If you’re considering selling your house or investment property in St. Petersburg without involving a real estate agent, we’re here to assist you.
While we do collaborate with brokers, there are instances where bypassing intermediary fees is preferable.
Indeed, paying 5-6% of the property sale as commission can amount to a significant sum. While Florida brokers and real estate agents can provide valuable services and justify their commission in certain scenarios, it’s not always necessary.
How Do I Sell My House Without An Agent in St. Petersburg?
There are several strategies to circumvent hefty commissions in your Florida sale.
It’s essential to understand a particular practice.
In many transactions in St. Petersburg, approximately half of the commission paid by you, the seller, covers the fees for the buyer’s broker.
Doesn’t make much sense, right?
Why foot the bill for the agent representing the other party?
In all honesty, it seems illogical—it’s just the conventional practice.
However, you can leverage this in your favor in several ways.
Firstly, when evaluating comparable sales, consider the commissions paid. If similar properties were sold at prices inclusive of commissions, factor that into your assessment.
Don’t underprice your property – Be mindful that a savvy buyer might anticipate a discount as well. If you’re taking on the responsibilities typically handled by a real estate agent, you can reasonably expect to save that money
In St. Petersburg, occasionally buyers without agent representation may overlook negotiating the buyer’s side commission into the price for themselves. If you prefer not to cover this cost, refrain from reminding them. However, be prepared for it to potentially arise during negotiations.
You may want to consider offering 2.5% to buyer’s agents who will bring their clients to show your property. Certainly, offering a commission to buyer’s agents may seem like a significant expense. However, if you’ve factored this commission into your property pricing, you retain the flexibility to negotiate a more favorable deal for a buyer who comes without an agent.
Conversely, if you fail to allocate space for the buyer’s agent’s commission, you risk excluding a significant portion of the market in St. Petersburg.
Over 90% of transactions happen through the MLS – That database is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which serves as the primary resource for brokers in St. Petersburg. It contains comprehensive information on available houses, condos, land, and investment properties for sale, as well as data on sold prices, enabling brokers to access crucial information for their clients.
Once upon a time, getting your property listed on the MLS required paying a full commission. However, in St. Petersburg, there are now brokers who offer the option to list your property on the MLS for a fee. Typically, you’ll pay a nominal upfront fee, often just a few hundred bucks, and only incur a commission if the sale successfully closes.
Compared to the cost of a newspaper ad, the MLS is a cheap way to market your property to a very wide audience.
All the prominent real estate search platforms such as Realtor.com, Zillow, and Yahoo Homes source their data from the MLS. Therefore, when you submit your listing in St. Petersburg to the MLS, it’s highly likely that information about your property will be disseminated to most 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. Open houses in St. Petersburg, Florida, can sometimes prove to be an effective method for selling a property, while other times they may yield minimal results. The same variability applies to other marketing strategies such as newspaper ads, Craigslist postings, and elaborate signage. The effectiveness of these methods can vary depending on various factors.
To effectively sell your property on your own, you have to market it well.
Distributing flyers and posting signs around your neighborhood can indeed generate some inquiries, and there are numerous free websites where you can share property information. However, relying solely on these methods, along with hosting an open house, may not suffice if your house doesn’t resonate with the average home buyer. Additional strategies may be necessary to attract potential buyers effectively.
In theory, real estate agents charge substantial commissions because they invest significant upfront funds in advertising properties. By promoting multiple properties simultaneously, they anticipate generating more inquiries and, consequently, expect to earn substantial profits by facilitating numerous successful sales.
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 fair prices for properties – and we can close fast (in as little as 3-5 days if you need to).
At times, we acquire houses in St. Petersburg, refurbish them, and then either rent them out or sell them to individuals seeking quality homes in the area. We engage in various other activities related to properties as well. However, we’re always eager to hear from individuals like you who are contemplating selling anywhere in Florida. Feel free to reach out to us!
We’re investors who care a lot about St. Petersburg.
We close fast and pay cash in as little as just 3-5 days. Give us a call now at 727-351-2202 or fill out the short form over here.