Has anyone bought or sold a home for sale by owner? What was your experience like?

i have heard it is very difficult....with paperwork and legalities and such!!! not worth it, or so i've heard!:(

We are doing it now. We are buying this house straight from the owner, making all payments for the next 30 or so years to him.
Our contract was simple and straight forward.
I think it depends on where you are and the requirements in your area.

I was also going to say depending on the area and also if you are going this route get in contact with a lawyer. He/she will know more about what has to be done, paperwork, etc...! :)

Hi - we have bought two homes for sale by owner in California and never had a problem. The escrow company does all of the paper work - and you can request an inspection report before you'll buy and they write that up in escrow or whatever special things you agree to with the buyer/seller. Today with the disclosure laws, owners/sellers have to disclose any known problems, and this is true whether they have a realtor or not. Course I'm not a realtor, and don't mean to step on anyone's toes, as I know they perform valuable services. Just that we didn't have a problem.

We've done both...bought and sold. It's not that difficult as the title companies do the searches and such. You just have to be diligent in making sure that you take care of all of your personal responsibilities.

One of my best friends bought a house for sale by owner and had no problems..
There is a web-site (I don't know the name of it sorry) that is for "for sale by owner" that goes over what you need to do and different paperwork that is needed BUT the morgage company will also tell you what you need to do to to buy a house, they require a lot of stuff like inspections, appriasals and those type things (to protect them which in turn protects you also) so I say if you find a for sale by owner that you like go for it, and keep in mind that the person selling the house has bought a house before and they can tell you also what you and they need to do..

Eileen

I think Eileen is talking about www.isoldmyhouse.com - I hear it advertised all the time on the radio.

Anyways, A girl I used to work with looked at a house that was FSBO, and gave the people a deposit on it. Well, the seller decided to sell the house to some other people and refuse to give my co-worker her money back. Last I knew, she had to bring this guy to court to get her money back.

Personally, I'd rather pay a realtor the 5% commision or whatever. There's no such thing as a gentleman's agreement with just a handshake anymore.

Laura