FSBO without using a Realtor

[Skylar Jennings]

Backstory: My husband and I are looking for our second house hack after moving to a new area. Our previous one we just moved out of is doing really well as a mid term rental and will be cash flowing about $1,400/month. 

Question: We found a duplex in a great area. It was built in the 60s but just got a new roof, HVAC and water heaters were all updated between 2017-2018 so fairly new, and it’s an active mid-term rental making about $3,200-3,600/month depending on the season and he provided all the documents to support that from the past 1.5 years. Of course since we’d be living in 1 side that would get cut in half but that’s fine. This is an Owner Agent listing and 1. He mentioned having a second mortgage on the house (orig. purchased in 2014) and credit card debt and that’s why he needs to sell even though he says he really doesn’t want to. I’m worried that’s why he has it listed so high and it won’t appraise for what he asking ($289,900 fully furnished when comps are around $250-270) so he’s hoping a cash buyer will come along.  2. He offered to give us the 2% buyer agent fee toward our closing costs if we don’t use a realtor. I did tell him I briefly held a license but then moved and don’t anymore so maybe that’s why he was offering that. I haven’t come across that before personally so I was wondering if that’s a good thing or a red flag he’d be offering that? I’ve ran the numbers and have an offer in mind but not sure if that 2% should be worked into the offer or just “cover x amount of closing costs.” 

[Skylar Jennings]

We made him an offer where the comps are sitting and kept his 2% offer but that worked out to about $20k less than his asking and he turned it down and we basically said "okay well you have our numbers if you change your mind" and it's still sitting on the market at 70 days now when most duplexes in this area are gone before they even go live.