Selling FSBO as a realtor in another state

[Tyler Psenicska]

Hi everyone, I am a commercial real estate agent in New Jersey, however, I own a rental property in Delaware that I'm looking to sell in the near future, so not too far but not close enough where selling it myself would be convenient.

Here's context.

I own a rental about 2 hours away. It has appreciated big time due to current market, so selling it right now is the right move for me financially. I am not looking to do a 1031 unless something falls into my lap in the next month or two and am going to eat the taxes. 

Properties in my rental's market are selling within 24 hours, it's that hot. Assuming it stays this way for the next couple of months, this makes me think I would be able to sell it myself without too much of a headache. My plan would be to list it online for a week, plan all showings for the weekend, and then have a final decision made by Monday-ish. This is to minimize the amount of time i need to be down there, and minimize showings with tenants still there (don't worry about these details I have it figured out with them).

On the other hand, I already have a friend in this market who could sell it if I choose to go that route instead. He is a high performer and I know would do a good job.

When doing the math though, it will cost me over $14K to hire him at 5.5% commission, and, in addition to taxes, it adds up to be quite a lot. I'm not worried about negotiating .5% to 1% off the commission, I'm moreso thinking about the entire lump sum of about $14K (basically taking my profits from about 60K to 75K after taxes, which I find to be considerable bump).

Finally, even though I am commercial I have experience with residential, helping buyers and the occasional listing that is worth doing for one reason or another. So i wouldn't be going into this blind. I understand I wouldn't have access to the MLS but in this market and would be basically using Zillow or other sites to sell FSBO.

My questions are... is it worth selling it on my own? 

Will working with a realtor and getting access to MLS drive my price higher? Will I avoid headaches by letting someone else handle it? Or, since this market is so hot, does it make sense to do it myself because I will have a bunch of offers anyways, assuming it all stays the same? Does it open me to liability?

What am I not thinking of? 

[Darren Sager]

@Tyler Psenicska why can you list with another realtor and get a referral back on your own property? You can negotiate more than a standard referral fee if you're willing to do most of the heavy lifting. And it'll come across better to the public than a FSBO. Sure there's some hungry newer agent that would jump at it just to get all the possible buyer leads and the chance to get the buyer's side of the transaction too.