Use a real estate agent or not?

[aaronc879]

I'm selling my condo and wondering how difficult it is to sell a home on your own. My condo is worth ~$40,000 but the agent charges 6% at a minimum of $65,000. That means they are charging $3900 (plus a $225 fee for something) or about 10% to sell my home. That seems like an awful lot. I've never sold a property before so not sure what it takes. Any opinions on if it's worth the money?

 

[pb4uski]

If you are fairly knowledgeable about the process from selling or buying property in the past, it is pretty easy. In a past life I was a licensed real estate agent and had done a number of real estate transactions so I was quite comfortable selling on my own. We sold ourselves and our total cost was abut $400 of our attorney.

In our area, there is also a flat rate broker that charges about 3% as I recall.

10% is outrageous, I would think you could do much better shopping around.

 

[jerome len]

I'd list it but I'd limit the "fee" to 5% of the selling price plus applicable fees you would haet to pay if you sold it yourself. To me it's a no brainer in your price range......I would question paying 6% when you're selling something for 500k and the commission is 30k.

 

[Rowdy]

I've sold 2 houses myself and purchased my current house which was FSBO. The actual process is not difficult if you have a real estate attorney. The hard part is marketing the house, finding the time to show it, and the problem of opening up your house to unknown persons. I think today given my busy schedule with w*ork, I'm not sure I would have the time and energy to do it.