If you’re looking to sell your house or investment property in Bakersfield without using a real estate agent, we can definitely help.
Although we do cooperate with brokers, sometimes it’s best to avoid paying someone to be in the middle.
After all, paying 5-6% of the sale of a property in a commission is a lot of money. The average price for a house in Bakersfield, CA is around $250,000. This would mean that a 6% commission would cost you $15,000! In certain situations, California brokers and real estate agents can be very useful and earn their commission. Not always, especially when the same outcome can be accomplished without a realtor.
How Do I Sell My House Without An Agent in Bakersfield?
There are a few ways to avoid paying high commissions in your California sale.
First, there’s a tricky custom that you’ve gotta know about.
In most sales in Bakersfield, roughly half of the commission you pay as the seller goes to pay for the buyer’s broker.
Doesn’t make much sense, right?
Why should you pay for the agent on the other side of the table?
Truthfully, it defies logic – it’s just what’s typically done.
You can use that to your advantage in a few ways.
First, factor in the commissions paid when you’re looking at the comparable sales. If the properties similar to yours sold for prices that included commissions, take that into account. Particularly in today’s market, the seller is expected to pay for many concessions. Buyers do not want to pay for closing costs with the title company that could cost $10,000, or commissions that could easily cost $15,000. Additionally, many buyers will get close to a final sale and use that as leverage to make the seller pay for additional appliances, final touches to the house, and many other repairs that need to be taken care of. When everything is said and done, the seller oftentimes is still left to fix up their property and pay all expenses.
Don’t underprice your property – be aware that a savvy buyer may expect to take a discount too. If you’re doing the work of one agent, you can expect to save that money.
Sometimes in Bakersfield, buyers who aren’t represented by an agent won’t remember to negotiate the buyer’s side commission out of the price for themselves, so don’t remind them if you don’t want to pay them. Just don’t be surprised if it comes up during the negotiation.
You may want to consider offering 2.5% to buyer’s agents who will bring their clients to show your property. Sure, it’s a lot of money. If you’re pricing your property including that commission, you can always negotiate a better deal for a purchaser who comes without an agent.
On the other hand, if you don’t leave room for the buyer’s agent’s commission, you’ll be excluding most of the buyers in the market in Bakersfield.
Over 90% of transactions happen through the MLS – that’s the Multiple Listing Service. It’s the main database that all the brokers in Bakersfield use to access information for their clients on the houses, condos, land and investment properties for sale, along with data on the sold prices.
Once upon a time, you had to pay a full commission to get your property on the MLS. Now in Bakersfield, there are a few brokers who will charge you a fee just to list your property on the MLS. Often, you spend a few hundred bucks and you only pay a commission if the sale 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 major real estate search sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Yahoo Homes, etc. get data from the MLS. Chances are good that when you submit your listing in Bakersfield to the MLS, information on your property will end up on most of the 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. Sometimes open houses in Bakersfield California can be a great way to sell a property, and sometimes they’re a waste of time. Same with newspaper ads, craigslist postings, fancy signs – sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t.
To effectively sell your property on your own, you have to market it well.
Putting up fliers and signs around your neighborhood can generate some calls, and there’s a lot of free websites where you can post information. But often just putting up flyers and an open house isn’t enough if your house doesn’t appeal to the average home buyer. It will, however, appeal to many investors that are hoping to take advantage of you as someone looking to sell without representation. This is why it is so important to do your own research and know what makes a good deal for everyone involved.
In theory, real estate agents charge big commissions because they have to spend a lot of money up front to advertise your property. By advertising lots of properties at once, they expect to get more phone calls – and obviously, they’ll make good profits by selling lots of houses.
Certain properties might require thousands of dollars in advertising expenses before the right buyer happens to see the ad and call. This makes it reasonable for them to charge their commissions, but it is definitely not the only, or even the best way, to sell your house fast.
If you want to avoid paying any commissions, you can also sell your house to investors like us for CASH
We provide fair prices for properties – and we can close fast (sometimes in as little as 3-5 days if you need to).
Sometimes we’ll purchase Bakersfield houses, fix them up, then rent them out… sometimes we’ll fix them up and sell them to other people looking for great homes in the area, and a lot of other reasons, too – but we love to hear from people like you who are thinking of selling anywhere in California.
We’re investors who care a lot about Bakersfield. We aren’t just looking to make a quick buck, we are looking to help people make the best decision they can when it comes to something that can be very confusing and hard to understand for most people. We are here to help, not haggle. If you are looking for the best option that fits you and your situation, please give us a call or submit a form on our website and we will be sure to reach out and see how we can help you, even if that means we refer you to someone else that can help you better than we can!
If you do decide to work with us, we can close fast and pay cash in as little as just 3-5 days. Give us a call now at (661) 384-7021 or fill out the short form over here.