Buying a home straight from the seller — no listing agent in the middle — can work out fine. But there's nobody watching out for you unless you make sure somebody is. These are the questions I hear most about for-sale-by-owner deals, and the straight answers.
What's the number one thing that kills FSBO deals?
A contract with no real deadlines. Without them, the deal drifts — the seller takes three weeks to answer, the title work sits, and six weeks in somebody walks. Deadlines are what keep both sides moving, and in a FSBO nobody sets them unless you insist on it. Your title company puts them in the contract, and I keep the loan side on schedule: 727-688-2851.
How do I know the title is actually clean?
That's exactly what title work is for. The title company searches the records for liens, judgments, old claims — anything that says somebody else has a piece of this house. FSBO sellers sometimes don't know about a problem, or can't clear it up. You find out through the title search, before closing — never after. My loan can't close without clean title anyway: 727-688-2851.
What happens if the appraisal comes in low?
Then the house isn't worth what the contract says it is — and your lender won't loan more than it's worth. Three options:
- The seller lowers the price
- You bring the difference in cash
- You walk
The fourth option is the one that kills deals — a contract with no financing contingency, where walking costs you your deposit. This is why the contract has to be written right: 727-688-2851.
Can you actually catch these things before I'm stuck?
That's the whole point of this article. In forty years I've seen most of it, and right now I'm doing exactly this for two FSBO buyers — reading every line before it becomes the reason the deal dies.
Call me first, not after: 727-688-2851.
Debbie Cooley-Guy, NMLS #210817 — 727-688-2851