The 6% Commission and FSBO

There are many arguments to be made in favor using a real estate agent when buying or selling a home -- although there are many arguments against, as well. Particularly from a seller's perspective, the cost of using an agent is probably the number 1 reason why a seller might choose to forego an agent and sell "FSBO" (For Sale by Owner).

On today's CNNMoney page, there is an interesting article about the efforts of brokers and agents to maintain a standard 6% of the sale price commission for helping a seller sell a home. The article notes that the 6% works out to a "whopping" $12,000 on the sale of an average American home -- which means a sale price of $200,000. There are not too many homes in the Puget Sound area at that price, so if you live here and are thinking of selling with an agent, the cost to you would be significantly more -- closer to $21,000, given a King County median price of about $350,000. (Would that make it a "mega-whopping" commission? "Ultra-whopping"?)

There are many sources on the web regarding the costs and benefits of FSBO. There are also many web sites that will help you sell your home yourself. If you do it yourself, however, remember that you're participating in a legal transaction worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Accordingly, "experts overwhelmingly suggest hiring an attorney to draft, or at least review, all the paperwork, making sure it's legal, complete and does exactly what the drafters want it to do."