
“How do I sell my house without an agent in Pensacola??”
It’s a question we hear often from sellers who want to sell their house in a non-traditional way. There could be several reasons why you have decided to try and sell your house without an agent. Maybe because the overall condition of the property won’t get you as much money as you’re hoping for so working with an agent that gets paid out of your sale could put you upside down at closing. Or you are more of a hands-on type of person and want to control the sale from start to finish. Or maybe you, or someone you know, had a bad experience trying to sell a house with an agent in the past. It happens. Far too often, unfortunately. We hear it all the time. The truth is, that not all agents are created equal.
At Bean Home Buyers, we’re built differently. We treat you like family and work hard to sell your house. But regarding the reason, if you’re looking to sell your house or investment property in Pensacola without using a real estate agent, we can help.
Although we are licensed agents and can definitely help you list and sell your house on the market, sometimes it’s best to avoid paying someone to be in the middle.
After all, paying 5-6% of the sale of a property in a commission is a lot of money. That can literally make the difference in you walking away with money in your pocket or having to bring a check to the closing table. In certain situations, Florida brokers and real estate agents can be very useful and earn their commission. Not always.
How Do I Sell My House Without An Agent in Pensacola?
There are a few ways to avoid paying high commissions in your Florida sale.
First, there’s a tricky custom that you’ve gotta know about.
In most sales in Pensacola, roughly half of the commission you pay as the seller goes to pay for the buyer’s broker.
Doesn’t make much sense, right?
Why should you pay for the agent on the other side of the table?
Truthfully, it defies logic – it’s just what’s typically done. Not until recently has this custom come under question, and at the time of this writing there’s a pending lawsuit regarding all of this, but it could take several years for all of the details to be ironed out and any potential change to occur.
BUT…you can use that to your advantage in a few ways.
First, factor in the commissions paid when you’re looking at the comparable sales. If the properties similar to yours sold for prices that included commissions, take that into account.
Don’t underprice your property – be aware that a savvy buyer may expect to take a discount too. If you’re doing the work of one agent, you can expect to save that money.
Sometimes in Pensacola, buyers who aren’t represented by an agent won’t remember to negotiate the buyer’s side commission out of the price for themselves, so don’t remind them if you don’t want to pay them. Just don’t be surprised if it comes up during the negotiation. Again, it typically takes a savvy buyer to know the backend of a home sale transaction to know that they aren’t paying an agent so they can try to knock that would-be commission fee off the total price when negotiating with you. But as the old saying goes, “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”
You may want to consider offering 2-3% to a buyer’s agent who will bring their clients to show your property. Sure, it’s a lot of money. If you’re pricing your property including that commission, you can always negotiate a better deal for a purchaser who comes without an agent.
On the other hand, if you don’t leave room for the buyer’s agent’s commission, you’ll be excluding most of the buyers in the market in Pensacola. A lot of sellers don’t consider an agent’s needs when the phone rings and an agent is on the other end. As crazy as it sounds, some sellers will assume that agents will be willing to work for free and will expect the agent to show their buyers the property, possibly write up an offer, and do all of the work to get the sale closed without getting paid. Don’t be that kind of seller! Know that selling your house is a business decision/transaction and everyone involved should be treated with respect and dignity throughout the entire process. I promise you, if you treat an agent the way they deserve to be treated, you’ll make more money when selling your house.
Over 90% of transactions happen through the MLS – that’s the Multiple Listing Service. It’s the main database that all the brokers in Pensacola use to access information for their clients on the houses, condos, land, and investment properties for sale, along with data on the sold prices. It’s the main hub for home listings.
Once upon a time, you had to pay a full commission to get your property on the MLS. Now in Pensacola, there are a few brokers who will charge you a fee just to list your property on the MLS. Often, you spend a few hundred bucks and you only pay a commission if the sale closes. You can simply Google “flat fee brokers near me” and you should see some of these types of brokers.
Compared to the cost of a newspaper ad, the MLS is a cheap way to market your property to a very wide audience. When it comes to selling your house the traditional way (on the market) remember the golden rule: Exposure is the only reason a marketed property sells or doesn’t sell. The more eyes that see your house, the better chance you have of selling it. If you decide to sell on the market, getting it on the MLS is a must. It’s the best way to ensure that you are getting the most exposure possible.
All the major real estate search sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Yahoo Homes, etc. get data from the MLS. Chances are good that when you submit your listing in Pensacola to the MLS, information on your property will end up on most of the major sites within a few days.
Each of those sites sells ads. They’ve got packages that let you pay to enhance your listing, feature it at the top of the search, and a lot of other bells and whistles that might or might not get an interested buyer to buy your property.
Advertising is a gamble. Sometimes open houses in Pensacola Florida can be a great way to sell a property, and sometimes they’re a waste of time. Same with newspaper ads, craigslist postings, and fancy signs – sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t.
To effectively sell your property on your own, you have to market it well.
Putting up fliers and signs around your neighborhood can generate some calls, and there are a lot of free websites where you can post information. But often just putting up flyers and an open house isn’t enough if your house doesn’t appeal to the average home buyer. Remember our exposure talk just a few paragraphs before now? Grassroots marketing won’t get the job done when it comes to solving the problem, “How do I sell my house without an agent?”. There’s just too much competition and you have to generate as much exposure as possible for your house.
In theory, real estate agents charge big commissions because they have to spend a lot of money upfront to advertise your property. By advertising lots of properties at once, they expect to get more phone calls – and obviously, they’ll make good profits by selling lots of houses.
Certain properties might require thousands of dollars in advertising expenses before the right buyer happens to see the ad and call.
If you want to avoid paying any commissions, you can also sell your house to investors like us for CASH
We offer fair cash prices for properties – and we can close fast (in as little as 7-10 days, in some cases, if you need to).
Sometimes we’ll buy Pensacola houses, fix them up, then rent them out… sometimes we’ll fix them up and sell them to other people looking for great homes in the area, and a lot of other reasons, too. But let’s be honest, we know that what we do after we buy your house isn’t near as important as offering you a fair cash offer to get money in your pocket fast without having to wait for the property to sell on the market. Regardless of which route you choose, we love to hear from people like you who are thinking of selling anywhere in Florida.
We’re investors who care a lot about Pensacola.
We close fast and pay cash in as little as just 7-10 days. Give us a call now at (850) 750-8557 or fill out the short form over here.