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.