How to Sell a House Without a Realtor in Minnesota

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  Written by Alex Long

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  Edited by Lindsay Stefan

Should I sell without a realtor? | Cost of selling FSBO | How to sell without a realtor | FSBO paperwork | Best alternative: discount realtors | FAQs

Selling your home without a realtor means you won’t have to pay a listing commission, which in Minnesota averages 2.7% of the sale price. Considering a typical Minnesota house is worth about $308,000, that’s a savings of $8,408.

However, trying to sell a home For Sale by Owner (FSBO) can be tough. It will cost you a lot of time and energy.

In the end, selling a house without a real estate agent isn’t worth it for most homeowners in Minnesota. Especially considering there are low commission real estate companies that offer professional assistance for a lower cost. 

If you’re considering FSBO in Minnesota, read on to find out everything you need to know to do it successfully.

Should I sell my house without a realtor?

Selling a house for sale by owner in Minnesota comes with many pros and cons. While it’s not recommended for everyone, FSBO can help experienced home sellers save on commission—but only if they know what they’re doing. 

✅Selling your home without a realtor might be right for you if…

• You want to save on commission
• You have plenty of time to take on the responsibilities of a real estate agent
• You already have a buyer lined up 
• You’re in a hot seller’s market and you have a desirable home

🚫 Selling without a realtor might not be right for you if…

• You don’t have a lot of free time
• You’ve never sold a home in Minnesota
• You want to sell for market value – or higher

If you’re still not sure, check out our thorough guide to selling FSBO to help you decide. If you’re open to other options, some low-commission real estate companies, like Clever Real Estate, allow you to work with a top local real estate agent at half the typical cost.

Cost of selling a house without a realtor in Minnesota

Below, you’ll find a list of prices for common services you might want to consider if you decide to sell without a realtor. However, know that if your home is in need of repairs or is in a buyer’s market, you might need to spend a lot more to prep and market your property.

💸 Common costs for FSBO sellers

Appraisal	$340 to $396	To price your home more accurately
Photography	$150	To compete with homes listed by agents
Staging	$1,000	To stand out to local buyers
Real estate attorney	$300 per hour	To assist with paperwork, contracts, and legal requirements
Flat fee MLS listing	$200 to $1,000	To get listed on the MLS
Buyer’s agent commission	2.7% of sale price	To compensate the agent that represents the buyer (it’s customary for the seller to pay)

Overall, on average, it costs 7.5% of the home price to sell by owner and about 10% of the home price to sell with a real estate agent. However, the amount you’ll actually save will depend on repairs you need to make, concessions, and other expenses.

Use our calculator to get an idea of how much you can expect to spend if you sell without a realtor.

If you’re considering selling without a realtor in Minnesota, check out our friends at Clever Real Estate. Clever eliminates all the hassles and headaches of FSBO while helping you pay less than you would for a traditional realtor.

In Minnesota, sellers pay an average of 2.7% to a listing agent. Considering the median home value in Minnesota is $308,000, that amounts to $8,408. But with Clever, you can sell with a top local agent for just 1.5%, letting you keep more of your home’s equity in your pocket.

7 steps to sell a home in Minnesota without a realtor

Selling a home without a realtor involves many of the same steps as selling with one, except you’re on your own. To learn more about the basic steps to sell, read our simple, 12-step guide to selling a house. 

For Minnesota FSBO sellers, here’s what you need to know.

1. Get your home ready to sell

So you’re selling a home in Minnesota without a realtor? Great! The first thing you need to do is get everything in shape to sell. This means:

• Painting the house a neutral color
• Fixing small, visible issues inside and out
• Packing away all personal items and clutter
• Addressing any evidence of water damage or pests

Try to avoid big-ticket fixes, since it can be hard to get your money back on those. But, if something’s going to chase away buyers, it needs to be addressed.

Once the house is prepped, you can stage it for showings and listing photos. You can do these things yourself, or pay a professional if you’re not up to it. The average Minnesota photographer costs about $140 and a stager costs about $1,529.

If your home needs too much work to sell to a typical buyer, you might consider selling to a cash buyer. You can quickly compare cash buyer offers against your home’s value on the open market with Clever Offers. Try it for free with no obligation.

2. Price your home accurately

Price your listing based on what the market will support, not what you’re hoping to make from the sale. It can be tempting to pick a number based on what you’re hoping to walk away with, but buyers don’t care about your financial goals, so you need to price your Minnesota FSBO with them in mind.

Mispricing your home doesn’t just mean it will sit longer on the market — it could also cost you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on your final sale price.

To avoid this costly mistake, use tried-and-true strategies like the ones below to get the most out of your sale.

Get a comparative market analysis (CMA)

A comparative market analysis is the most common tool real estate professionals use to determine a home’s list price. Doing so requires locating comparable homes, or “comps,” that sold recently in your market and using those to estimate a range of value for your home.

You can do this analysis yourself, but be wary of personal bias. It can be tempting to pick the highest-priced comps in your area, even when they aren’t a great match.

A better option is probably hiring an objective third party, like a flat fee MLS company, to do the analysis for you. That way you can trust the numbers are based on logic and not personal bias.

Hire an appraiser 

Working with a highly-rated, local appraiser may be better yet. These licensed professionals are experts in your local market. They do everything involved in a CMA, but also personally visit your home and account for specific amenities in your home, its condition, and the state of your local housing market.

This option is a bit more expensive, running $300 to $435 on average, but it could be well worth it to ensure you sell your Minnesota FSBO at the best possible price.

» LEARN: Should I get an appraisal before selling?

3. List and market your home

One of the biggest decisions when figuring out how to sell your own home in Minnesota is deciding how to market it. Since FSBO sellers are usually concerned with keeping costs down, a good place to start is free online sites for listing homes including:

• Craigslist
• Facebook Marketplace
• Zillow’s and Trulia’s FSBO sections
• ForSaleByOwner.com

You can list your Minnesota FSBO home on paid sites as well, but only if you think those sites will expose your listing to new potential buyers. Between word of mouth, free online sites, and yard signs, you might get enough exposure without using paid sites.

If you want maximum exposure, think about working with a Minnesota flat fee MLS company.

Minnesota flat fee MLS companies

A flat fee MLS company allows you to list your home on your local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as a non-realtor. This is a big deal for FSBO sellers, since the MLS is where most realtors focus their search for homes to show their clients.

In Minnesota, this will cost you about $80 to $1,000. Our top picks for flat fee MLS companies in Minnesota are:

🏅 Real Estate Corners: Best for add-on services
🏆 Savvy Avenue: Best for experienced sellers
⭐ Minnesota Flat Fee MLS: Best for rock-bottom pricing

Read our in-depth guide to Minnesota’s flat fee MLS companies to decide which one works best for you.

Required Minnesota seller disclosures

When you list for sale by owner in Minnesota, you need to provide all disclosures yourself since you won’t have an agent to do this for you.

By law, you are required to provide a seller disclosure form, which identifies any known material defects with your property. If you ignore this requirement, you are liable to the buyer for damages for up to 2 years after the closing date. 

Minnesota law also requires you to disclose any information about wells, sewage treatment systems, or the existence of radon on your property. According to the Minnesota Homseller’s Handbook, if radon is present, you must also provide a copy of the publication “Radon in Real Estate Transactions” prior to the signing of a purchase agreement.

If your home was built before 1978, you also need to include a lead-based paint disclosure according to federal legislation.

A flood risk disclosure is not required by law, but it may be a good idea to include anyway if this seems like a legitimate risk for your home. Showing that there’s a low risk for flooding could put the buyer’s mind at ease, and informing them of potential risks can help you avoid having the deal fall through later.

Make these disclosures available to interested buyers by attaching them to your listing, bringing hard copies to showings, or emailing them — just make sure you do so before anyone signs a purchase agreement.

4. Manage showings on your own

Figure out a system early on for managing showings and open houses. This means having a calendar (preferably an electronic one that can be shared) to schedule appointments and keeping organized records of all communications with prospective buyers and their agents.

Consider using tools like the ShowingTime app or Doodle to help manage showings and open houses.

You should also do the following when showing your home:

• Schedule appointments on the same day
• Leave some time between appointments
• Shovel the driveway or mow the lawn the day of showings 
• Make any documents you want to share easy to find

We recommend not being on location when prospective buyers arrive, since they could feel uncomfortable with you listening to them talk about the house. Instead, make yourself available by email, call, or text to answer questions. 

Lockboxes can be useful tools for allowing buyers to enter without you being there.

5. Review and negotiate offers

Most buyers submit offers as a simple Minnesota purchase agreement. These will specify the proposed purchase price, as well as any additional terms the buyer wants to include as part of the offer. 

Pay special attention to whether an arbitration agreement is included as part of the offer. Buyers sometimes include these in the event that both parties need to resolve a dispute during the transaction, but signing one could eliminate your right to go to court or shorten your time period to file a claim.

Additionally, you should consider high-importance aspects of the offer, such as:

• Purchase price
• Cash offer versus traditional financing
• Pre-approval amount (if applicable)
• Contingencies
• Expectations related to repairs
• Closing timeline

Savvy home sellers know you can negotiate almost every aspect of the sale and will use some terms to leverage a higher sale price. You should pay attention to anything unusual in the purchase offer to see if the buyer prioritizes something small, like closing date — this could be a great opportunity to negotiate a better deal.

Although sellers are not required to hire an attorney to sell a home in Minnesota, you may want to anyway. Real estate attorneys can provide valuable knowledge when evaluating offers and negotiating terms. 

Additionally, if there are any issues with the title records, you’ll need to hire an attorney or closer to resolve them. So, it’s probably better to get in front of any issues and hire an attorney earlier in the selling process.

6. Allow the buyer to conduct due diligence

When you sign a purchase agreement, it will stipulate what kinds of due diligence the buyer requires before committing to the transaction. Homes that are traditionally financed usually involve standard and stricter due diligence than cash buyers, though not always. 

The most common approach to the due diligence period involves the following steps:

• Inspection
• Appraisal
• Mortgage underwriting
• Property title search
• Final walkthrough

The purchase agreement should address the timeline for these services, but technically the entire time between signing a purchase agreement and closing is the due diligence period.

Assuming no issues arise during due diligence, you will be cleared to close on time.

If an unexpected issue arises, you will need to renegotiate or allow the buyer to walk away. This could involve pushing back the closing date, depending on which issues need to be resolved.

Talk to a lawyer before canceling the deal if your reason isn’t approved in the terms of the purchase agreement. 

7. Close

Your closing date is specified in the purchase agreement. You should receive a closing statement or closing disclosure three days prior to the closing date from your title company or the attorney conducting the appointment.

Closing statements provide a comprehensive list of all the expenses incurred by both the buyer and seller, and they identify a final amount the buyer needs to pay to complete the sale. The proceeds should be available to you the day of closing, either via check or wire transfer.

Other than that, these appointments consist mostly of appearing in person to sign a bunch of paperwork and transferring title to the new owner. Unless otherwise agreed upon in the sale contract, you will officially relinquish ownership and vacate the home once this sale is closed.

For sale by owner paperwork in Minnesota

Here’s a list of the Minnesota paperwork you’ll need to sell your home without a realtor.

• Seller Disclosure Form
• Lead-Based Paint Disclosure
• Flood Risk Disclosure
• Minnesota Standard Residential Purchase Agreement

Not finding what you’re looking for? Check out our comprehensive list of paperwork for selling your house without a realtor.

Best alternative: work with a discount broker

For many people, trying to sell without an agent isn’t worth the hassle. If you think you’ll need some help along the way, a discount broker is a good alternative.

Discount brokers are full-service real estate agents who are willing to work for a reduced commission rate. Sellers can save thousands while still receiving assistance from an expert local agent.

» READ: The Best Discount Real Estate Brokers in Minnesota

For discount broker services, we highly recommend our friends at Clever! Clever pre-negotiates with top agents to offer you low commission rates without compromising on service quality.

Related links

If you’d like some more advice about selling your home, here are a few great resources to check out:

How realtor commissions work in Minnesota: Even if you decide to sell your house without an agent, it’s still a good idea to offer commission to the buyer’s agent. Learn how much realtors expect to earn and what you can do to make your listing more appealing to agents and their clients.

Top We Buy Houses Companies in Minnesota REVEALED: If you need to sell your home in a hurry, a We Buy Houses company may purchase your house as-is for a reduced rate. Find out if this option could be the best option for you here!

: Wondering how much you’ll have to pay to sell your house? Check out this article to calculate your repair budget, closing fees, marketing expenses, and more.