Selling a home isn't rocket science.  Anyone can do it.  You just stick a sign in the yard, run an ad in the paper, hold an open house, and boom! you just sell it.  Right?  Well, there is a lot more to getting an actual sale than that.   The most important thing is getting a ready, willing, and able buyer to make a good offer on your home.  Next, you have to understand how to protect yourself and your interests through the contract.  You also have to know the ins and outs of DC real estate law to protect yourself from a lawsuit.  For example, you must by law fill out a Property Disclosure form and give it to a prospective buyer before they write a contract on your home.  Second, you have to fill out a Lead Based Paint Disclosure form and give it to any prospective buyers.  You need to make sure you do not violate any fair housing laws.  DC has 17 protected classes.  Do you know what they are?  Further, you need to be able to verify that the buyer is financially sound and the deal will actually close.  Anyone can make an offer on a house.  A real estate agent makes sure a buyer is actually capable of performing on the contract and closing. 

As you attempt to sell your home by owner, your full time job will turn into showings, open houses, and phone calls regarding the home.  Also, if it is not in the MLS, far fewer buyers will ever even know it exists.  Most buyers are working with real estate agents.  If you are not paying a commission, these agents will not show your home, and you will get significantly less exposure.  Also, an agent makes marketing your home their primary responsibility.  The amount of our own money we invest to get exposure for your home is significant.  We invest in postcards, virtual tours, fliers, open houses (snacks, candy, balloons, bottled water), signs, newspaper ads, ads in homebuyer magazines & newsletters, and so on.  Most sellers do not realize the extent of marketing it requires to sell their home - especially in this market.

Finally, once you do get a ratified contract, your full time job then becomes keeping on top of all third parties who frequently don't perform their jobs promptly - if at all.  You need to make sure the inspector and appraiser all perform before the contingencies expire.  You need to make sure the lender is moving forward with processing the loan and getting the final commitment.  You need to deal with negotiating any repairs the inspector lists on his report.  You need to make sure the lender is ok with the inspection report and doesn't require any repairs to make the loan (also, they need to approve the terms of the contract including any seller subsidies agreed on). 

All of this you will go through, and the deal can fall apart at any time.  Meanwhile, if it doesn't, statistics show you will have gotten 15% or more less for your home than an agent would have gotten you.  If you are like most sellers, though, you will never even get to that point because studies show that 70%+ of all sellers that try to sell their home by owner are unsuccessful and end up having to hire an agent afterall.  All this after they have already invested money, time, and carrying costs during the time they tried to sell it themselves.

After all this, I would say we are worth every penny of our commission!  Start off the right way and hire a realtor from the beginning.

Here is another good article regarding selling your home by owner:

http://www.realtor.org/publicaffairsweb.nsf/0/a7ca712a7fb7bb7a85256ba70055d57c?OpenDocument