Do I need a Realtor to sell my house?

A skilled real estate agent can help you sell your home, likely more quickly and for more money than if you tried to do it on your own. On the other hand, most agents charge a commission based on the home’s purchase price, which eats into your proceeds from the sale. Let’s look into all the pros and cons of using an agent to handle your home sale.

Do you need a real estate agent to sell a house?

No. Home sellers are not required by law to use a real estate agent, broker or Realtor (a Realtor is simply an agent who is also a member of the National Association of Realtors, or NAR). Depending on the situation, the services these professionals offer could also be accomplished by a savvy seller.

That said, a “for sale by owner” transaction, in which you act as your own agent, requires time, know-how and confidence. If you’re not sure you have all the skills required, enlisting the services of a licensed professional who knows the ins and outs of your local market can definitely pay off. According to NAR’s most recent Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 90 percent of home sellers do hire an agent.

Why it pays to work with an agent

Working with an agent brings a lot of benefits to home sellers. Among them:

• Optimal pricing: “A good agent can help determine what your optimal list price should be,” says Rick Sharga of real estate advisory firm CJ Patrick Company. In addition, an agent can “advise on whether you’d be better off starting at the top of the market and having some room to negotiate down, or beginning at a lower price to entice more people to make offers and bid against each other to drive your price higher,” he says.
• MLS access: Agents have access to your area’s multiple listing service (MLS), a database that compiles the listings in a given area for other real estate professionals. Popular sites like Zillow syndicate listings from the MLS. “An agent can place your home in your regional MLS, which will broadcast your home for sale to other websites with massive audiences,” says Chuck Vander Stelt, a Realtor in northwest Indiana and founder of the real estate website Quadwalls. “This gives you the best chance to get the offer you want.”
• Marketing expertise: When you use an agent, you’ll have a pro who’s committed to marketing, staging and showing your home — both to buyers and to other agents. “You’ll receive professional advice on what to include and what to leave out of your listing, as well as what kinds of pictures and videos to take,” says Rajeh Saadeh, a real estate attorney based in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Your agent might stage the home themselves or with a pro, which could help attract more buyers, as well as hosting open houses and private showings. An agent can also help distinguish bona fide buyers from those who are “just looking” or not serious about making an offer.
• Knowledge of required disclosures: Importantly, agents are also fully versed in all of the disclosures sellers need to make in a real estate transaction. The laws for what is required can vary widely by state. For example, you might need to disclose the presence of lead paint, the existence of water damage or even if there was a recent death in the home. The nature, formality (written statement or not) and timing of the disclosures vary as well, and part of the agent’s responsibility is to make sure you’re in compliance.

Drawbacks of working with an agent

• Commissions: The biggest drawback to working with a real estate agent is that they don’t work for free — in most cases, they’ll earn a commission based on the sale price of your home. That means the more your house sells for, the more money they make. The fee is traditionally between 2.5 and 3 percent, but it can be as low as 1 percent among discount brokers. An agent’s fee can eat up a serious chunk of your sale proceeds: For example, a 3 percent commission on a $400,000 sale comes to $12,000.
• Contracts: Buyers who work with a Realtor will need to enter into a written agreement beforehand, in which they agree to work exclusively with that agent for a set amount of time. “A listing agreement with the agent means you’ll be forced to work with this person for a set time, indicated in the agreement, unless the agent agrees to let you out of the contract,” says Saadeh. The agreement will also spell out the Realtor’s rate of compensation.
• Less control: Some sellers are turned off by the idea of someone else making choices on their behalf. “Your agent may be aggressive about making the bulk of the decisions about your sale price, timing, marketing strategies, staging, negotiations and, in some cases, selection of third-party vendors,” says Sharga.

Money-saving alternatives

If you’re hoping to avoid paying that commission fee, there are other ways to sell a house besides using a traditional listing agent.

For sale by owner (FSBO)

Instead of listing your home with the help of an agent, you could sell the property yourself. As of 2024, 6 percent of home sales were sold by their owners, according to NAR.

With the FSBO route, however, there’s the potential for your home to not make a splash on the market, either due to a lack of marketing prowess or an inappropriate price. This can hurt your chances of a quick and lucrative sale.

“The success rates of finding a buyer [this way], as opposed to using a traditional real estate agent, largely depends on the marketing skills of the seller, their availability to respond to interested buyers and their flexibility to work with buyers,” says Saadeh.

Sharga agrees: “There’s some risk in trying and failing at FSBO,” he says. “Agents and buyers often notice when a property has been offered by the owner and pulled back from the market. That can sometimes lead to the home being more difficult to sell at full market value.”

Discount brokers

Going with a discount broker to save some money is another option. “But most discount brokers will place your home on the MLS and not much more,” says Vander Stelt. “Some offer additional services à la carte, or based on an hourly rate. This gets your home in front of a large audience, but you are left on your own to manage everything else.”

iBuyers and cash-for-homes firms

A third option is to sell your home directly to an iBuyer, like Offerpad or Opendoor. These companies make a sale fast and easy — but they come with a caveat.

“The benefits are speed and certainty: There’s no need to go through the hassle of staging, listing and hosting open houses,” says Sharga. “However, iBuyer offers are always below full market value, since they need to buy, repair and resell the home at a profit. So you won’t get top dollar for your home.”

You could also work with a cash-homebuying company. These businesses — some are local, some are part of national chains — also specialize in purchasing homes quickly, with all-cash deals. However, like iBuyers, they won’t offer top dollar.

Should I sell my house without an agent?

Debating whether to hire a real estate agent or not? Ask yourself these key questions first:

• Do you have a solid grasp of your home’s value? A real estate agent will look at comps — similar recently sold properties in your neighborhood — to get a sense of how much a home is worth. However, there’s nothing stopping you from doing the same. If you have an understanding of what other places like yours have sold for, you might have a good starting point for selling your home without an agent.
• How much time are you willing to commit? Selling a house requires a lot of effort. Taking professional-quality photos, creating and marketing the listing, scheduling and hosting viewings and preparing plenty of paperwork are just a few of the many duties you’ll need to handle when you do it yourself. If you have an open calendar and some marketing expertise, you might have a leg up.
• How comfortable are you with uncomfortable conversations? A home is a very valuable asset. Remember, though, that a buyer wants to score a good deal, and they probably have an agent negotiating on their behalf. If you’re not a skilled negotiator, you could lose out. Homeowners might also let sentimental attachment cloud their judgement, especially if they’ve raised a family there. An agent won’t let emotion get in the way of a good deal.

Bottom line

A real estate agent’s commission fee can cut into the money you make on the sale of your home, and it’s possible for well-prepared sellers to successfully sell their home on their own. Still, you get what you pay for. “During [the height of] COVID-19, I thought hard about cutting my own hair — but I sure was happy when the barbershop opened up again,” says Vander Stelt. “Just because you can sell your home yourself doesn’t mean you should.”

“You need to honestly decide if you have the time and the knowledge necessary to accurately price, expertly stage and market your property, as well as effectively negotiate with buyers and their agents,” says Sharga.

Additional reporting by David McMillin