Maryland Home Rebate
Sign in
Back to overview

Guide · For sellers

Selling a home —
three paths.

Pick the path that fits your timeline. Full-service brokerage handles everything; FSBO + activity-fee gives you control with our compliance backbone; iBuyer is a cash offer in 24 hours. Each has clear pricing — no surprise fees.

Path A

Full-service brokerage

A licensed listing agent handles pricing, photography, MLS publish, marketing, showings, offers, negotiation, contingencies, and closing. You stay informed; the agent does the work.

  • Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) with Fair Housing-safe comps (no school-score / ZIP-only proxies)
  • Professional photography + listing copy review (steering NLP scan before publish)
  • MLS publish via Rebato's outbound sanitizer (Gate 2 — strips NAR-prohibited buyer-agent compensation fields)
  • Open houses, ShowingTime / Aligned Showings scheduling
  • Offer review, counter, contingency tracking, closing coordination
  • Mandatory state-specific disclosure forms auto-generated and routed for signature
  1. A.1

    Listing consultation + CMA

    Your assigned listing agent visits the property (or video walkthrough), runs comparable sales, and recommends a list price. CMA includes time-on-market estimate.

  2. A.2

    Sign listing agreement + disclosures

    Listing agreement (term, price, commission). State-specific disclosure forms auto-generated — see "State-mandatory disclosures" below for the full list. Digital signature.

  3. A.3

    Listing prep + publish

    Photography, copy review (steering NLP scan), staging recommendations. MLS publish runs through MLSOutboundSanitizer (Gate 2) to strip BuyerAgentCompensation and similar fields — NAR settlement compliant.

  4. A.4

    Showings + offers

    Tour requests routed to your agent (BBA-gated for buyers — Gate 1). Offers scored against state-specific defaults; your agent reviews + recommends counter / accept / reject.

  5. A.5

    Negotiation + closing

    Counter-offers, contingency removals, inspection negotiation, appraisal, title, settlement. Dual-agency restrictions enforced automatically (banned in CO / FL / KS / OK / VT and variants of MD).

Pricing: Commission: 2.5–3% of sale price (listing side). Buyer-agent compensation is negotiated separately per offer — under NAR settlement rules.

Path B

FSBO + activity fee

For-Sale-By-Owner: you list, you handle showings, you negotiate. We provide the compliance backbone — MLS submission, mandatory disclosures, BBA-compliant offer routing — at a transparent activity fee, paid for what you use.

  • MLS submission (we publish on your behalf — required to reach buyer agents)
  • Mandatory state disclosure forms generated and signed digitally
  • BBA-compliant offer routing (NAR settlement compliance baked in)
  • Steering NLP scan on your listing copy (Fair Housing protection)
  • Optional add-ons: photography, lockbox, contract review, attorney consult
  • Pay per service — no commission percentage
  1. B.1

    Visit /fsbo and create your listing

    Address, price, beds / baths / sqft / lot, property type, photos, description. The system runs steering NLP on your description before saving (Fair Housing — Gate 6).

  2. B.2

    Sign mandatory disclosure forms

    State-specific disclosures auto-generated (see "State-mandatory disclosures" below). Federal lead paint disclosure for any home built before 1978. Digital signature.

  3. B.3

    MLS submission + publish

    Once disclosures are signed and steering scan passes, we publish to the local MLS via the outbound sanitizer. NAR-prohibited buyer-agent compensation fields stripped (Gate 2).

  4. B.4

    Receive offers

    Buyer offers route directly to you (or to your attorney). Each offer is BBA-validated (the buyer must have signed a BBA — Gate 1) and state-policy checked.

  5. B.5

    Close on your timeline

    Negotiate directly. Optional contract review or attorney consult on demand. Closing handled by escrow / title (or attorney in NY / MA / SC).

Pricing: MLS submission: $X (one-time). Disclosures bundle: $Y. Optional photography / lockbox / contract review: à la carte. Total typically $500–$2,000 — vs. 2.5–3% on a $500k home ($12.5k–$15k).

Path C

iBuyer (instant cash)

We buy your home directly. AVM-based initial offer in 24 hours, on-site inspection, final offer, close in 10–90 days. No showings, no contingencies, no buyer financing risk. Faster — but typically below open-market price.

  • AVM-based initial offer in 24 hours (free, no commitment)
  • On-site inspection within 5 business days of accepting initial offer
  • Final offer adjusted for actual condition + repair credits
  • Close on a date you pick — 10 to 90 days
  • No showings / open houses / staging required
  • Subject to FHA 24 CFR §203.37a 90-day anti-flipping rule on resale (we hold > 90 days before reselling FHA)
  1. C.1

    Request a cash offer

    Address + basic property details. Our AVM produces a preliminary offer within 24 hours, based on comparable sales + property characteristics.

  2. C.2

    Inspection

    If you accept the preliminary offer, we schedule an on-site inspection within 5 business days. Roof, HVAC, foundation, plumbing, electrical, cosmetic.

  3. C.3

    Final offer

    Inspection findings inform the final offer — repair credits, condition adjustments. You see the line items. Take it, negotiate, or walk away free.

  4. C.4

    Close on your timeline

    Pick a closing date 10 to 90 days out. We move at your pace. Title held by the brokerage's holding entity (state-specific LLC). Settlement runs through escrow / title or attorney depending on the state.

  5. C.5

    Resale (you do not need to read this)

    After closing, the property goes through optional renovation, then re-listing. Resale gates: FHA 90-day anti-flipping (we hold 90+ days before FHA-buyer resale), state-specific anti-flipping rules in IL / MD / NY (12-month + large-margin enhanced disclosure).

Pricing: No commission, no closing costs to you on the sell side. The price spread (vs. open market) is our margin. Initial offer is non-binding; you can walk at any point before signing the final purchase agreement.

State-mandatory disclosures + Fair Housing protection

Whichever path you pick, the same compliance backbone applies. The system generates the right forms, runs the right scans, and refuses to publish a listing that fails any of these gates.

State-mandatory disclosures

Federal lead paint disclosure (every home built before 1978). California: Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS), Natural Hazard Disclosure (NHD), Megan's Law database notice. New York: Property Condition Disclosure Statement. Washington: Form 17 (Seller Disclosure Statement). Texas: §5.008 Seller's Disclosure Notice. The system picks the right forms based on your state and property type — generated and routed for digital signature before listing publish.

Steering language NLP scan (Fair Housing)

Listing copy is scanned before publish for steering language — phrases like "exclusive neighborhood", "perfect for families", "safe area", or religion-based community references. Matches block publish until you fix the wording. Gate 6, ListingPublishGuard. Protects against HUD 24 CFR §100.75 Fair Housing advertising violations.

NAR sanitizer on MLS publish

Every outbound MLS payload runs through MLSOutboundSanitizer (Gate 2). Fields like BuyerAgentCompensation, CoopCompensation, SubAgencyCompensation are stripped — required by NAR settlement (effective August 17, 2024). Fail-closed design: if the sanitizer fails for any reason, the publish is blocked rather than allowed.

Dual agency rules

Dual agency (the same agent representing both buyer and seller) is banned in Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma, Vermont, and variants in Maryland. Designated-agency "team" workarounds within the same brokerage are also blocked in those states. The state_policy resolver catches this at offer-acceptance time and prevents the assignment.

Seller FAQ

Which path is best for me?⌄
Full-service if you want maximum sale price and minimum effort (and are willing to pay 2.5–3%). FSBO if you have time, are comfortable negotiating, and want to keep the commission. iBuyer if speed and certainty matter more than top-dollar — typical iBuyer offer is below open-market by a few percent in exchange for closing in weeks instead of months.
What if my listing gets flagged for steering language?⌄
You see the flagged phrase and a one-line explanation of why HUD considers it steering. You rewrite the description and resubmit. No publish until it passes. The decision is logged to compliance_event_log so we can show a regulator the timeline if asked. We err on the side of false positives — better to fix wording once than risk a Fair Housing complaint later.
Why does the buyer-agent compensation field get stripped?⌄
NAR settlement (effective August 17, 2024) prohibits offers of buyer-agent compensation in MLS feeds. Compensation is now negotiated per offer between buyer and seller. Our outbound sanitizer (Gate 2) strips the field before MLS submission — failing closed if for any reason it cannot. Listings with that field still in them risk MLS feed termination plus legal exposure.

Ready to list?

Start with a free CMA or a no-commitment iBuyer offer. Switch paths anytime before you sign the listing agreement.

See seller options