Images by Getty Images; Illustration by Austin Courregé/Bankrate
Key takeaways
- Using a Realtor to sell a home in New Jersey is not a requirement, but going it alone takes a lot of time and work.
- The ‘for sale by owner’ approach eliminates having to pay a commission fee to a listing agent. But you may still be required to pay your buyer’s agent.
- When selling a home in New Jersey, you must disclose any material facts that impact the home’s value.
Working with a real estate agent is a common approach to selling a home, but it’s not your only option. If you’re selling a home in New Jersey, you could choose to do the work of marketing your property, hosting open houses and even negotiating a deal with a buyer, all on your own.
This approach is known as “for sale by owner” or FSBO, and it’s a choice that eliminates the cost of a listing agent’s commission (since you’re not using one). But it’s also a lot of work, and you’ll need to understand the Garden State’s laws and regulations surrounding real estate transactions. Here’s what to know about how to sell a house by owner in New Jersey.
Selling a house without a Realtor in New Jersey
If you choose to sell a home on your own in New Jersey, be prepared for the work that’s involved at each step of the process. Here are some key steps you’ll need to take:
Create a listing
One of the initial steps in the home sale process is creating the listing. A compelling listing helps attract prospective buyers and should highlight the home’s most noteworthy features, while also covering basic details such as the home’s total square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and lot size. Information about any upgrades you’ve completed, such as remodeling the kitchen or installing solar panels, should also be included.
Photos are also essential to a home listing. Prospective buyers will be scrolling through homes online, and top-quality images that catch their eye can make a big difference. You might even hire a professional real estate photographer to help present your home in the best light possible.
The most critical factor of any home listing is its asking price: How much is your home worth? When developing this figure, research local comps to come up with a competitive price that makes sense for your area. As of April 2024, the median home price in New Jersey was $510,700, according to Redfin — but that amount varies considerably depending on where in the state you’re located. For example, in Vineland the median is just $258,500, but in Montclair it’s over $1 million. As you work to come up with a list price, look carefully at what similar homes nearby are selling for so you can set realistic expectations.
Market your property
After completing your listing, it’s time to start marketing. Word of mouth and social media are good places to start, but to get your listing maximum exposure, consider paying to get it listed on the local multiple listing service (MLS) using a flat fee service like Houzeo, Sundae or NJ Real Estate Boutique. Homes listed on the MLS will also be automatically syndicated to consumer listing portals like Zillow and Realtor.com.
Next, it’s time to start hosting open houses or showing your home to prospective buyers via appointment. If all goes well, this phase will be followed by offers to buy your home. Keep in mind that it may take a month or longer before you have an offer — Redfin’s April data shows that homes in New Jersey spend a median of 33 days on the market before going under contract.
Close the deal
Are you comfortable with the negotiation process? As a FSBO seller, you’ll need to negotiate with prospective buyers to reach a deal you’re both happy with — a job usually done by a licensed real estate agent. If you have little experience negotiating a significant financial transaction, this stage can be a bit overwhelming, so make sure you know your minimum acceptable price.
Once a deal is reached, the next step is preparing a purchase contract. This can be a legally complex step, and without an agent to guide you, you may want to hire a real estate attorney to handle this task. A thorough and properly drafted contract is crucial in order to protect your interests, especially when there’s so much money at stake. An attorney can also be very helpful in making sure all your closing paperwork is in order.
Required disclosures for New Jersey home sellers
When selling a home without a Realtor in New Jersey, it’s important to understand your responsibility for state-required disclosures. State “common law” rules exist to protect buyers from sellers who are not fully transparent about important facts related to the home, or who go so far as to actively hide information about the property. As a result, sellers who do not reveal important information about a home could be sued by a buyer for non-disclosure of material facts.
The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs offers a Seller’s Property Condition Disclosure Statement, and while filling it out for your buyer is not required by law, doing so is a good way to protect yourself.
If the property is part of a homeowners association, you’ll also need to provide the buyer with documentation about the HOA’s bylaws, finances and more.
Pros and cons of selling a house by owner in New Jersey
Pros
- Save money: When selling a home without a listing agent, you save what you would have paid that agent in commission fees. That can amount to a lot of money: A 2.5 percent commission on a median-priced $510,700 New Jersey home comes to more than $12,000.
- More control: Selling on your own means you make all the decisions. You don’t have an agent telling you what to do, or not to do — you can do everything exactly as you like.
- Your timeline: Most real estate agents juggle multiple clients at once, so the timeline of your home sale is tied to their schedule. By selling on your own, you’re not waiting on anyone but yourself; you’re in control of how quickly or slowly things take place.
Cons
- More work: Selling a home on your own is not for the faint of heart. You will be doing all the work a pro agent would normally do, from creating the listing to coordinating showings to negotiating the terms of the final deal.
- No professional guidance: Real estate agents are licensed pros with extensive market knowledge, training and expertise. When you go solo, you forgo all of this useful guidance.
- Potentially less profit: An inexperienced negotiator might leave money on the table without even realizing it. In addition, data from the National Association of Realtors shows that FSBO owners often pocket less from the sale of a home than homeowners who worked with an agent — nearly $100,000 less in 2023, according to its most recent study.
FAQs
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No. Neither sellers nor buyers are required to engage a lawyer for a real estate transaction in New Jersey. However, the expertise of a lawyer can be extremely helpful when navigating such a significant financial transaction, especially for sellers who don’t have an agent representing them. It’s smart for FSBO sellers to hire legal counsel to make sure their interests are protected.
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A small mountain of paperwork goes into a real estate sale, starting with the purchase contract and ending with the final signature on the closing documents. Negotiations typically take place in writing, and if the buyer is financing the purchase there will be plenty of paperwork from their lender too. If the seller has an existing mortgage to be paid off before the sale closes, there will be paperwork surrounding that as well. And, while New Jersey does not legally require a home seller to fill out the state’s disclosure statement, doing so is generally recommended.
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