, you can't make it drink.