Selling our primary residence to a friend without using agent

[Mike Savage]

SO. i've been thinking about getting my RE license mostly to find and write my own deals but I've been busy juggling life. In the meantime we found another house for sale and are considering selling our house FSBO. Our's is remarkable in it's an exceptional 50's period condition architect designed and should go for top dollar due to its' collector grade condition. Original fixtures, period paint colors, views, detached oversized garage w shop etc.. We have a terrific attorney who specializes in Real Estate transactions and we expect the sale price to be over $1mil. Obviously it would be nice to save on that large of a commission. $60k !

I am a photographer and can take great photos.  we are thinking about NOT using an agent since this is our 5th property transaction in 17 years.  We are not in a rush to sell since we want time to pack up our place and possibly stage the new house then VRBO or Airbnb for a few weeks until we can move in.  cash flow house hack?  How can I get a truly accurate comp for our house factoring the unique historical value of this house.  Is it a bad idea to list it ourselves ? what is the smoothest way to handle this??  BTW our house was nominated by the State of Oregon for historical status but I did not follow through on registering it.  Mostly because I had mixed feedback from broker/agents about resale.  FWIW.  i should have done it anyway.  The property tax savings would have been $20k so far and I could have used that toward maintenance.  Also I bet it is still eligible for the next buyer.  

[Christine Kankowski]

I doesn't hurt to try to sell it yourself, but I do know from experience that anytime a buyer offers on a FSBO, they feel that THEY deserve the savings of the commission, not the seller, so the offer comes in super low.

You can even be up front with an agent, asking for comps, and saying that you are going to try and sell it yourself, but will go with them if it doesn't sell.

How you are going to market the property? How will you reach all the buyers that are working with agents and get direct MLS feeds to their email each day>?

Real estate commissions are negotiable, so no need to pay the $60K, negotiate it down.

Is the home an easy sale or will it prove difficult- THis is the key in negotiating the real estate commission.

If you do sell FSBO, my recommendation is to list it at the price you want to sell it, not any higher, then stick to that price.

Just some ideas.  Best of luck to you.