Strategy for Selling Your Home in a Tough Market: List It Yourself
Anyone trying to sell a home in Michigan these days knows how important it is to attract the attention of buyers in a market that offers bargains galore.
One way to do that is by taking advantage of the opening up of the industry's once tightly guarded Multiple Listing Service. For a few hundred dollars, you now can list your property on the MLS yourself, without using a real estate broker.
The strategy can really pay off if you then offer the full 5 percent or 6 percent commission – typically split between seller and buyer agents – solely to the agent who brings you a buyer, and suggest she or he cut potential buyers in on the profit.
If you'd like to work through the MLS system but direct the entire commission you're offering to the agent who brings you a buyer, you should do your homework. Read up extensively on “for sale by owner” strategies so you understand the responsibilities that will fall to you, from fixing up and staging your home effectively to securing a title company and closing the sale. Call around to several area realty offices, ask for their top producing sales agent, and inquire how much he or she would charge as an hourly consulting fee on an as-needed basis.
Experts say you can determine a listing price by paying for an appraisal and conferring with a consulting broker if you feel it necessary. You also could talk with brokers from three agencies about listing your property and the price they'd recommend – being sure to note in the course of the discussion that you're considering listing it yourself. If you especially like one of the three, you may elect to list with them instead of on your own.
When it’s time to post your listing onto your area MLS, you will go through either a local brokerage that offers minimal-service listings or through online minimal-service brokerages such as brokerdirectmls.com, housepad.com, buyself.com, flatfeemlslisting.com, homeworksrealestate.com, and congressrealty.com.
You can make things easier for potential buyers by arranging to have a "lock-box" containing a house key placed on your property for buyers' agents to show it at will. Minimal-service agents will rent you a box for a modest fee. You won't need to draw up a sales contract because the buyers' agent handles that. But you absolutely should have a Realtor or real estate lawyer look over the contract with you before returning it with your counteroffer, if any.
And don’t forget – you shouldn’t hesitate to contact a consulting broker at any point in the process if you need a little help.
– By Ed Coury, senior editor and Midwest bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Dow Jones & Co., and a reporter for WWJ Newsradio 950.
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Anyone trying to sell a home in Michigan these days knows how important it is to attract the attention of buyers in a market that offers bargains galore. 
