How to Sell Your Home Without a Real Estate Agent: The Complete New York Guide

Yes, you can legally sell your home without a real estate agent in New York. No law requires you to hire one. What New York does effectively require is a real estate attorney, and there are state-specific disclosure rules that carry real liability if you get them wrong.

Selling without an agent saves you the listing-side commission, typically 2% to 3% of the sale price. On a $700,000 Long Island house, that’s $14,000 to $21,000 you keep. It also means you personally handle pricing, marketing, showings, buyer screening, negotiation, and the coordination of a transaction with about a dozen moving parts and hard deadlines.

This guide covers the full process for New York specifically, including a disclosure law change from 2024 that most articles on this topic still get wrong.

What You’ll Actually Save (and Spend)

The commission conversation gets oversimplified in both directions. Here are the real numbers on a $700,000 New York home sale.

The spread is wide because of one variable: whether you pay the buyer’s agent.

If your buyer comes unrepresented, you pay nothing on that side. If your buyer has an agent, which most do, you’ll likely be negotiating some compensation for that agent as part of the deal. Plan for both scenarios before you list.

What the August 2024 Rule Change Means for You

The NAR settlement took effect August 17, 2024, and it changed two things that matter to a seller going it alone:

Buyer-agent compensation can no longer be advertised on the MLS. Previously, a listing broadcast what the seller was offering the buyer’s side. That field is gone. Compensation is now negotiated deal by deal, usually as a term of the offer itself.

Buyers must sign written agreements with their agents before touring homes. That agreement specifies what the agent gets paid and who pays it.

Here’s the part that got badly reported: headlines claimed sellers no longer have to pay the buyer’s agent. Sellers were never legally required to pay the buyer’s agent. Commission has always been negotiable. What changed is where and how the offer is communicated, not whether it exists.

The practical effect for you: a buyer’s agent may ask you to cover their fee in the offer, or the buyer may be paying it themselves and will simply offer you less to compensate. Either way, it’s a negotiable line item you should expect to see and should decide your position on in advance.

The FSBO Statistic Everyone Quotes, and What It Actually Means

You’ll see this everywhere: NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers found FSBO homes sold at a median of $360,000 against $425,000 for agent-assisted homes. It’s usually presented as proof that selling on your own costs you $65,000.

That’s not what the number shows, and the honest reading matters if you’re making this decision.

Why the comparison is confounded:

• 60% of FSBO sellers already knew their buyer. These are sales to friends, relatives, neighbors, and tenants. Many are deliberately priced below market as a favor. That alone drags the FSBO median down substantially.
• FSBO homes skew toward lower-cost property types and rural areas, including manufactured homes. You’re not comparing similar houses.
• 40% of FSBO sellers didn’t actively market the home at all. They weren’t trying to maximize price.
• NAR is a trade association for real estate agents. That doesn’t make the data false, but it does mean the framing deserves scrutiny.

What the same report shows that’s genuinely worth heeding: FSBO sellers most often reported struggling with pricing the home, preparing it for sale, and selling within their intended timeframe. And 64% said they didn’t get the price they wanted.

Those are the real risks. Not a mythical automatic $65,000 penalty, but a meaningful chance you misprice the house, under-prepare it, and take longer than you planned. Every one of those is manageable if you know it’s coming.

For context: FSBO sales hit an all-time low of 5% of transactions in 2025, while 91% of sellers used an agent, a record high.

Step by Step: Selling Your House Without a Realtor in New York

Step 1: Hire a real estate attorney before you do anything else

New York is an attorney-closing state. Drafting a contract of sale is the practice of law here, and in practice every residential closing in New York involves attorneys on both sides. This is not the place to economize.

Expect $1,500 to $3,000 outside New York City for a standard sale, and $2,500 to $4,000+ in the five boroughs or for anything involving an estate, a co-op, or title complications.

Hire the attorney at the start, not when you have an offer. A good one will tell you what documents you need to start collecting now, which will save you weeks later.

What your attorney handles: drafting or reviewing the contract of sale, ordering the title report, clearing title issues, preparing transfer tax filings, coordinating payoffs, and running the closing.

What your attorney does not handle: pricing, marketing, showings, or negotiating. That’s your job now.

Step 2: Price it correctly, which is where most FSBO sellers lose money

Pricing is the single biggest determinant of both what you net and how long it takes.

Do not price off: your tax assessment, a Zestimate, what your neighbor listed at, or what you need to buy your next house.

Do price off: closed sales of genuinely comparable homes within the last three to six months, within a tight radius, adjusted for condition, square footage, and lot.

Three ways to get a defensible number:

1. Order a pre-listing appraisal. $400 to $700 for a licensed, independent opinion. For a FSBO seller with no agent’s market read, this is the best money you’ll spend.
2. Ask two or three agents for a listing presentation. They’ll give you a comparative market analysis for free hoping to win the listing. Some sellers find this uncomfortable; agents understand it’s part of the business. Be upfront that you’re considering FSBO.
3. Pull comps yourself from public records and recent closed sales, then sanity-check against the appraisal.

Then commit to reading the market. If you get heavy showing traffic in the first two weeks and no offers, the price is a bit high. If you get almost no showings, it’s well off.

Step 3: Gather your documents now

New York sales stall on paperwork more than almost anything else. Start this in week one.

• Deed and your original title policy if you have it
• Property survey (buyers and title companies will want one)
• Certificate of Occupancy for the house and for any addition, deck, dormer, finished basement, or converted garage
• Building permits, and confirmation that any open permits are closed
• Recent property tax bills, including any STAR exemption information
• Mortgage payoff information for every lien on the property
• Oil tank documentation, including abandonment or removal records if applicable
• Water and sewer or septic records
• Any HOA or condo documents

The certificate of occupancy issue is the one that kills Long Island deals. Towns in Nassau and Suffolk take weeks to process searches, and an unpermitted basement or deck discovered in week six of a contract can require corrective work, town inspections, and a delayed closing. Find out where you stand before you list, not after.

Step 4: Complete the Property Condition Disclosure Statement, because you no longer have a choice

This is the section most articles on this topic still get wrong, including some published in 2026.

For years, New York sellers could skip the Property Condition Disclosure Statement entirely by giving the buyer a $500 credit at closing. Nearly everyone did, because it capped liability.

That option was eliminated effective March 20, 2024. The amended Property Condition Disclosure Act removed the $500 credit. The PCDS is now mandatory, must be completed by the seller, and must be delivered to the buyer before the buyer signs a binding contract of sale.

What else changed:

• The form expanded to 56 questions
• New mandatory disclosures about flood risk, including whether the property sits in a FEMA-designated 100-year or 500-year floodplain, whether federal flood insurance requirements apply, and the property’s flood insurance history

Who it applies to: sellers of residential real property, meaning one-to-four family dwellings used or intended as a residence.

Who’s exempt: co-ops, condominiums, properties under HOA ownership structures that aren’t fee simple, unimproved land, and sales by the estate of a deceased owner, among a few other narrow categories.

Two things to understand about liability. First, you must answer based on your actual knowledge. The law does not impose a duty to investigate. Second, you can be held liable for actual damages for a willful failure to answer truthfully based on what you knew. Your attorney should review your completed form before it goes to any buyer.

If a website tells you that you can hand a buyer $500 and skip this, that page hasn’t been updated in over two years. Don’t rely on it.

Step 5: Prepare and photograph the house

Clean, declutter, depersonalize, handle minor repairs, and improve the lighting. Skip major renovations undertaken specifically to sell; they rarely return their cost.

Hire a professional photographer. $250 to $700. Almost every buyer’s first impression of your house is a thumbnail on a phone screen, and phone photos taken by an owner are immediately identifiable as such. This is the highest-return dollar in a FSBO sale, and it’s the one FSBO sellers most often skip.

Consider a pre-listing inspection for a few hundred dollars. Finding the problems yourself, on your schedule, is far better than a buyer’s inspector finding them while you’re under contract and the buyer holds all the leverage.

Step 6: Get on the MLS with a flat-fee listing

This matters more than anything else in your marketing plan.

The MLS syndicates to Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, and hundreds of other sites, and it’s where every buyer’s agent looks. Skipping it means most of the buyer pool never sees your house.

You can’t list on the MLS yourself, because only licensed brokers can. Flat-fee MLS services solve this for roughly $100 to $600. A broker puts your listing in the MLS; you handle everything else and pay no listing commission.

Which MLS depends on where you are:

• Long Island, Westchester, Hudson Valley: OneKey MLS
• Manhattan and much of NYC: the REBNY Residential Listing Service (RLS)
• Some NYC properties appear in both

Read the flat-fee agreement carefully. Confirm how long the listing runs, how many photos you get, how changes are made, whether your own phone number appears on the listing, and what happens if you later decide to hire a full-service agent.

Step 7: Market beyond the MLS

• Yard sign with a phone number, which still generates neighborhood-driven buyers
• Zillow “For Sale By Owner” listing, free
• Facebook Marketplace and relevant local community groups
• Nextdoor
• Word of mouth through neighbors, coworkers, and local businesses
• An open house on a weekend afternoon, advertised a few days in advance

Track every inquiry. You are now your own transaction coordinator.

Step 8: Handle showings and screen buyers

Always ask for proof of funds or a mortgage pre-approval letter before scheduling a showing. Not a pre-qualification, which means very little. A pre-approval from a named lender.

Safety matters. Don’t do showings alone. Have someone else in the house. Ask for a name and phone number in advance and confirm the number by calling it.

Fair housing law applies to you exactly as it applies to a licensed agent. You cannot refuse to sell, treat buyers differently, or describe your property in ways that discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. New York adds further protected classes including sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, military status, age, and lawful source of income, which includes housing vouchers. Careless language in a listing or a casual comment during a showing can create genuine legal exposure. Describe the property, never the ideal buyer.

Expect agent calls. Buyer’s agents will contact you, some to bring a real buyer and some to try to convert you into a listing. Decide in advance how you’ll handle both.

Step 9: Decide your position on buyer-agent compensation

Before your first offer, know your answer to this question: will you pay a buyer’s agent, and how much?

Your options:

• Offer nothing and accept that some agents won’t bring their buyers to you
• Offer 2% to 3%, which keeps your buyer pool close to a normally listed property
• Stay flexible and treat it as a negotiable term in each offer

The math to run: if offering 2.5% brings you multiple offers and a higher price than no offer at all brings you, paying it may still be the better net outcome. Since compensation can no longer be advertised on the MLS, this now typically surfaces in the offer itself.

Step 10: Negotiate the offer

Evaluate more than price:

• Financing type. Cash is strongest. Conventional with a large down payment is next. FHA and VA loans carry additional appraisal and property standards that can slow things down or surface repair requirements.
• Down payment size. Larger down payments survive appraisal shortfalls better.
• Contingencies. Inspection, financing, appraisal, and any home-sale contingency each represent a way the deal can die.
• Closing timeline.
• Buyer’s agent compensation, if requested.

A slightly lower offer from a strong buyer often nets more than a higher offer that collapses in week five.

Step 11: Contract, attorney review, inspection, and appraisal

In New York, an accepted offer isn’t a binding contract. Your attorney prepares or reviews the contract of sale, both attorneys negotiate terms, and the deal becomes binding when both parties have signed and the contract is delivered, typically with the buyer’s down payment held in escrow.

Then the standard sequence runs:

• Inspection within about a week, followed by repair or credit negotiation
• Appraisal ordered by the buyer’s lender
• Title search, which surfaces liens, judgments, easements, and errors in the chain of title
• Municipal searches, including open permits and violations
• Underwriting through to clear to close

Step 12: Closing

New York closings are attorney-run. You’ll sign the deed, transfer tax forms, and a stack of affidavits. Common items include:

• Form TP-584, the Combined Real Estate Transfer Tax Return
• Form RP-5217, the Real Property Transfer Report
• Smoke and carbon monoxide detector affidavit for one- and two-family dwellings
• Form IT-2663 if you’re a nonresident of New York, which requires estimated income tax payment on the gain at closing
• FIRPTA certification if you’re a foreign person, which triggers federal withholding

That IT-2663 requirement catches people who moved out of state before selling. If you now live in Florida and are selling a house in Suffolk County, ask your attorney about it early.

New York Seller Closing Costs and Transfer Taxes

Transfer tax is where New York sellers get their biggest surprise, and it varies enormously depending on which side of the city line you’re on.

Outside New York City (Long Island, Westchester, upstate)

You pay the New York State Real Estate Transfer Tax of 0.4% of the sale price. On a $700,000 Suffolk County home, that’s $2,800.

Note for East End sellers: the five East End towns of Suffolk County have a Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund transfer tax, generally paid by the buyer rather than the seller. Confirm the current rates and exemptions with your attorney if your property is in Southampton, East Hampton, Southold, Riverhead, or Shelter Island.

Inside New York City

Three transfer taxes can hit a single closing. Two are yours.

Seller pays:

• NYC Real Property Transfer Tax (RPTT): 1% on residential sales under $500,000; 1.425% at $500,000 and above
• NYS Real Estate Transfer Tax: 0.4%, plus an additional 0.25% supplemental on residential sales of $3 million or more

Combined seller-side residential rates: roughly 1.4% under $500,000, 1.825% from $500,000 to under $3 million, and 2.075% at $3 million and above.

Buyer pays:

• Mansion tax, 1% to 3.9% on residential purchases of $1 million or more

Two things to know about how these work. The RPTT applies to the entire sale price once you cross a threshold, not just the amount above it, so a $510,000 sale pays 1.425% on the whole $510,000. And the mansion tax has cliffs at each tier, meaning a $1,999,999 sale is taxed at 1% while a $2,000,000 sale is taxed at 1.25% on the full amount. Buyers negotiate hard around those lines, and as a seller you should know where they are.

What a $700,000 Long Island FSBO sale looks like

Against roughly $38,500 to $45,500 in a conventional 5.5% to 6.5% commission structure plus the same transfer tax and attorney fee. The savings are real. They’re just smaller than “6% of the sale price,” and they come with work attached.

Selling a Co-op or Condo in NYC Without a Broker

This is a meaningfully different transaction, and the generic FSBO advice online doesn’t cover it.

Co-ops are the hardest sale in New York to do without a broker.

• You’re selling shares in a corporation with a proprietary lease, not real property.
• Your buyer must be approved by the co-op board, which involves an extensive board package: financial statements, tax returns, reference letters, employment verification, and a board interview.
• Boards can reject buyers without stating a reason, as long as the rejection isn’t based on a protected class. A rejection after months of work sends you back to square one.
• Most buildings charge a flip tax, commonly 1% to 3% of the sale price, and it’s usually the seller’s obligation. Check your building’s rules; a 2% flip tax on a $900,000 co-op is $18,000 you may not have budgeted.
• Co-ops are exempt from the PCDS.

The practical risk: pricing a co-op correctly requires knowing what the board will accept in terms of financing and debt-to-income, and screening buyers for board-readiness. A seller who doesn’t know their building’s standards can waste six months on a buyer who was never going to be approved.

Condos are simpler. You’re selling real property. The board typically holds only a right of first refusal, and issues a waiver rather than approving or rejecting your buyer. You’ll need a waiver from the board and a resale package. Condos are also exempt from the PCDS.

For either, hire a New York City attorney who does co-op and condo work specifically. This is not a general practice matter.

The Mistakes That Cost FSBO Sellers the Most

Overpricing at launch. Your first two weeks generate the most traffic your listing will ever get. Waste that window and you get a stale listing, a price cut, and eventually a lower sale price than a correct launch price would have produced.

Skipping the MLS. Saving $200 to avoid the flat-fee listing eliminates most of your buyer pool. This is the least defensible way to save money in a FSBO sale.

Bad photos. See above.

Not screening buyers. Showing your house to unqualified people wastes weeks and creates safety risk.
Emotional negotiating. You’ve lived in the house. When a buyer criticizes it to justify a lower offer, that stings in a way it doesn’t sting an agent. Deals get lost over pride.

Getting the PCDS wrong. Either failing to deliver it, or answering carelessly. Both create liability that outlasts the closing.

Missing paperwork. No CO for the deck. Open permit nobody closed in 2009. Survey nobody can find. Each one is weeks.

Fair housing missteps. Innocent-sounding language in a listing or conversation.

Underestimating the time. Sellers consistently report that this took more of their time than they expected.

When Selling Without an Agent Makes Sense, and When It Doesn’t

It works well when:

• You already have a buyer. A relative, a neighbor, your tenant. This is the majority of successful FSBO sales, and the commission savings are pure gain.
• You’re in a strong seller’s market with tight inventory. Nassau and Suffolk have been running near three months of supply, well below the five to six months that indicates balance. Well-priced homes in that environment attract buyers without much help.
• Your house is in genuinely good, move-in-ready condition.
• You have real time and flexibility for showings, calls, and coordination.
• You’re comfortable negotiating and can stay unemotional about the house.

It usually doesn’t work when:

• You need to sell on a deadline. Foreclosure timelines, a job relocation, a purchase contract on your next home.
• The property is unusual, distressed, or hard to price. Fewer comps means more chances to get the number badly wrong.
• You’re selling a co-op and don’t understand board dynamics.
• There are title problems, open permits, multiple heirs, or a tenant in place.
• You’re out of state and can’t be there for showings.
• The equity math is thin and one pricing mistake wipes out the commission you saved.

The Other Way to Skip the Agent: Selling Direct to a Cash Buyer

FSBO isn’t the only way to avoid commission. Selling directly to a cash buyer removes the agent, the listing, the showings, and the repairs all at once.

The tradeoff is straightforward and it runs both ways. A cash offer comes in below what a well-priced, well-marketed home would fetch on the open market. That discount buys speed, certainty, no repair spending, and no months of showings.

For a house in good condition in Nassau or Suffolk with time to spare, doing your own FSBO listing on the MLS will usually net you more. That’s the honest answer. For an inherited property that needs $70,000 of work, a house with permit problems nobody wants to untangle, a foreclosure with a scheduled sale date, a tenant situation, or a seller who lives out of state and can’t run showings, the FSBO path often produces months of frustration and a sale that never happens.

Run both numbers before you commit to either. Price out a FSBO sale honestly, including the buyer’s agent compensation you’ll probably end up paying and the months of carrying costs, and compare it to a cash offer on the same property.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell my house without a realtor in New York?

Yes. No New York law requires a seller to use a real estate agent. You will need a real estate attorney, since drafting a contract of sale is the practice of law in New York and closings here are attorney-run.

Do I need a lawyer to sell a house in New York?

Practically, yes. New York is an attorney-closing state and every residential transaction here involves attorneys on both sides. Budget $1,500 to $3,000 outside New York City and $2,500 to $4,000 or more in the five boroughs.

How much can I save selling without an agent?

The listing-side commission, typically 2% to 3%. On a $700,000 home that’s $14,000 to $21,000. Whether you also save the buyer’s side depends on whether your buyer is represented, and most are.

Do I still have to pay the buyer’s agent?

You’re not legally required to, and you never were. But if a buyer’s agent brings your buyer, they’ll typically ask for compensation as a term of the offer, and refusing outright narrows your buyer pool. Since August 2024, this can’t be advertised on the MLS and is negotiated deal by deal.

Can I list on the MLS without a realtor?

Not directly, since only licensed brokers can enter listings. Flat-fee MLS services put your listing in the MLS for roughly $100 to $600 while you handle everything else. On Long Island that’s OneKey MLS; in Manhattan it’s typically the REBNY RLS.

Do I have to fill out the Property Condition Disclosure Statement in New York?

Yes, for one-to-four family residential property. The option to give buyers a $500 credit instead was eliminated effective March 20, 2024. The form now runs 56 questions and includes mandatory flood disclosures. Co-ops, condos, unimproved land, and sales by the estate of a deceased owner are exempt.

What are the seller’s transfer taxes in New York?

Outside New York City, the state transfer tax is 0.4% of the sale price. Inside the city, you also pay the NYC RPTT, 1% under $500,000 and 1.425% at or above, for a combined seller rate of about 1.825% in the most common price range. The mansion tax is paid by the buyer, not you.

How do I price my house without an agent?

Order a pre-listing appraisal for $400 to $700, and cross-check it against closed comparable sales from the last three to six months. Don’t price off your tax assessment or an online estimate.

Is it harder to sell a co-op without a broker?

Considerably. Co-op sales require board approval with an extensive board package and an interview, boards can reject buyers without explanation, and most buildings charge a flip tax of 1% to 3% that typically falls on the seller. Get an attorney who specializes in co-ops.

Do FSBO homes really sell for $65,000 less?

That gap comes from NAR’s 2025 report, but it isn’t apples to apples. About 60% of FSBO sellers already knew their buyer, many of those sales are intentionally discounted family transactions, and FSBO homes skew toward lower-priced property types. The real risks are mispricing, under-preparing, and a longer timeline, not an automatic penalty.

How long does it take to sell a house without an agent?

Similar to an agent-listed sale if you use the MLS and price correctly, roughly two to three and a half months from listing to closing. Notably longer if you skip the MLS or launch above market.

What paperwork do I need to sell a house in New York?

Deed, survey, certificate of occupancy, closed building permits, tax bills, mortgage payoff figures, the completed PCDS, federal lead paint disclosure for pre-1978 homes, the smoke and carbon monoxide detector affidavit, Form TP-584, Form RP-5217, and Form IT-2663 if you’re a nonresident. Your attorney will assemble most of this, but you should start gathering the property documents before you list.

The Bottom Line

Selling without an agent in New York is entirely doable, and in a market as tight as Nassau and Suffolk, a well-priced, well-photographed house on the MLS will find buyers.

The three things that decide whether it works: price it off real comps rather than hope, get it on the MLS through a flat-fee broker, and hire a good attorney at the start rather than after you have an offer. Get those right and you’ll keep most of the commission. Get the first one wrong and you’ll give back more than you saved.

And if the problem with your house isn’t the commission, but the condition, the paperwork, or the timeline, then FSBO isn’t going to fix it either. Worth knowing before you spend three months finding out.