Sell Your House Without A Realtor

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to sell your house. But have you ever asked yourself, “Should I sell my house without a Realtor?” That question leads to another question, namely how hard is it to sell your house without a Realtor? These are great questions to be asking yourself, especially right now as the housing market can be a bit unpredictable. 

If you’re looking to sell your house fast, you have a few options to consider. You can sell your house the old-fashioned way and hire a Realtor or real estate agent to list your house. You can sell the house yourself in what is known as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sale. Or you can sell your house as-is to a cash buyer like Element Homebuyers. Each of these situations come with their own reasons to go that route but that all depends on your situation and how fast you want to sell your Nebraska house. The latter two choices don’t include working with a Realtor but they are home selling processes that work very differently and at very different speeds. 

Let’s take a closer look at these scenarios with a focus on how to sell your house without a Realtor in Nebraska. By the end of the article, you’ll have the information you need to decide the right way for you to sell your house and, if you do choose to, how to sell a house without a Realtor. 

A Guide On How To Sell Your House Without A Realtor

Selling a House With or Without a Realtor 

When it comes to deciding whether or not to sell your Nebraska house with a Realtor, there’s one major reason that most people will point to. The real estate commission fee. 

How it usually works when you hire a Realtor or real estate agent to sell your house is that they take a commission fee for their services. That fee can vary depending on the market but is usually five or six percent of the sale price. So let’s say you end up selling your Nebraska house for $300,000. You’ll be on the hook to give up roughly $15,000 to $18,000 of that, which is no small chunk of change. That commission fee is then split between your agent (the seller’s agent) and the buyer’s agent. How those breakdowns work is up to them to negotiate.

You might be thinking that giving up $15-$18k on the home sale isn’t a big deal. But you need to remember that while the real estate commission is based on the sale price, it technically comes out of your home equity. So while you sold the house for $300,000, let’s say you have a $200,000 mortgage on it. That gives you net equity of $100,000. However, if you have to pay out a real estate commission fee to a Realtor, you’ll have to bring that number down by roughly $18,000, giving you actual net equity of $82,000. And that’s before you factor in any closing costs and concessions that you’ve agreed to. That could drag your net equity down even more. 

Of course, there are some benefits to selling your house with a Realtor on the housing market. A Realtor or real estate agent brings a lot of knowledge about how the home selling process works, can handle negotiations on your behalf, and should have a good idea of how to price and market your house so that it sells fast. Of course, that doesn’t always work because there are no guarantees on the housing market. Unlike selling your house as-is to a cash buyer, a process that can be completed in days, you can do everything right on the housing market and still end up sitting there for months. 

Sell a House By Owner in Nebraska

If you decide to sell your house without a Realtor, you have a couple of options. If you want to sell your house fast or sell for cash, then you’re better off selling directly to a cash buyer like Element Homebuyers. There are no Realtors involved and they’ll make you a fair cash offer fast, often within 24 hours. Then you get to close on your own terms and speed. However, if you want to pursue a market sale without a Realtor, then you can also consider a For Sale By Owner sale. 

Obviously, an FSBO sale means you are handling all of the decisions that come with selling a house on the housing market. That means you are in charge of prepping the house, listing it on the MLS, hosting open houses, handling all negotiations, and working with legal and financial experts to close the deal. If you’re already an expert on this process, perhaps this is a road to consider. But if you’re not, it can be a risky proposition and there are a lot of potential pitfalls with an FSBO sale. 

The biggest potential issue is that if you try to sell a house without a Realtor on the housing market, the odds are good that you will not be able to get as much money as you could have otherwise. Many studies have been done to show that FSBO sales tend to get fewer profits than a market sale with a Realtor, due to seller inexperience. That said, FSBO sellers can possibly make up that difference by not paying a commission fee. However, you will still have to pay a fee to the buyer’s agent even if you don’t have one. 

Not understanding how the home selling process works are often what undoes an FSBO sale. Pricing a house right out of the gate is one of the most crucial aspects of selling your Nebraska house on the housing market. If you price your house too high, you could scare off potential buyers who will just wait for you to bring it down. If you price your house too low, you might be sending the signal that something’s wrong with the house or you could end up leaving a lot of money on the table. And if you don’t know how to maximize the value of your house when you list it, you could miss out on a lot of potential buyers. 

One more thing to consider when doing a For Sale By Owner sale without a Realtor is that you are potentially opening yourself up to litigation and legal issues. A Realtor is required to carry certain types of insurance that cover them if there’s some kind of mistake or issue in the transaction that goes to court. That doesn’t work for an FSBO seller, who is basically on their own to deal with any mistakes they make after the fact. That’s a lot of responsibility if you’re not secure in your knowledge of how to sell your Nebraska house. And if you don’t feel as though you’ve done enough research to back up doing it, you might either want to pay the commission fee to a Realtor or avoid all these hassles altogether and sell your house for cash to a real estate investor. 

Steps in Selling a House Without a Realtor

If you decide that you want to sell a house without a Realtor, here are some steps to consider for doing so. 

If you’re going to pursue an FSBO sale, the first thing you need to do is take an honest look at your house and figure out what needs to be repaired, what problem areas need to be addressed, and what you can afford to do. Because you are trying to sell a house without a Realtor on the open market, you need to consider the things that buyers are looking for and the negatives they are going to notice. If you can make some repairs, do that, knowing that any costs are going to need to be recouped in the sale. Give all the rooms a touch-up and add a fresh coat of paint where you can. Give the whole house a de-clutter in order to remove as much personalization as possible. And make sure the house is clean, even if you have to hire professional cleaners. 

Next, you’ll need to do some marketing. Buy some For Sale signs for the yard and neighborhood. Create some flyers and brochures that showcase all of the highlights about your Nebraska house, including amenities, location, proximity to schools, etc. Find all of the places you can advertise your FSBO sale online as there are many sites. And then schedule and host an open house (or several) so you can get potential buyers inside. 

When you do find a buyer, it’s time to handle negotiations. Figure out where your breaking point is and stick to it. Make sure you’re comfortable with your strategy, whether that’s bending but not breaking, or simply not budging on your price. Each strategy has pros and cons and can fall apart if the buyer balks, but that’s how it works. 

Of course, you can avoid this entire messy process and any potential headaches that come with leaving your house on the open market for months on end by selling your house as-is to a cash buyer like Element Homebuyers. We won’t ask you to make any repairs or clean up anything. We’ll even make you an offer if there are financial issues on the property. Just contact us and we’ll follow up right away. Once we have all the information we need, we’ll make you a no-obligation offer. And if you accept, we can begin the closing process in days. Then you get to walk away with cash in your hands and no one has to worry about Realtors, real estate agents, lenders, or any other middlemen.