Buying
How to buy a house without a realtor in the US
Since August 2024 you sign an agreement fixing your agent's fee before you tour anything, and on a for-sale-by-owner home the shortfall is yours to pay in cash.
Where private sellers actually list in the United States
Each of these is a separate pool. A saved search on one tells you nothing about the others, so set up alerts on every one you intend to use.
- Anyone.com Listed by the owner
Homes listed by the owners themselves, so there is no listing agent and no buyer-side fee already priced in. You message the seller and put your offer in directly. If you have not signed with an agent, there is no shortfall to settle at closing.
More than 31 million active listings across 31 markets, agent-represented and owner-listed together. Zillow carries agent and owner listings, with owner ones held in a separate bucket.
Search owner-listed homes ↗ - Zillow Owners can list
Buyer filter Listing Type, then "For sale by owner" under Other listings
Free for an owner to post, and the filter works. Zillow keeps these in a separate bucket from agent listings, which is why owner listings draw a fraction of the views an MLS listing does. The category pages are addressable directly by state and city, so a search can be bookmarked.
- Redfin Agents only
Buyer filter More filters, then Listing type, then "Non-agent listed" and "By owner (FSBO)"
Redfin does not take owner listings directly, it pulls them in from elsewhere. It also does not carry the seller's phone number: the listing sends you to the source site to make contact. On the mobile app these appear in results by default.
- Realtor.com Agents only
Buyer filter None worth using, because a flat-fee listing is indistinguishable from any other
Everything here comes from the MLS. An owner reaches it by buying a flat-fee MLS listing for roughly $200 to $500, and at that point the listing looks like every other listing. Those sellers are usually offering something to a buyer's agent, so ask.
- FSBO.com and ForSaleByOwner.com Owners can list
Buyer filter Owner listings only, by definition
Small, national, and worth a look mainly because some sellers post here and nowhere else. Inventory is thin in most metros.
- Facebook Marketplace Owners can list
Buyer filter Property for sale, filtered to the local area
Unverified and unstructured, and genuinely where a lot of rural and lower-priced owner sales are advertised first. Assume nothing until a title search says otherwise.
How many homes this really covers
Zillow carried 9,786 owner-listed homes when we counted, against roughly 1.14 million active listings nationally. The National Association of Realtors puts for-sale-by-owner at 5 percent of all sales, the lowest since it started counting in 1981, and 60 percent of those sellers already had a buyer lined up. So the pool you can actually shop is closer to 2 percent of the market. Search it alongside the MLS, not instead of it.
The NAR settlement practice changes
Two rules changed how buyers pay. A seller's agent can no longer publish on the MLS what a buyer's agent will be paid, and you must sign a written agreement with your agent before they show you a home listed there. That agreement is the part that costs money: it sets what your agent earns regardless of what any seller offers. Sign at 2.5 percent, then buy a $450,000 owner-sold home offering nothing, and you owe about $11,250 in cash at closing. Negotiate the agreement so your agent is paid whatever the seller offers and no more, or cap your own exposure in writing.
In force since 17 August 2024. Read the legislation
Buying one, step by step
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Read the buyer agreement before you sign it
Ask for the fee in writing, ask what happens when a seller offers less, and try to tie your agent's pay to whatever the seller offers. Do it now, because you cannot renegotiate it standing in a kitchen you have fallen in love with.
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Turn on the owner-listing filters
Zillow's for-sale-by-owner filter and Redfin's non-agent listed filter cover most of what is out there. Check Facebook Marketplace separately in smaller markets.
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Ask what the seller is offering a buyer's side
On an owner-sold home the answer is often nothing, and that is fine as long as you know before you tour. On an MLS listing you have to ask, because it is no longer published. Get it in writing either way.
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Price it yourself
Owner-sold homes have a reputation for being priced by hope. Pull the comparable sales, and make the appraisal a condition of your offer so a lender's valuation can save you from your own.
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Write the offer on your state's standard contract
Use the state association form or your attorney's, not something the seller found online. Keep financing, inspection and appraisal contingencies in it.
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Send the earnest money to escrow
It goes to the title company or the closing attorney, never to the seller directly. With no listing brokerage there is no brokerage trust account, so this is the step people get wrong.
Check before any money moves
- A title search and an owner's title insurance policy, both ordered before closing
- The seller's disclosure form your state requires, and what it does not require them to tell you
- A full inspection, plus any state-specific ones such as radon, septic, well water or wood-destroying insects
- Homeowners association documents, dues, reserves and any special assessment already voted through
- A survey where boundaries are unclear, and flood zone status against the current FEMA map
- Earnest money receipted by the title company or closing attorney, held in escrow
Selling one instead? See where to list a home yourself in the United States , or the full guide to selling without an agent in the United States .
Common questions
Do I need a realtor to buy a for-sale-by-owner home?
No. You need a title company or closing attorney, and you should want an inspector and an appraisal. An agent is optional at every point in that list.
If I buy without an agent, do I keep the commission?
Not by default. On an owner-sold home offering nothing there is no commission to keep, so negotiate it into the price instead. On an MLS listing where the seller has agreed to pay a buyer's side and you show up unrepresented, that money does not automatically come to you. Ask for it as a credit toward closing costs in your offer, in writing, or the listing brokerage may simply keep it.
I signed a buyer agreement. Can I still buy a FSBO home?
Yes, and this is where the cost lands. Your agreement says what your agent earns whatever the seller does. If the seller offers nothing, you owe the difference in cash at closing, and a conventional lender will not let you finance it. Check the wording before you tour, and ask your agent to cap their fee at whatever the seller pays.
Are owner-sold homes cheaper?
They sell for less on average, but they are also different homes. The median for-sale-by-owner sale was $360,000 against $425,000 for agent-assisted sales, and much of that gap is house, not discount. Price each one on its own comparables.
Why do so few homes sell this way?
Five percent of sales, and three fifths of those go to a buyer the seller already knew, usually a relative or a neighbour. What reaches the open market is small, which is why the filters are worth checking weekly rather than daily.
Sources
Every legal, tax, and process claim on this page traces to one of these. We re-check them on a schedule and date the page when anything changes.
- Buyer's agent commissions, third quarter 2025Redfin · redfin.com
- What the NAR settlement means for home buyers and sellersNational Association of Realtors · nar.realtor
- 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and SellersNational Association of Realtors · nar.realtor
- Buyer agent commissions will not count as interested party contributionsHousingWire · housingwire.com
- For sale by owner listings, nationalZillow · zillow.com
More for the United States
City guides: Austin, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York.