Buying without an agent on both sides in California

[Matthew Martin]

My neighbor knows that I am a young investor, and I asked him to contact me first if he decided to sell. Well he's selling, and it's a pretty good deal. Anyway, I think I can make it even sweeter for both of us by saving a commission since we found each other without an agent. From my quick research I found articles stating that in California you do not need an agent, however, an agent must be present during the appraisal. Is this true? If anyone has bought and sold a home in California without an agent in the past please give me some advice. 

Quick summary of the deal. He wants 360K and will pay half the escrow costs. I am going to propose to him that we agree on 345K. This will save me 15K as the buyer, and will give him a total of about 7K more than if he sold it with a commission. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Jay Hinrichs]

you don't need a realtor.. FSBO's happen all the time.. you simply take your contract that you can buy at the store.. fill it out its fill in the blanks and go hand it to an escrow officer open escrow and they will do the rest.

If your getting an appraisal means usually your getting a loan.. your lender will coordinate with the escrow officer.

things you should do though

1. get a full home inspection done that you pay for. and then negotiate any items that you deem necessary to be fixed.

2. make sure you run the comps accurately.. many FSBO's are over priced by sellers that think THEIR property is special.

3. when you get the preliminary title report make an appointment with the escrow officer and have them walk you through it line by line.. so you fully understand what the state of your title is.. if this is lot and block subdivision stuff it should be pretty tidy.. also the lender will need tax's paid and be in first position so if there are any liens etc those will get handled by the title company out of the sellers proceeds.

4. do not need agent to meet apprasiser and many frown on that these days lest the agents are steering the values.. although as @Kiersten Vance mentioned a top notch agent will have supporting documentation to support the listed price or the sales price.. to assist the appraiser.

5. Also the seller should give you a Sellers disclosure form that you review and both sign.. this talks about any known or unknown defects of a wide variety.. this is one of the benefits of using an agent they are used to this form.

you can hire and agent for a fee no doubt if you call around if you want some help with it.. Many would do this for 500 to 1000 bucks.. you CAN also hire an attorney this should not be more than 1,000 either... attorney will write contract for you and any counters or addendi

good luck with it..