Selling Million Dollar House Without a Broker ?

[Mykl]

Actually, come to think of it.... you can get that data by calling an agent and saying "I'm thinking about selling my house and I'm looking for an agent."

Ask them to show up with comps to aid you in your "decision." Kind of a [censored] move, but it is one way to get the info.

 

[Mykl]

Originally Posted By: 99Saturn
? I'm missing something, you can see the sold for price on Zillow. It's the little yellow homes on the map no?

the price might be the price with some concessions baked in though - are you talking about something else?


Maybe it's different in your area, but 99% of the houses on Zillow where I'm at have "n/a" in the spot that's supposed to have the price. A few do have prices listed though... but without verification I'd question the accuracy.

 

[99Saturn]

Originally Posted By: Mykl
Originally Posted By: 99Saturn
? I'm missing something, you can see the sold for price on Zillow. It's the little yellow homes on the map no?

the price might be the price with some concessions baked in though - are you talking about something else?


Maybe it's different in your area, but 99% of the houses on Zillow where I'm at have "n/a" in the spot that's supposed to have the price. A few do have prices listed though... but without verification I'd question the accuracy.

You're right (must vary by area). I just pulled down Austin, TX and see "N/A". Here, you can look up the actual price. It does also get pushed out on the county site a month or two after the sale typically.

Ironically, the local county site here has the ability to pull comps. When we refinanced a year ago, I was able to pull a list of comps to hand to the appraiser when they walked in, and check all the facts about lot size, bathrooms, etc. on the local county site and point out some stuff to the appraiser once my report came back.

Only caveat is you don't really know what concession was baked in or not here so you see some wacky numbers. Homes "sold" after the death of a family member with low values, and prices may be pumped up with added concessions as part of the mortgage, which aren't stripped out in the price.

 

[javacontour]

You could always look to "refinance" your home and get the figures when they look at the value of the home.

I realize it's not the selling price, but what a bank is willing to loan.

But that's a good figure to know on your property since most buyers are financing. Don't go through with the re-fi, just see what the numbers are.

Or better yet, if you have a relationship with your bank, they may be able to get you that sort of information. After all, you have to park your $1mil somewhere.

Even if that costs you a few hundred, it's better than $60K to a Realtor.

 

[jimbrewer]

Originally Posted By: JOD
You certainly can sell it without a broker--but you're almost certain to make less money that you would otherwise. Listing it yourself or with the aid of service like Redfin to save the selling agent commission is one thing--but not paying a buyer's agent commission is just penny-wise and pound-foolish. It's a bad idea and it'll cost you money.

Buying FSBO's and flipping them was pretty much my ticket to a very early retirement, and the biggest reason why is that 1) people don't know how to sell their own houses and 2) buyer's agents have the clients. Trying to cut them out of the loop is a bad idea--unless you're talking about something like Bellosguardo. A 1.4 million dollar house in SoCal is a nice house, but it's still a normal house and your best bet is to sell it through conventional channels. If you want to save part of the commission though, you could certainly use a broker like Redfin--you'll just have to do more work yourself.

Bottom line, most clients are working with agents; by trying to avoid a selling commission you're going to eliminate most of your potential buyers.


There may be a compromise: We sold an expensive house where the listing broker charged 1% of the price. Actually, the broker did quite a bit for the 1%, listing the house on MLS and putting up signs. Maybe consulting on the price, I don't remember. The way the deal worked is that you would set what the buyer's commission would be in advance. Most everyone tried to chisel on the buyer's commission; we went the other way, and promised a 4% commission to the buyer's broker. It was a pretty hot market, so there's no way to be sure, but buyers streamed in and the house sold right away.

So, if you can find that sort of arrangement, you might benefit. You have to be careful not to under price your house, though.