Sell Your Home, Condo or Real Estate
For Sale By Owner, or FSBO, is the process of selling real estate without the representation of a real estate broker or real estate agent. Homeowners may employ the services of marketing or online listing companies or market their own property but do not pay a commission and represent themselves with the help of a lawyer or Solicitor (mostly in Commonwealth) throughout the sale.
Options Including Multiple Listing Service Access
There are many options open to the FSBO seller. Many companies both online and brick and mortar offer various levels of services and price points. These include:
- Do it all yourself and pay no commission. For the solo job, thanks to the internet the creative seller can obtain all kinds of help. Some trusted sources provide step-by-step instructions to set a price, get the house ready for sale, hold an open house, open escrow and even transfer the keys.[1] You can put up a free website with one of the simple and free website companies. Get a professional looking sign with a mailbox attached to it. Make your own Flyers. List on For Sale By Owner websites. And, when you bring in a buyer who is not working with an agent, you pay no commission. The two parties can obtain contractual assistance from their own lawyers or hire one lawyer to facilitate the entire transaction.
- Get a Little Help and Pay a Little Commission. There are several flat fee listing services that for a nominal fee will put your property on the Multiple Listing Service so your property is marketed to all the real estate agents in the area and is listed on the nationwide MLS [2] Realtor.com. In exchange for this valuable market share, the FSBO Seller must agree to pay a commission to the agent that brings a buyer. The end result is that you end up paying about half of what you would have paid with a regular listing. The agent who brings in the buyer will also prepare the vast majority of the paperwork for the sale. Since the agent is representing the buyer, not you, you may want to hire an attorney to review the transaction and to make sure all required Seller disclosures are made.
- Flat-fee and hourly home selling. Alternatively, a home seller can either pay a flat-fee or hourly fee to a real estate agent. This can be a one time payment, or an ongoing hourly home selling agreement. These allow the FSBO seller to avoid commissions and still receive a-la-carte real estate agent help.
Legal Disclosures and Documents
The home sale transaction used to be simple. Now it involves a huge stack of documents and legal requirements which can make selling FSBO a challenge. For this reason, the FSBO Seller is wise to hire an attorney who specializes in FSBO transactions. While they will incur a fee for this, it will be far less than the amount saved by not paying a real estate commission. In most states, there are detailed legal requirements pertaining to sellers and disclosures they must make. In California alone, a number of disclosure forms are required to be completed when the seller is offering a home for sale to the public.[3][4] These forms that are within the bailiwick of the real estate agent is nearly impossible for a seller to come by. Real estate lawyers have all of the required forms, documents and expertise necessary.
FSBO Statistics
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2015 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the median age for FSBO sellers is 54 years. Seventy-seven percent of FSBO sales were by married couples that have a median income of $104,100. FSBO homes sold more quickly than agent-assisted homes; 67% in less than two weeks — often because the homes were transacted with someone the seller knew. Of sellers who personally knew the buyer, 71% were satisfied with the process of selling their home.[5]
Fort Myers
Fort Myers is the county seat[4] and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Fort Myers is a gateway to the Southwest Florida region and a major tourist destination within Florida. The winter homes of Thomas Edison (“Seminole Lodge”) and Henry Ford (“The Mangoes”) are a primary tourist attraction in the region.[5] The city is named after Colonel Abraham Myers.[6][7] The geographic statistical area is serviced by Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), located southeast of the city.
Fort Myers was one of the first forts built along the Caloosahatchee River as a base of operations against the Seminole Indians during the American Indian Wars. During the Seminole Wars, Fort Myers was a strategic location for its visibility and access to Atlantic waterways.
During the American Civil War, Confederate blockade runners and cattle ranchers called Fort Myers home. These settlers prospered through trading with Seminole Indians and Union Soldiers.[8]
The Fort Myers community was founded by Captain Manuel A. Gonzalez on February 21, 1866. [9] [10] Captain Gonzalez was familiar with the area as a result of his years of service delivering mail and supplies to the Union Army at the Fort during the Seminole Indian Wars and Civil War. [11] [12] When the U.S. Government abandoned the Fort following the Civil War, Gonzalez traveled by sailing vessel from Key West, Florida to found the community. [13] [14] [15] Three weeks later, Joseph Vivas and his wife, Christianna Stirrup Vivas, arrived with Gonzalez’s wife, Evalina Gonzalez, and daughter, Mary Gonzalez.[16]
Gonzales had shipped supplies and carried mail during the war and settled his family near the abandoned Fort Myers to begin the town’s first trading post. Gonzalez traded tobacco, beads, and gunpowder, and sold otter, bobcat, and gator hide, to the neighboring Seminole Indians.[8]
In 1881, the wealthy industrialist Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia came to the Caloosahatchee Valley to dredge and drain the everglades for development. Diston connected Lake Okeechobee with the Caloosahatchee River, which allowed steamboats to run from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Okeechobee and up the Kissimmee River.[8]