Selling a house by owner in Tennessee

Selling your own house in Tennessee is legal and unremarkable. Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-13-104 exempts an owner of real estate, with respect to property owned by that person, from the broker licensing requirement. No permission, no license.

What you do need is a clear view of the jobs a listing firm would have done, because every one becomes yours: paperwork, pricing research, marketing, enquiries, negotiation, the statutory disclosure and the closing. This site sells nothing either way — no referrals, no leads, no flat-fee package — which is why it can say plainly that the route suits some sales and not others.

What you take on, and what you keep

The case for is straightforward: you keep the listing-side compensation you would otherwise negotiate with a firm, and you keep control of access and timing. That is a real saving, particularly where the buyer is already known to you — a neighbour, a tenant, a relative — and the sale is a documentation exercise.

The case against is mostly exposure rather than effort. You are personally responsible for a statutory disclosure with legal consequences, adopting a contract you did not write, judging whether a buyer can fund the purchase, and holding — or arranging someone to hold — other people's money. And you are doing it while emotionally invested, which is the condition under which people concede terms they later regret.

The honest comparison is not agent versus no agent, but which tasks you will do, which you will buy from a professional, and what the total comes to. If the answer turns out to be hiring, the questions worth asking are on choosing a real estate agent for a Tennessee home move.

Prepare the information, the price and the plan

Gather what a buyer's closing agent will demand anyway: the recorded deed, any survey or plat, the mortgage payoff, association documents, codes department permits and warranties still running. Then pull the county assessor of property's parcel record for your address, free, and read what the county believes.

Price from sales that closed, not from what neighbours are asking and not from an automated estimate — an estimate is a model output, not a price. Without a multiple listing service you work from public records and closed-sale data you verify yourself, the most common weak point in an owner-run sale. The wider picture is on the Tennessee housing market page, and since the evidence is local, the fifteen city guides describe the market you are in.

Your marketing plan has to answer one question: how will a buyer working with a licensed agent ever find this house? Most are shown MLS inventory. Some owners buy a flat-fee MLS entry from a licensed firm to solve that; others rely on signage, portals that accept owner listings and word of mouth. Decide deliberately: it sets your buyer pool.

Enquiries, showings and qualifying a buyer

You are now the appointment desk. Decide in advance how you will handle viewing requests, who is in the house during a showing, and what you will answer on the spot. Keep a written log.

Before you take the house off the market for anyone, ask for a lender's preapproval letter, or written proof of funds for a cash offer. An offer you cannot verify is not an offer; it is a delay with a signature on it.

One rule applies to every enquiry: federal and Tennessee fair housing law governs how you advertise and deal with people, and it reaches owners, not only licensed agents. Describe the house and the lot. Never describe, prefer or discourage a type of person.

Contracts, disclosures and the help worth buying

Tennessee's residential property disclosure is the part owners most often get wrong. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-5-201 it covers transfers by sale, exchange, installment land sales contract or lease with option to buy of residential property of one to four dwelling units. Section 66-5-202 gives you a choice: a disclosure statement covering the condition of the property, including material defects known to you, or a disclaimer selling as is — and the disclaimer only operates where the purchaser expressly waives the disclosure. You are not obliged to investigate; you are obliged to state what you know. Section 66-5-203 requires delivery before acceptance of the contract, meaning full execution by all parties. Section 66-5-209 exempts some transfers, including court-ordered ones, fiduciary transfers administering an estate or trust, and sales where the owner has not lived there in the previous three years.

The contract is the place to spend money rather than confidence. A Tennessee real estate attorney drafting or reviewing the purchase agreement is a defined, one-off cost against an undefined risk.

Earnest money deserves its own decision. Where a licensed firm is involved, funds deposited with the broker go into an escrow or trustee account under Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-13-321, with records kept three years. In an owner sale there is no broker and so no such account, and neither party should hold it. Name a neutral escrow holder in the contract, with what happens to the deposit if the sale fails.

Compensation for the buyer's agent is now a separate negotiation rather than an assumption. Since 17 August 2024, under the National Association of Realtors settlement, offers of compensation may not be communicated through a multiple listing service, and buyers working with an MLS participant sign a written agreement with their own agent, stating what that agent is paid, before touring a home. Compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable, so a buyer may ask you to contribute to their agent's fee as an offer term. Agree, counter or decline.

Inspections, negotiation and the closing hand-off

Expect the buyer to inspect, and a lender to order an appraisal if there is a mortgage. Your response has the same four shapes it has in any sale: do the work, credit the buyer at closing, adjust the price, or decline. Answer in writing, inside the period the contract allows.

Closing is where an owner sale stops being a solo project. The deed has to be drawn correctly, the payoff obtained and paid, the funds disbursed, and the instrument recorded with the county register of deeds. That work belongs to a closing or settlement agent. Arrange one early and ask what they will do for an owner-sold transaction. Which costs land on which side, including the two recording taxes the state assigns by statute, is on the Tennessee closing costs page.

Compare the workload against the proceeds

Do the comparison on paper first. On one side, the listing-side compensation you would have negotiated with a firm. On the other, what you will spend to replace it: attorney drafting or review, any flat-fee MLS entry, photography, signage, escrow arrangements, and any contribution to a buyer's agent. Then add the item nobody costs — your own hours, and the price of a term you conceded while negotiating for yourself.

Run that sum honestly and the answer is usually clear. The full sequence either route follows is on selling a home in Tennessee.