For Sale by Owner in San Diego

Sometimes San Diego homeowners decide to sell their home on their own and bypass a listing agent. This San Diego For Sale by Ownersis when the homeowner sells their home without a real estate agent and takes on the real estate transaction without an agent representing them. From my experience I usually find that for sale by owners, as their called, are independent and tough minded individuals who think they can do it without an agent. They’re usually people who have a “can do” or “I can do this” attitude and they’ve in many cases done a lot in life on their own without the help of professionals. They are the DIY “Do It Yourself” folks. My hats off to them, I’m the same way in some areas.

The statistics are something like 9 out of 10 homeowners who try to sell their home by themselves end up using a real estate agent to sell the home. That means that 1 out of 10 for sale by owners or FSBO’s actually end up selling their home or condo without an agent representing them. The other 9 hire an agent.

As a San Diego real estate agent I have no problem showing for sale by owner properties to buyers that I’m working with. The problem is that most of the FSBO properties are hard to find. I mean the properties are not in the Multiple Listing Service “MLS”, the place where listing agents put their listings and agents representing buyers go there to find properties for their buyers. The FSBO properties are on web sites like Forsalebyowner.com, Craigslist.com, Zillow.com and Trulia.com as well as many other smaller sites. So if I can’t find a property for my buyer I will search these areas for “for sale by owner” properties in San Diego County and see if any meet my buyer’s requirements. 

Actually there is a way that I see FSBO’s put their homes in the MLS. There are some Brokers in San Diego who will put their property in the MLS at a flat fee without actually representing them. Kind of like a posting of the property without the broker representing the seller as a listing agent. They have verbiage to the effect of: Please contact the seller directly and submit offers to the seller. This way the FSBO gets their property in the MLS without paying a listing agent a commission but rather a small flat rate instead. I then see that the seller will put a commission for a buyer’s agent of 2.5% to 3% in most cases. I always wonder how the seller, with no real estate experience, understands the contract, addendums, disclosures and escrow process or even if the buyer actually has a pre-approved loan other than a piece of paper stating so. Without knowing the contract how will they make sure that their not accepting an offer that puts them in a risky position that they are then contractually bound to. A large percentage of these FSBO’s, even when their home is in the MLS, end up hiring a listing agent to sell their home. Some of the main factors are that the property needs to be marketed and not just put in the MLS and some buyer’s agents may be reluctant to show their homes. I’ve seen some sellers get scared not knowing what to do once an offer comes in and decides then that this maybe a little over their heads.

FSBO Process in San Diego CaliforniaWhen I call homeowners to ask them about their property for sale I usually get 1 of 2 reactions. The first reaction is usually, if you’re a Realtor I’m not looking to list my home with you… I don’t want to use an agent so if you’re calling to try and list my home you can forget about it. The second most common response is that the seller selling their home as a FSBO is happy to hear from an agent and wants to tell them everything about their home or condo so that they can sell it. Sometimes they won’t let me off the phone and just want to keep telling me how great the home is. I like these types of for sale by owners because they genuinely want to sell their home and in order to do that they need to do the work of an agent and market their home. They’re sort of like a salesperson for their own home and who knows their home better than them.

If after speaking with the owner and I think this is a property that my buyer may be interested in, I ask the homeowner if they are willing to work with an agent. Usually they say yes. I then ask them if they are willing to pay me a commission to bring in a buyer on their home. They will ask me how much of a commission, I say that I will write a 3% commission into the Residential Purchase Agreement for representing my buyer. Most homeowners are ok with this although some want to pay less of a commission and some won’t pay a commission at all. I ask the ones who want to pay a low commission or no commission at all why they don’t want to pay me for the work of bringing a buyer to them and representing my buyer as a professional agent. The ones who want to discount my commission, or don’t like to pay my commission at all, usually say agents make too much money for doing nothing.

So I guess I make too much money and don’t do anything in the eyes of some FSBO sellers. That’s OK though because I don’t take it to heart. So I will then ask the home owners who will pay me a commission if I can come preview their property. I don’t bring my clients by on the first visit because I don’t want to waste their time seeing a home that doesn’t really fit their needs and because that’s what they pay me to do. After I have previewed it and spoke with my client in detail about the home, if they want to see it, I then setup another appointment to bring my clients by.

While I’m at the FSBO property on the first visit and I think my clients may like it, I take lots of notes and take some pictures if the homeowner allows me to. I ask as many detailed questions as I can, trying to anticipate what my buyers may want to know about the property. Sellers love to talk about their home and show me everything about it; they are 99% of the time very helpful in showing me all they love about the property. I will ask them if I write an offer on their home, do they understand the “RPA” Residential Purchase Agreement and the process of what happens once the offer gets accepted and we go to escrow. I also ask them if they have completed disclosures so that all the timelines of the contract are met on their end. Most of them don’t really know how to answer these questions. This always has me, as an agent, worried. It’s hard to put my buyer in a transaction with a seller who doesn’t know what they need to do to fulfill their end of the transaction.

For instance if the buyer does want the property and I write an offer for them that gets accepted, the San Diego Real Estate Contractseller who is representing themselves, needs to know what to do to meet the close of escrow date. If my buyer gives their notice to end the lease of where their renting or maybe we’re trying to coordinate their COE “close of escrow” on their home to buy this home with the COE of this property and the seller doesn’t do what their supposed to do to get the transaction closed there may be repercussions to the seller and even the buyer on their selling end of their home. Sometimes I run into a seller of a FSBO that used to be an agent or broker and knows how to navigate the real estate transaction, but this is not very often. The seller will sometimes ask me to represent them as their listing agent so that I can help them with the paperwork. Sometimes I will, but if I do, I need to be paid for my work and will need to charge a commission to represent them. Now at this point the seller is paying a buying commission and a selling commission. They then realize that this whole process may have been easier if they just hired a listing agent from the beginning. And from my perspective, they would have been.

I see over and over again that FSBO properties, because they don’t have a listing agent to properly price the home, effectively market the home and negotiate for the best price; their home inevitably sells for less money. And yes, even after commissions sells for less money, and let’s face it most of the time the “for sale by owner” will end up paying a commission anyway, at least on the buying end.

These are just some of the cold hard facts of trying to do a “for sale by owner in San Diego County” or anywhere for that DIY Do It Yourself San Diego Real Estatematter. I applaud the homeowners who try it and also applaud the ones who finally say, let me get a professional real estate agent to help me sell my home for top dollar and take the worry off of my plate. I sometimes take on some big home projects myself, something I should hire a contractor to do. I watch some YouTube videos and talk with the folks at Home Depot and think I got it down. After doing a few of these, which some came out OK… unless you ask my spouse, I realize now how important it is to have someone do the work who is licensed and has experience. There’s no substitute for that. Some of my home projects were a disaster and I had to call in the pros anyway…. ended up costing me more money and time in the long run. The only consolation was that I tried it on my own, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

If you’re considering doing a “For Sale by Owner” FSBO in San Diego I wish you the best of luck and I hope I can bring in a buyer for your San Diego Home Prices vs Home Valuesproperty. If you want an opinion on where to price your home, I give those for free to help you properly value your San Diego real estate. I do this by using comparable properties that are active, in escrow and sold, and unlike some of the Zestimates and Guestimates I give you an accurate value. I can also give you some suggestions on decluttering your home, advice on touch up paint or small repairs and increasing the homes curb appeal. Let me know, I would love to see your property and I may have a buyer for it.

Contact me for a Free Home Value and Market Ready Check Analysis 

The Lewis Team 

San Diego’s Real Estate Team

The Lewis Team

619-656-0655

San Diego Real Estate Agents

  San Diego Real Estate   Buy a Home in San Diego    Sell a Home in San Diego