What an agent actually does for the commission
Access to the buyer pool, principally. A listing on the MLS reaches every financed buyer working with every agent in Nassau County, and competition between those buyers is what produces a retail price. That is the product, and it is worth the commission on a house those buyers can actually get a mortgage on.
They also price the property, manage showings, handle the negotiation and keep the transaction moving. A good agent earns their fee on a sound house, and we say that as somebody whose business is the alternative.
When listing a Westbury house does not help
The commission buys access to financed buyers. If your house cannot be financed, you are paying for access to a pool that cannot buy it.
That is the situation with a failing roof, an unsafe electrical service, active water damage, an open violation or unpermitted work on the file. The listing gathers interest, the buyer's lender declines, and the house goes back on the market having lost time. The eventual purchaser is a cash buyer, reached after several months and usually a price reduction, and the commission is still payable.
Selling it yourself, on the open market
Legal, and more work than people expect. You handle pricing, marketing, showings, the negotiation and the coordination through to closing. You will also usually still pay a commission to the buyer's agent, so the saving is a portion of the total rather than all of it.
In New York you will use an attorney regardless, which removes the most dangerous part of doing it alone. The realistic question is whether you can reach the same buyers an MLS listing reaches. If the house would sell well on the open market, that reach is what you are giving up.
Selling directly to a buyer instead
The mechanics are short: a visit, a written number within 24 hours, your attorney's review, and a closing on your date. No commission, no repairs, no cleanout, no staging, and no showings.
The trade is that you are dealing with one buyer rather than a market. We think that trade is right for a specific set of houses and wrong for most others, and we will tell you which yours is. Against the Westbury median of $801,000, a sound house listed properly will usually beat what any cash buyer pays.
Flat-fee listings and the middle option
There is a middle route people often miss. A flat-fee service puts your house on the MLS for a set charge while you handle the showings and the negotiation yourself.
That gets you the thing an agent is genuinely selling, which is exposure to every financed buyer in Nassau County, without the listing-side commission. You will normally still offer something to the buyer's agent, because that is what brings them through the door. It suits a confident seller with a sound house and some time, and it suits almost nobody with a house that will not pass a lender's inspection.
What an agent was doing that you now do
Pricing, first, which is where private sales most often go wrong. Without comparable sales and without the feedback a listing generates, sellers start high, sit for weeks, then cut, and a house with time on it attracts lower offers than one priced correctly from the start.
Then photographs, the listing copy, fielding inquiries, arranging and attending viewings, qualifying buyers so you are not showing the house to people who cannot buy it, negotiating, and keeping the transaction moving through to closing. None of it is difficult. All of it takes time, and it lands on you at whatever else is going on in your life.
What goes wrong most often
Pricing off an online estimate rather than off comparable sales. Letting a buyer tie the house up without confirming they can finance it. Going quiet on something about the property in the hope it does not come up, which it will.
Each of these is avoidable and each is common. The thread running through them is that a private seller has nobody whose job it is to say no on their behalf, which is one of the underrated things a good agent supplies and one of the reasons your own attorney matters even more when there is no agent involved.
Common questions
Do I need a lawyer to sell a Westbury house without an agent?
In New York you will use an attorney whether or not there is an agent involved, and you should use your own rather than one suggested by the buyer. It is standard on both sides of every residential sale in the state.
How much commission would I actually save?
Selling to a buyer directly removes the whole commission. For scale, 5% of the Westbury median of $801,000 is roughly $40,050. Selling privately on the open market usually saves only the listing side, because the buyer's agent is generally still paid.
Will you tell me if I should just use an agent?
We will, and it is not a courtesy. A Westbury house that shows well and can be financed belongs on the open market, and telling you otherwise would not survive you getting a second opinion.