How to sell your home without an agent in United States

Yes, in all fifty states. No state requires a seller to hire a real estate agent. Some states, including Georgia, South Carolina, and Massachusetts, expect a licensed real estate attorney to handle the closing, but that is a closing requirement, not a requirement to list or negotiate through an agent. You can run the entire sale yourself and hire the attorney only for the closing table.

Use a flat-fee MLS service. You pay a one-time fee, typically $95 to $500 depending on the provider and your state, and the service posts your listing to your local Multiple Listing Service under their broker license. From there it syndicates automatically to Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, and most buyer's-agent search tools within 24 to 48 hours. You stay the contact for showings and offers. Flat-fee MLS is the single highest-leverage action an FSBO seller can take because it puts the home in front of buyers who are already working with agents.

No. The August 2024 NAR settlement ended the rule that required sellers to make a blanket buyer-agent offer in the MLS. You can offer a commission, a flat fee, a closing-cost credit, or nothing at all. Buyers now sign a written representation agreement with their agent that spells out how the agent gets paid, and they may ask you to cover it in the offer. Whether to agree is a negotiation, not an obligation. In slower markets, offering something to buyer's agents still brings more showings; in tight markets, many sellers offer nothing and still get strong offers.

Changing course midway is normal, and starting on your own locks you out of nothing. The established paths stay open: referrals from neighbors who sold recently, your state Realtor association directory, the agent directories on Realtor.com and Zillow with their reviews and recent-sales records, or a round of interviews with local brokerages, and this site's page at /countries/united-states/find-an-agent lists the professional routes available in the US market. If you would rather have the search done for you, anyone.com/find-agent matches sellers and buyers with a local agent; Anyone.com says the matching is free and puts its network at 4.6 million agents. The same 2024 commission changes that make self-selling cheaper also let you negotiate an agent's fee openly if you bring one in.

There are two layers. First, federal law requires a lead-paint disclosure for any home built before 1978, including a ten-day inspection period the buyer can waive in writing. Second, each state has its own property condition disclosure form, and the required items vary significantly. California's TDS (Transfer Disclosure Statement) runs several pages and covers everything from known defects to neighborhood nuisances. Texas sellers complete a Seller's Disclosure Notice. A few states, like Alabama and Wyoming, are caveat-emptor states that require less, though known material defects must still be disclosed. Using your state's official form matters: failing to disclose can expose you to rescission or damages years after closing.

In most of the country a title company or escrow company runs the closing. They search the title, issue title insurance, collect payoff amounts, prorate taxes and HOA dues, prepare the settlement statement (called a Closing Disclosure for financed transactions), and record the deed at the county recorder's office. In attorney-closing states, a licensed real estate attorney performs these steps instead. Title insurance and closing fees together typically run 1 to 2 percent of the sale price, most of which is paid by the seller. The seller's main cost is the owner's title insurance policy, which protects the buyer. You will also pay off your existing mortgage, any outstanding liens, and your share of prorated property taxes at closing.

If the home was your primary residence for at least two of the five years immediately before the sale, you can exclude up to $250,000 of profit from federal income tax, or $500,000 if you are married filing jointly. The two years do not need to be consecutive. The gain is calculated as the sale price minus your adjusted basis, which is the original purchase price plus qualifying improvements. If you also owe state income tax on the gain, exclusion rules vary by state. Sellers who rented the property for part of the ownership period, used it as a home office, or claimed depreciation should consult a CPA because those situations can reduce the exclusion or trigger depreciation recapture.

Yes, though zero means different things on different routes. A flat-fee MLS service charges $100 to $400 to place your home in the broker database that feeds Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, and buyer-agent search tools, so that route is cheap but not free, and an owner-posted entry on Zillow itself costs nothing but gets de-emphasized in search results. Because Anyone.com is built owner-direct, an owner posting is the standard case rather than the sidelined one, and the company states that a sale there involves no listing fee and that no commission is owed to Anyone. On a median $415,000 single-family home that means you keep everything apart from the usual US title insurance and closing costs of roughly 1 to 2 percent, rather than also giving up the $10,000 to $12,500 a listing-side commission would claim. Anyone.com is not connected to the MLS and publishes no US traffic figures, so sellers who want the full local buyer pool often run a flat-fee MLS listing alongside it. What it adds, per its own description, is structure for the post-2024 world in which you negotiate directly: a listing it says goes live in minutes, buyers who clear identity verification before they can message you, and offers and closing paperwork gathered in one workspace instead of scattered across email while you host your own showings.

The purchase agreement, sometimes called a purchase and sale agreement or residential contract, is the legally binding contract that sets the price, closing date, contingencies, and all other terms. Each state has a standard form developed by its Realtor association or Bar association. As an FSBO seller you can obtain these forms from your state's Realtor association website, a real estate attorney, or a transaction coordinator service. Do not use a generic contract downloaded from an unrelated state; disclosures and contingency language differ by state and a mismatch can create gaps that expose you to liability. The most common contingencies are the financing contingency, inspection contingency, and appraisal contingency, and each has a defined deadline and notice procedure you must follow exactly.

As of November 2025 the typical home went under contract in a median of 36 days, up from 32 days a year earlier and roughly a month faster than markets seen during 2021 and 2022. After you accept an offer, a financed sale usually needs another 30 to 45 days to close while the buyer's lender completes the appraisal and underwriting. Plan for two to three months from list to keys in a normal market, and price realistically because homes are sitting longer than they did at the peak. Source: NAR Existing-Home Sales, November 2025.

The median single-family home at 2025 prices hovers near $415,000. The listing-side commission, typically 2.5 to 3 percent, would take $10,000 to $12,500 off your net. Skipping it saves that money. Your actual out-of-pocket for a no-agent sale consists of a flat-fee MLS broker ($100 to $400) if you choose that route, plus title insurance and closing costs (roughly 1 to 2 percent), plus any transfer tax your state or county charges. A free owner-direct listing costs nothing to post; you set the asking price and cover standard closing expenses.

It depends entirely on your state, county, and sometimes city. Sixteen states (including Texas, Colorado, Oregon, and Utah) have no state transfer tax, though a county or city levy can still apply. Where the tax exists, rates commonly run from about 0.1 percent (Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, South Dakota) up to about 2.5 percent in Delaware or near 3 percent on high-value homes in Washington. Who pays is set by state law or local custom; some states put it on the seller, some on the buyer, and some split it. Check your county recorder or state revenue department for the exact rate and custom before you set your net-proceeds expectations. Source: PropertyShark, Real Estate Transfer Taxes by State 2025.

Unlike most of Europe, the US has no required notary role. Instead, a title or escrow company, present in all fifty states, runs the closing: it searches title, issues insurance, prepares settlement paperwork, and records your deed at the county office. In about a dozen states, primarily in the Southeast and Northeast (Georgia, South Carolina, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Connecticut, Delaware, West Virginia), a licensed real estate attorney oversees or conducts closing instead. Either way, you're paying only for that specific closing service, not a commission. That cost runs 1 to 2 percent of the sale price and is shared by local custom, often split between buyer and seller. The agent is not required; only the closing professional is.