Selling a house without a realtor in Tennessee: what it saves and what you take on

Tennessee lets you sell your own house without a license and without an agent. The saving is the listing side of the commission, which on a $300,000 sale at three percent is $9,000. In exchange you take on the pricing, the marketing, the showings, the negotiation and the paperwork, and the paperwork is the part with legal consequences: a disclosure statement, a written contract, a deed that meets the state’s execution rules, and a federal lead disclosure on any house built before 1978.

You do not need a license to sell your own house

Section 62-13-104 exempts an owner of real estate from the Tennessee Real Estate Broker License Act with respect to property that person owns or leases. Selling your own house is not brokerage. The exemption covers you, not anyone you bring in to help: a person who markets or negotiates someone else’s property for compensation is a different question, and one that statute answers differently.

What the commission actually buys

A listing agent prices the house against recent sales, puts it in the MLS and the portals that pull from it, schedules and covers showings, screens buyers and their financing, negotiates the offer and the repair requests, and keeps the contract dates moving toward closing. Doing it yourself means doing those jobs on your own schedule while the house sits.

Two of them are harder than they look. Pricing is the first: you are working from the same public sale data an agent uses, without the judgment that comes from having watched fifty houses in your zip code trade. Overprice by ten percent and the house sits, and a house that sits gets read as a house with a problem. Screening buyers is the second: a signed contract from a buyer whose loan later falls through costs you the weeks the house was off the market.

The buyer’s side commission is a separate question from the listing side. Buyers now sign their own written agreements with their agents, so a buyer’s agent’s pay is negotiated in that agreement and in your contract, not assumed. Decide before you list what, if anything, you will offer, and put it in writing.

Our post on the cost to sell a house in Tennessee breaks out every line, including the ones that do not change when you drop the agent.

The paperwork Tennessee requires

The disclosure statement or the as-is disclaimer

Section 66-5-201 applies the residential property disclosure rules to sales of property with one to four dwelling units, whether or not a real estate licensee is involved. Under § 66-5-202 you give the buyer either the statutory disclosure statement covering the condition of the property and the material defects you know about, or a disclaimer stating that the buyer takes the house as is. The disclaimer is only permitted where the buyer waives the disclosure statement, so it is something the buyer agrees to in writing rather than something you announce.

Section 66-5-212 adds four written disclosures that stand on their own: any known exterior injection well, the results of any known percolation or soil absorption test, whether a single-family house was moved from one foundation to another, and any known sinkhole on the property. Put those in the contract or in a signed acknowledgment before the contract is signed. Our post on selling a house as-is covers which transfers the disclosure law exempts.

The federal lead-based paint disclosure

For a house built before 1978, the EPA’s real estate disclosure rule requires you to disclose known lead-based paint and hazards and their location, hand over any records and reports you have, give the buyer the Protect Your Family From Lead pamphlet and a lead warning statement, and allow a 10-day period to test unless the parties agree in writing to a different period. Keep the signed disclosure for three years. This one is federal, so no Tennessee exemption reaches it.

The contract

A contract for the sale of land has to be in writing to be enforceable. Whatever form you start from, it has to name the parties, describe the property, state the price and the closing date, and set out the earnest money, the contingencies and who pays which closing cost. A buyer’s financing contingency and an inspection contingency are the two that decide what happens when something goes wrong, so read them rather than initialing them.

The deed and the recording

Section 66-22-101 requires the maker’s original signature, either acknowledged according to law or proved by two subscribing witnesses, and lets the county register refuse a document that is not authenticated that way. Section 66-24-101 sets out which writings are eligible for registration. In practice the closing agent prepares the deed, a notary takes the acknowledgment at the closing table, and the register records it. Under § 67-4-409 the recordation tax of 37 cents per $100 is due on the instrument, computed on the consideration or the value of the property, whichever is greater, and the register collects it before recording.

Closing without an agent still uses a closing agent

Dropping the commission does not drop the title work. Somebody has to search the title, clear the liens, order the payoff from your lender, prorate the property taxes, prepare the settlement statement, hold the money, and record the deed. A title company or a real estate attorney does that, and their fee is the same whether or not an agent is in the deal. Having a Tennessee attorney review your contract before you sign it is cheap next to the cost of the terms you did not understand.

What it saves, honestly

The listing commission is the saving. Everything else on the settlement statement stays: the recordation tax, the title and closing fees, the property tax proration, the payoff, and whatever repairs you agree to after the inspection. Against that, weigh the weeks the house is on the market while you carry the taxes, insurance and utilities. Our page on what an empty house costs puts a number on those months, and cash offer vs listing compares what each route nets once the time is priced in.

When a direct sale is the simpler version of this

Selling to a buyer who pays cash removes the financing contingency, the appraisal and the showings, and it is the same paperwork minus the marketing. It nets less than a listed sale on a house that shows well and can wait. It nets more than a listed sale that never closes. We buy for our own account and may assign the purchase contract to another buyer, disclosed in writing before you sign, and our record so far is 20+ real estate transactions and 16 business acquisitions across Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Talk to a Tennessee attorney or CPA about your situation.