How to Sell a House by Owner in Oklahoma: Your OK FSBO Guide

When the time comes to move, some tenacious homeowners are eager to take over the reins of their home sale and figure out how to sell a house by owner in Oklahoma.

Some homeowners in Oklahoma choose to sell their property without a realtor to keep more cash in their pockets. They prefer handling things on their own rather than paying a commission fee. Others are motivated by the desire for more control over the entire process, from setting the price to negotiating directly with buyers.

While the “For Sale By Owner” or FSBO (pronounced “fizz-bo”)  route offers money savings and lets you call the shots, it’s not all smooth sailing. You could run into marketing challenges and legal troubles if you’re not familiar with the process. It could be the reason it’s not a popular selling approach: only 6% of home sales represented FSBOs in 2024.

Unsure About Selling FSBO in Oklahoma

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If you’re determined to sell your home without a realtor, refer to this guide to selling FSBO in Oklahoma, covering the most difficult aspects of the transaction. We provide a comprehensive overview of the full process of preparing, marketing, and closing on your home without the assistance of a real estate agent.

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 Oklahoma market who can help you command top dollar and provide a low-stress selling experience.

How does selling by owner (FSBO) work in Oklahoma?

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, arranging showings, and negotiating the deal. This primarily enables sellers to save on commission fees.

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 a traditional 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. If you decide to cover the buyer’s agent’s fee, you’ll only pay around 2.5% to 3% of the home’s sale price, still 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. In Oklahoma, sellers are required to hire a real estate attorney, at least for the title examination phase. Plus, 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 Oklahoma later in this post.

Why sell a house by owner in Oklahoma?

The top reasons people cite for selling FSBO include selling to a relative, friend, or neighbor (38%) and avoiding agent commission or fee (30%).

To get a firsthand perspective about selling homes in Oklahoma, we spoke with Brett Boone in Oklahoma City who has almost two decades of real estate experience.

We also spoke with Melissa Smith, a top real estate agent in Tulsa, who sells homes faster than 64% of other agents in her area.

Boone says that the Oklahoma FSBO sellers he encounters usually start from the same place. “They want to save [on] commission. They’re calculating their sales price with no [real estate agent] commission and calculating their sales price with the commission. And it just stops there.”

While FSBO offers savings, it sells less than those sold with the help of an agent. Recent data from the National Association of Realtors® shows that FSBO homes sold at a median price of $380,000 in 2023, significantly lower than the median of agent-assisted homes, which was $435,000.

As you can see, FSBO is a mixed bag. So, before we share our selling tips, let’s lay out some pros and cons to help you decide if this is the route for you.

Pros of selling a house by owner

• You can save on listing agent commission fees, usually around 3% of the sale price.
• You’re completely in charge and can manage the sale as you please.
• You can directly communicate with buyers.

Cons of selling a house by owner

• You may sell your home for less.
• You may wait longer for the home to sell unless you already have a buyer lined up. Without an agent’s expertise, FSBO listings tend to have limited exposure.
• You manage all communications and negotiations yourself, which is time-consuming. Not having a communication buffer can be a downside if the buyer pushes back or says negative things about your property.
• You’ll be negotiating without help from an expert, which could mean leaving money on the table.
• You may find it difficult to set the listing price right, as you’re tempted to go too high or, on the other hand, risk under-selling with a low price.
• You may have a hard time marketing your home, especially when you don’t have the knowledge and skills to use online platforms.
• You’ll still have selling costs, which may include transfer taxes and settlement fees. Not having agent representation could also lead to paying more in seller concessions.

Despite the cons, we’ll help you navigate the challenges of FSBO if you’re committed to selling your Oklahoma house without agent assistance.

Steps to sell a house by owner

Next, let’s review the FSBO process step by step.

1. Prepare your house for sale

Whether you’re selling with an agent or FSBO, at a minimum, you’ll want to get your Oklahoma home into respectable shape before any showings to increase your chances of receiving a fair price. Here are a few standard tasks to add to the list.

Indoors

These efforts will go a long way toward impressing buyers looking for a home in Oklahoma: