Selling a Home By Owner (FSBO): Is it Worth It?

by Homepie | Published Feb 10, 2021 | } 8 Minutes

The most significant investment you will have in life is your home. Your home is the place where you begin life’s adventures. From being newlyweds to your child’s first steps to high school dances and graduations, your home is where memories are made.

The decision to sell your home was not easy. Fortunately, homepie.com has made the process of selling your home For Sale by Owner (FSBO) easier than ever.

The Benefits of Selling a Home by Owner

There is no unwritten rule that requires you to go through an agent or Realtor® when you sell your home. Most people do it because they think it is more convenient, and they want to avoid handling the challenges of FSBO on their own.

There are plenty of benefits to selling your home on your own. Many people don’t realize that these benefits exist, which is why they choose the easy route.

Z Avoid Paying a Realtor® Fee

One of the most significant benefits you will receive selling your own home is avoiding Realtor® fees. Agents charge a percentage of the selling price which they usually share, and only the seller foots the bill for both agents.

For example, imagine that your home sells for $600,000 in the state of California. The typical commission charged by agents is 6%.

That means if you go the traditional route, you’ll fork out $36,000 to sell your home.

If you were to sell it on your own, that equity would be in your pocket, not theirs.

Z Sell on Your Terms

When you sell your home on your own, you get to say how it is done.

That means you can negotiate what you feel your home is worth. You can determine if you’d like to list your home on the MLS or not. If you do decide to market your home on the MLS which will provide great exposure for your home, you can still set the amount of commission you’d like to pay to an agent who brings you a buyer. That could only be 1% of the sale price or even a fixed amount.

The documentation and the legal contracts are something you have control over, including making sure all pertinent information is included. The ability to be in charge of how and when your home sells allows you to control the situation.

Z Speed Up the Process

Selling your home on your own can make the process go quicker than relying on a middleman to negotiate the terms of the sale.

Consider how slow things are with the traditional way. A buyer makes an offer, the buyer’s agent creates the paperwork and sends it, the other agent receives the offer and forwards it to the seller.

Having direct communication with a buyer instead of waiting for messages to be relayed is much more efficient. It enables the process of selling your home move much faster.

If you’re considering hosting an open house, you can also keep the showing time relatively short. It will be all about your home and not the promotion of an agent selling it.

The Challenges of FSBO

The path of selling your home without a professional agent can come with many obstacles along the way. The more prepared you are, the better you will be at facing any issues that may arise.

So let’s take a look at the main challenges you’ll likely encounter when selling by owner and what solutions are available to help you sell effectively.

Challenge #1: Legal Paperwork

The sale of a home obviously goes beyond a handshake and a simple sales contract. A legally binding Purchase Agreement is required when selling a home. The paperwork involved includes that specific information about the home be disclosed to the potential buyer. If pertinent information is omitted from the forms, civil actions can be brought against the seller of the home.

You’ll want to avoid these types of simple mistakes from happening when you choose to sell your home on your own. But of course, you probably don’t have time to sit down for some light reading on real estate law.

FSBO solutions available on homepie.com include the preparation of the legal paperwork you need when selling your home on your own. Our question and answer based tools will immediately create a purchase contract after terms are agreed upon by both parties. To make it even more convenient, there’s no need to download and print endless pages for signature. You have the ability to eSign the contract online.

Challenge #2: Handling Negotiations

In a perfect world, you would receive your asking price will little negotiation needed. Unfortunately, that is not what typically happens in reality.

Your potential buyers are going to negotiate the price of the home with you, trying to get you to lower the price. If you have never handled any pricing negotiation before, you may be out of your element on this.

Handling the negotiation process is going to determine the final amount that you receive for your house. It will also determine if any other stipulations need to be done before the buyer takes possession of the home. Your negotiations will need to be on point to gain the upper hand.

Now potential buyers can speak and negotiate pricing directly with you. Homepie has a simple, step-by-step form wizard to help guide anyone selling their home FSBO through the negotiation process. These tools are included free of charge, including live support if you get stuck—so there’s no need for relying on an agent to handle the go-between.

Challenge #3: Calls from Agents and Scammers

A common issue that most FSBOs encounter when listing their home is that they will need to display their personal contact information on the listing since they are not represented by a Realtor®. This makes FSBO sellers somewhat of a target for marketing calls.

Listing agents will call and try to convince you that you need to use their services and some are relentless. They may make you feel as though your abilities as a FSBO are inadequate or that they can net more profit as tactics to gain your listing.

Targeting FSBO sellers is such a common tactic for agents to increase their sales. That’s why there are plenty of cold-calling scripts online to gain FSBO listings.

You’ll likely receive many calls or texts from various real estate companies. Most of these callers have no intention of purchasing your home. Be sure to vett any potential service providers before conducting business with them.

Instead of displaying your phone number when selling your home, you can utilize Homepie’s chat feature. Wherever you list your home, provide a link to your Homepie listing page so that a potential buyer can ask questions about the home. By using this service, you can keep your personal information private and require a serious buyer who wants to view the property to have their identification verified.

Tip: For sites like Zillow that require a phone number, we recommend using a free call forwarding service like Google Voice or OpenPhone in addition to listing your Homepie URL in the description section.

Challenge #4: Marketing Your Home

The more exposure you have of your house on the real estate market, the more likely it is that potential buyers will see it. Figuring out the best way to market your home may be complicated, especially if you have a small social circle. Many FSBO homes are limited to word of mouth from family and friends of the seller.

Marketing a home For Sale by Owner often requires the seller to be dedicated to making an extra effort to get the home out on the market. The extra effort could be having professional photographs taken of the interior and exterior of the home, ample signage advertising the home, and even social media promotion. The more involved the marketing, the better chance it has to reach the public eye.

Marketing can be the most challenging part of making FSBO successful. Homepie takes the challenge out of marketing and sets you up with a yard sign and other resources to help you make the most out of your sale.

For a small fee, you can even list your home on the MLS and have it synidcated to over 100 real estate sites including Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com. The other benefit to this is that your personal information won’t be displayed.

The Best Resource for FSBO Sellers

Homepie.com is leading the way in simplifying the real estate sales process. As an all-in-one solution, it provides all the tools to efficiently sell your own home, minimizing the challenges associated with selling by owner.

With Homepie, selling your home no longer needs to be a massive undertaking or a stressful process. Create your free home listing today or sign up to start using the platform.