How to Sell a House By Owner in Louisiana: A Pelican State FSBO Guide
Selling without an agent? Read this comprehensive guide on how to sell a house by owner in Louisiana for a successful FSBO transaction.
Some Louisiana home sellers looking to skip real estate agent commissions consider the idea of For Sale by Owner (FSBO — pronounced fizz-bow). By handling everything from pricing and marketing to negotiations, they’re able to avoid fees in a traditional home sale and maintain control over the home sale process.
It’s not a popular route: FSBOs only represent 6% of home sales in 2023. Part of the reason is that this selling approach comes with unique challenges, which is why it’s important for homeowners to familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of how to sell a house by owner in Louisiana.
In this guide to selling FSBO in Louisiana, we’ll walk you through the steps of selling by owner in the Pelican State, including some of the difficult aspects of the sale, so you can better prepare yourself. We’ll also provide a comprehensive overview of the full process of preparing, marketing, and closing on your home without the assistance of a real estate agent.
Feeling Overwhelmed by the Process of Listing Your Home FSBO in Louisiana?
If you don’t have the time or the expertise to list your home FSBO, working with a top agent in Louisiana could be your best bet. HomeLight analyzes over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to find you the best agent for your unique situation.
Note: Once you’ve seen what’s required, you can roll up your sleeves and get started with your FSBO sale. Or — in the event you’d prefer to work with a real estate agent — HomeLight would be happy to introduce you to highly-rated professionals in your Louisiana market who can help you command top dollar and provide a low-stress selling experience.
How does selling by owner (FSBO) work in Louisiana?
Disclaimer: This blog post is intended for educational purposes only. HomeLight recommends that you look into the real estate regulations for your area and consult a trusted advisor.
FSBO is a method of selling your home without the involvement of a listing agent. In a FSBO scenario, the seller assumes the responsibilities that would normally fall to their agent, such as pricing the home, marketing it to potential buyers, arranging showings, and negotiating the deal.
Agent commissions
For decades, the seller has been responsible for paying agent commissions, which typically range from 5% to 6% of the home’s sale price in an agent-assisted sale. This fee was split between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent. Recently, however, agent commission rules have changed following the historic National Association of Realtors® lawsuit settlement.
Under the new commission structure, sellers are no longer required to pay their buyer’s agent’s fee, as buyers are expected to negotiate directly with their agents. Thus, sellers working with an agent only have to cover their listing agent’s fee, which is about 2.5% to 3% of the home’s sale price, depending on negotiations.
But while these new rules aim to reduce fees, some sellers still feel the need to cover the buyer’s agent’s fees to entice more buyers or expedite a sale. Thus, if you partner with a realtor, you may be looking at paying a commission of 3% (your listing agent’s fee) to 6% (your listing agent’s fee and your buyer’s agent’s fee) of the home’s sale price.
Commission savings
By selling FSBO, you can eliminate the cost of the agent commissions since you won’t have a listing agent, and paying for the buyer’s agent’s fee is only an option. But if you do decide to cover that, you’ll only pay around 2.5% to 3% of the home’s sale price, saving you a good chunk of money.
Even with new commission rules in place and in a FSBO transaction, buyer’s agents expect compensation for the work they do to bring a buyer to a sale, such as arranging showings and helping to tee up and qualify the buyer. Plus, when a seller isn’t working with an agent, the buyer’s agent may end up carrying more of the weight to get the deal to the finish line.
Next: Consult our guide on who pays closing costs when selling a house by owner for more details.
A FSBO sale does not mean that a seller won’t need any professional assistance. While Louisiana doesn’t require a real estate attorney at closing, FSBO sales typically warrant legal and professional oversight of some kind to avoid an abundance of legal risk.
Most people who sell by owner will need to hire an attorney to review and prepare key documents and make sure paperwork is filled out properly, such as the seller’s disclosures. We’ll address what disclosures are required when selling a house in Louisiana later in this post.
