How to Sell a Small Business Without a Broker: An Honest Guide

Most business brokers will tell you that selling without one is a bad idea. They have an obvious incentive to say so. And most of the time, they are right. But not always.

I run a brokerage, and I am going to tell you something most of the people in my industry will not. There are real situations where selling your business without a broker is the right call. I lose deals because of this advice. I keep giving it because the alternative is letting an owner who clearly does not need me pay me anyway, and that is not how I want to do business.

This article is the honest version of how to sell a small business without a broker. It covers when DIY actually makes sense, when it does not, what the realistic process looks like, what it costs, and the mistakes that quietly sink most FSBO attempts. If you read it through and conclude you do not need a broker, good. Use it as a playbook. If you read it through and conclude you do, that is a useful answer too.

Selling a small business without a broker means handling the valuation, marketing, buyer screening, negotiation, and closing process yourself, typically with the help of a transaction attorney and a CPA. It works best for very small businesses (under about $200,000), sales to a known qualified buyer who has already approached you, and structured internal succession plans. Listing fees on platforms like BizBuySell run roughly $66 to $200 per month with no success fees. Direct out-of-pocket costs typically run $10,000 to $50,000 depending on deal size and complexity, versus the 8 to 12 percent commission a broker would charge.

The Short Version

• DIY makes financial sense for very small businesses (under about $200,000), sales to a known qualified buyer, internal succession deals (family transfers, ESOPs, key-employee buyouts), and owners with prior transaction experience and the time to run a multi-month process.

• Most BizBuySell listings run $66 to $200 per month with 3 to 12-month minimums and no success fees. Direct DIY out-of-pocket costs typically run $10,000 to $50,000 versus an 8 to 12 percent broker commission.

• Per Worldwide Business Brokers, only about 20 percent of Main Street businesses listed for sale actually close. Per IBBA data cited by EBIT Community, businesses sold without advisors earn roughly 31 percent less than those with representation. The empirical math favors broker help for most $1M-plus deals.

• The five most damaging DIY mistakes are pricing on emotional anchors, confidentiality breaches, failure to qualify buyers, weak LOI negotiation, and skipping pre-sale tax planning. Each one routinely costs more than the broker fee would have.

• Even on a DIY sale, you need a transaction attorney and a CPA. Skipping either is the single most expensive mistake first-time FSBO sellers make.

When Selling Without a Broker Actually Makes Sense

There is no point in pretending the math is the same for every deal. It is not. Here are the situations where, in my honest assessment, DIY is genuinely the right call.

1. Very small businesses, generally under about $200,000 in expected sale price. Most quality brokers will not list below $500,000 because the time investment does not pencil out at standard commission rates. The brokers who will often charge minimum fees of $15,000 to $50,000 that consume 15 to 50 percent of proceeds. For these very small businesses, listing on BizBuySell with attorney support at closing is often the only economically reasonable path.

2. Sales to a known and qualified buyer who has already raised their hand. If a family member, long-time key employee, supplier, or competitor with an existing strategic relationship has already approached you, the matching function a broker provides is largely already done. With a strong attorney, a professional valuation, and a structured negotiation process, you can usually do this on your own at meaningfully lower cost. The key word is qualified. "My nephew said he might want to buy it someday" is not a qualified buyer. A signed term sheet from a credible party is.

3. Internal succession transactions. Family transfers, ESOPs, management buyouts, partner buyouts. These are structurally different from third-party sales. They are usually multi-year transitions, the consideration is balanced rather than maximized, and the financing is often seller-financed or ESOP-funded. The advisors you need are tax attorneys, estate planners, ESOP advisors, and CPAs. Not business brokers. If this is your path, our exit planning guide walks through what these transitions actually look like.

4. Owners with prior M&A experience. If you have bought or sold a business before, worked in M&A, or are a sophisticated negotiator, you have a real advantage. You know what an LOI looks like. You know how due diligence works. You know what a working capital adjustment is. You can run a tighter process on your own than someone going through their first transaction.

5. Hot industries with active inbound buyer demand. Per BizBuySell's Q3 2025 Insight Report, brokers in service sectors like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and landscaping report "300+ active buyers in my database" and "not enough listings." If you are in one of these sectors with a well-prepared business and clean books, a basic BizBuySell listing may attract competitive bidding on its own. Your job becomes screening and negotiating, not finding.

If your situation does not fit one of these five buckets, the empirical case for broker representation is strong. Per IBBA data cited by EBIT Community, businesses sold without advisors earn roughly 31 percent less than those with representation. On a $5 million business, that 31 percent gap is $1.55 million, which is well above any reasonable broker fee. The data is what it is.

Can I sell my business without a broker?

Yes, but it makes financial sense in only a few specific situations: very small businesses under roughly $200,000 where broker minimum fees consume too much of the proceeds, sales to a known qualified buyer (family member, key employee, supplier, competitor) who has already approached you, structured internal succession plans like ESOPs, and owners with prior transaction experience and the time to manage a 6 to 12 month process. Outside those cases, the empirical data favors broker representation for most deals above $1 million.

When DIY Is Probably the Wrong Call

In equal honesty, here is when going alone usually does not work.

• The business is priced above $1 million. Per Rocky Mountain Business Advisors, the effective broker fee on an $8 million sale is closer to 5 percent on the Lehman scale, not 10 percent. The 31 percent value gap from going unrepresented usually swamps the fee. The math does not even feel close above $1 million.

• Confidentiality is fragile. Service businesses with high-touch customer relationships, professional services with key client concentration, and businesses where employee retention is brittle face confidentiality risks an experienced broker handles much better than an unrepresented owner. A leak does not just lower your price. It can permanently damage the underlying business.

• The owner is the business. If 50 percent or more of revenue depends on your relationships, expertise, or daily involvement, the buyer pool shrinks dramatically and the price drops with it. Per IBBA cited in J.Chang Law, owner-dependent businesses sell for 50 to 70 percent less than comparable businesses with management depth, if they sell at all.

• Books are messy. Cash businesses, businesses with significant personal expense run-throughs, and businesses without three years of clean reviewed financials are very hard for owners to package credibly. Per BizBuySell and the Exit Planning Institute, financial issues kill roughly 45 percent of deals. Unprepared sellers earn median proceeds of $6,000 versus $100,000 for prepared sellers per EPI: a 16x gap.

• You are in a hurry. Distressed sales recover only 10 to 20 percent of potential value per SBA statistics. If you have to sell in 30 to 60 days, neither DIY nor broker representation will save you from a bad outcome. The fix is not faster sale execution. The fix is fixing whatever is forcing the rushed timeline.

• You cannot tolerate buyer criticism without reacting. This sounds soft, but it is real. Buyers will criticize the business during diligence. Sellers who take it personally regularly kill deals that an intermediary would have managed through. If you know you have a short fuse on negative feedback about the business, that alone is a strong reason to put a buffer between you and the buyer.

If any of those describe your situation, going DIY is not aggressive. It is just expensive. There is no shame in concluding broker representation makes sense for your specific business. That is the reason brokers exist.

The Actual DIY Process: Ten Steps That Matter

Assuming you have decided DIY is the right path, here is the realistic order of operations. Skip steps at your own peril. Most DIY failures I see come from owners doing steps 7, 8, and 9 before they have done steps 1, 2, and 3.

1. Get a real valuation. Free online calculators are fine for a rough range but routinely produce numbers off by 30 percent or more. For anything serious, pay a credentialed appraiser (CVA, ASA, or ABV) for a Calculation of Value or Market Value Report. Costs run $2,000 to $10,000 for small businesses. The report is also a useful negotiation document. Most small businesses transact at 1.5x to 3.5x SDE or 4x to 7x EBITDA depending on size and industry. Our complete guide to valuing a small business walks through the methodology, and our breakdown of multiples by industry gives you the directional benchmarks.

2. Get your books and documents in order. This is the step that takes longer than first-time sellers expect. You need three to five years of clean financial statements, federal and state tax returns that reconcile to your P&Ls, a documented SDE or EBITDA recasting workpaper that explains every add-back, articles of incorporation, operating agreement, leases, key customer and supplier contracts, an asset list, employee roster (anonymized), and IP assignments. Our documents needed to sell a business checklist is the starting point.

3. Pre-sale tax planning with your CPA. Before you list, before you talk to any buyer, sit down with a CPA who understands transaction tax. Asset sale versus stock sale. Section 338(h)(10) and F-reorganization options for S-corps. Section 1202 QSBS for qualifying C-corps (potentially 100 percent federal exclusion on up to $10 million of gain held more than five years). Installment sale planning if you are going to seller-finance. Skipping this step routinely costs sellers 10 to 20 percentage points more in tax than necessary per Bessemer Trust and AAFCPAs.

4. Build the teaser and the CIM. The teaser is a 5 to 10 page anonymized document that goes out to inquiries before the NDA is signed. The Confidential Information Memorandum is the full 20 to 50 page document that goes out only after NDA: business overview, financials, products, markets, operations, growth opportunities, deal structure. Templates exist (Morgan & Westfield, Corporate Finance Institute, BizBuySell), but the discipline is in being honest about both strengths and weaknesses. Buyers find inconsistencies during diligence. Better to surface them upfront.

5. Pick your listing platforms and write the blind ad. Most DIY sellers list on at least BizBuySell (which auto-distributes to BizQuest and LoopNet) and BusinessesForSale.com. The blind ad restricts location to the county or state level, withholds the business name, and shows only industry, region, revenue range, and SDE. Use a personal email and phone number. Never use the business email or phone for any sale communication. Premium tiers like BizBuySell Diamond at $200 per month claim 5x the leads of basic listings, which is worth it for serious sellers.

6. Set up confidentiality protocols and screen inquiries. Set up a separate email address. Set up an NDA template (your attorney drafts the first version, free templates from eForms or LegalTemplates as a starting point). Pre-screen inquiries by asking name, business background, financial means, and reason for interest. Anyone who will not provide these is not serious. Once an NDA is signed, send the CIM. Do not share customer lists, supplier contracts, or detailed financials at this stage. Stage the disclosure progressively.

7. Qualify buyers financially before deep diligence. Before you let a buyer into deeper financials, request a personal financial statement, proof of liquid funds for the down payment, and (where SBA financing is contemplated) a pre-qualification letter from a lender. For seller-financed deals, run a credit check with the buyer's permission. Per Collaborative Commercial Business Brokers, failing to qualify buyers is one of the three biggest FSBO mistakes. Competitors disguised as buyers extract proprietary information. Tire-kickers waste months. This step is non-negotiable.

8. Negotiate the LOI carefully. This is your strongest negotiating moment. Per Mintz and Morgan & Westfield, the seller's negotiating position almost always peaks at LOI before exclusivity is granted. Define as many terms as possible in the LOI before signing: specific price (not a range), exclusivity duration with hard deadlines (30 to 45 days is seller-friendly), escrow and holdback amounts, working capital target, indemnification caps and survival periods, any non-compete or earnout terms, and a drop-dead closing date. Once you grant exclusivity without these defined, the buyer has the upper hand and you have committed to a process where terms only get worse. Get your attorney involved before you sign any LOI.

9. Manage due diligence in a virtual data room. Set up a VDR (free options like Peony, Google Drive, Dropbox for small deals; dedicated providers like FirmRoom, Ideals, EthosData, ShareFile for serious deals). Index documents consistently. Stage disclosure progressively. Track which documents the buyer accesses and where they spend time. Anticipate that buyers request 174 document types across 10 categories per Bloomberg Law. The most commonly missing documents per Peony are IP assignments, change-of-control contracts, sales tax nexus analysis, contractor classification documentation, and historical board consents. Have these ready upfront.

10. Engage your attorney and CPA for closing. DIY does not mean unrepresented. Your attorney drafts or reviews the definitive Asset Purchase Agreement or Stock Purchase Agreement, the bill of sale, the promissory note for any seller financing, the security agreement, UCC-1 filing, non-compete agreement, consulting agreement, and lease assignment. Your CPA handles the Form 8594 purchase price allocation in an asset sale (this matters: ordinary income vs. capital gains rate treatment hinges on the allocation). Closing attorney fees run $1,000 to $3,000 per side for simple closings. Full M&A representation runs $7,500 to $50,000 or more. Either way, do not skip this.

Where to List a Business for Sale (Platform Comparison)

BizBuySell is the dominant U.S. business-for-sale marketplace, with over 4 million monthly visits per its Insight Report and over 200,000 successful sales facilitated. It is owned by CoStar, the same parent as BizQuest and LoopNet, and a paid BizBuySell listing automatically distributes to all three. For most DIY sellers, BizBuySell is the first stop and often the only stop they need. The serious alternatives:

Platform	Approx. Cost	Min. Term	What It's Best For
BizBuySell (Basic)	~$66/month	3 months	Largest U.S. marketplace, 4M+ visits/month, auto-distributes to BizQuest and LoopNet
BizBuySell (Diamond)	~$200/month	3 months	Top search placement, BuyerBlast email, claims 5x leads vs. Basic
BizQuest	~$60/month	6 months	Sister site to BizBuySell (CoStar-owned); enhanced packages $100 to $150
BusinessesForSale.com	One-off pricing	Varies	Global reach (1.5M+ buyer visits/month); private seller and broker accounts
BusinessBroker.net	Subscription	Varies	28,000+ business and franchise listings; finance and loan center
DealStream	Free for sellers	None	Free posting; 20,000+ listings; targets investors and bankers
Rejigg	Free for sellers	None	Buyers pay; direct messaging; faster owner-to-buyer cycle
Flippa / Acquire.com	Varies	Varies	Online businesses, SaaS, and tech startups
Craigslist / Facebook	Free	None	Local listings for very small or hyper-local businesses

My recommendation for most DIY sellers: a BizBuySell Showcase or Diamond listing to capture the platform's volume, plus a BusinessesForSale.com listing for the cross-border buyer reach, plus targeted direct outreach to industry contacts (suppliers, customers, competitors) where appropriate. Free platforms like DealStream and Rejigg can supplement but rarely produce serious bidders for businesses above $500,000.

The platforms do not charge success fees. The listing fee is the entire platform cost. That is the headline number that makes DIY economically attractive. Just remember the rest of the cost stack lives off-platform: valuation, attorney, CPA, and your own time across 6 to 12 months.

What DIY Actually Costs

DIY sellers save the broker commission. They acquire everything else. Here is what the realistic out-of-pocket cost stack looks like on a small business sale in the $500,000 to $2 million range.

Cost Category	Typical Range	Notes
Listing platform fees (6 months)	$200 to $1,200	Across one to three platforms
Certified valuation (CVA, ASA, ABV)	$2,000 to $10,000	$5,000 typical for a small business
CIM template / writing help (optional)	$0 to $2,500	DIY templates available free
Transaction attorney (closing only)	$1,000 to $3,000	Per side for simple closing
Transaction attorney (full M&A)	$7,500 to $50,000+	Larger or complex deals
CPA: financial prep & tax planning	$3,000 to $10,000	Pre-sale tax structuring
Quality of Earnings (optional)	$5,000 to $25,000	On deals above $1M
Virtual data room (6 months)	$0 to $1,500	Free options exist for small deals
Total typical DIY out-of-pocket	$10,000 to $50,000	On a $500K to $2M sale

On a $1 million sale, that $10,000 to $50,000 of direct cost is roughly 1 to 5 percent of price. Compared to a 10 percent broker commission ($100,000 on the same sale), DIY appears to save $50,000 to $90,000. That is the headline math. The headline math is not the full math.

The full math has to include the empirical 31 percent average price gap between unrepresented and represented sales per IBBA, the 6 to 12 months of seller time spent (at 10 to 20 hours per week, that is 240 to 1,000 hours), the 20 percent base rate of Main Street listings actually closing per Worldwide Business Brokers, and the time-cost of a failed listing that returns the business to the market with stale-listing stigma. The headline savings often disappear into one or more of those factors. Sometimes it works out anyway. Sometimes it does not.

If you want to think about this question in honest depth, our guide to how much you can sell your business for addresses the realistic-pricing question. And our revenue-based valuation guide walks through how to think about the sanity-check ranges most owners hear from peers.

The Mistakes That Sink DIY Deals

After years of watching FSBO attempts succeed and fail, the same patterns kill deals over and over. If you are going DIY, internalize these. They are the difference between closing and not.

Pricing on emotional anchors. "I need a million for retirement" is not a valuation. "$100,000 for every year I worked" is not a valuation. Per Tom West (founder of modern business brokerage), pricing is the single most common cause of failure. Per IBBA Market Pulse, 51 percent of failed deals trace to unrealistic seller price expectations. Get a real valuation. Use the multiples your industry actually transacts at. Do not anchor on what the business needs to do for you. Anchor on what comparable businesses have actually sold for.

Confidentiality breaches. Listing the business by name. Using the business email or phone for sale communication. Talking with vendors or staff prematurely. Sharing detailed financials before NDA. Once the cat is out of the bag, customers shift accounts in anticipation of disruption, key employees update resumes, suppliers tighten payment terms, and competitors weaponize the rumor. Per Michael Shea's analysis of FSBO failures, confidentiality breaches have "ended careers, lost key employees, and destroyed customer relationships, sometimes before a deal ever closes."

Failing to qualify buyers. Sending the CIM to anyone who emails. Letting a competitor walk through under the guise of buyer interest. Spending three months negotiating with a buyer who turns out to have no financing. Per Collaborative Commercial Business Brokers, this is one of the three most common FSBO mistakes. Pre-screen by asking for proof of funds, business background, and reason for interest. Treat "I'm interested" without those three things as noise.

Talking to one buyer at a time. Without parallel buyer conversations, you cannot create competitive tension. You are stuck taking whatever the single bidder offers. Even simulated competitive pressure (telling a single buyer that other parties are reviewing the CIM) can move price. A real multi-buyer process is dramatically better, but it requires more discipline than most DIY sellers maintain.

Treating the LOI as a casual document. Per Morgan & Westfield, terms only get worse for the seller after the LOI is signed. Buyers find reasons to retrade after diligence. Sellers who grant exclusivity in a vague LOI lose all negotiating room and discover the buyer's purchase agreement is materially worse than what the LOI implied. Define escrow, holdback, indemnification cap, working capital target, exclusivity period with hard deadlines, and a drop-dead closing date in the LOI itself, before signing. Not after.

Reacting emotionally during diligence and negotiation. The buyer will criticize the business during diligence. They will. Some of it will feel personal. Reactive responses (defensive pushback, walking away, ill-considered counter-offers) damage deals that an unemotional intermediary would have closed. Build the discipline to take the criticism, address it factually, and stay focused on getting to close.

Skipping pre-sale tax planning. Per Bessemer Trust and AAFCPAs, sellers without pre-sale tax planning may pay 10 to 20 percentage points more in tax than necessary. C-corp double taxation, missed Section 1202 QSBS exclusions, suboptimal asset versus stock structuring, and mistimed installment sales can each cost six figures. The CPA fee for getting this right is $3,000 to $10,000. The cost of getting it wrong is regularly ten to fifty times that.

Even on a DIY Deal, You Need These Three People

DIY does not mean unrepresented. The owners I see succeed at FSBO sales without exception have a transaction attorney, a CPA, and either a flat-fee M&A consultant or a senior trusted advisor in their corner from start to finish. Cutting any of these to save a few thousand dollars is the most expensive mistake first-time sellers make.

Transaction attorney. Drafts and reviews the NDA, the LOI, the Asset Purchase Agreement or Stock Purchase Agreement, the bill of sale, the promissory note for any seller financing, the security agreement and UCC-1, the non-compete, the consulting agreement, and the lease assignment. Conducts UCC liens and public records searches. Coordinates closing-day execution. Critical detail: hire an M&A attorney, not your family lawyer or general counsel. Per Cornerstone Business Services, generalist attorneys often become "ultraconservative," fight non-market battles, and risk deal collapse over E&O insurance concerns. M&A experience matters. Closing attorney fees run $1,000 to $3,000 per side for simple closings. Full M&A representation runs $7,500 to $50,000 or more, with M&A partner rates of $500 to $800 per hour.

CPA with M&A experience. Prepares 3 to 5 years of clean financials. Recasts and normalizes for SDE and EBITDA. Handles pre-sale tax planning. Reviews the buyer's Form 8594 purchase price allocation in asset sales (the allocation between asset classes determines whether you pay capital gains or ordinary income rates). Plans for Section 1202 QSBS or Section 1042 ESOP rollovers where applicable. Coordinates installment sale planning if you seller-finance. Fees run $3,000 to $10,000 for routine pre-sale work; $5,000 to $25,000 for a Quality of Earnings on deals above $1 million.

Flat-fee M&A consultant or senior trusted advisor (optional but useful). This is the hybrid model. You handle the marketing and outreach yourself on BizBuySell. You hire a flat-fee M&A consultant ($5,000 to $25,000) to support negotiation, LOI structuring, and deal mechanics without paying the full success fee. Some sellers use the same advisor as a buffer between themselves and the buyer in tough negotiation moments. Done well, the hybrid captures most of the broker value at a fraction of the broker cost. Done poorly, it ends up worse than either pure DIY or full broker representation.

How long does it take to sell a business without a broker?

Most DIY business sales take 6 to 12 months from listing to close, with the median time-to-close on BizBuySell at roughly 170 days per their 2025 Year in Review. DIY sales generally take longer than broker-managed sales because of less efficient buyer outreach and more buyer hesitation about FSBO listings. Sales to a known buyer (family member, employee, supplier) often close in 30 to 90 days because the matching function is already done. Our deeper breakdown of how long it takes to sell a business walks through the standard phases.

How much does it cost to list on BizBuySell?

BizBuySell offers three FSBO listing tiers: Basic at approximately $66 per month, Showcase at a mid-tier price, and Diamond at about $200 per month, with 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month minimum terms. BizBuySell does not charge any success fee or commission. The listing fee is the entire platform cost, and listings auto-distribute to BizQuest and LoopNet, both owned by the same parent (CoStar).

The Honest Bottom Line

Selling without a broker can absolutely work. I have watched it work many times. The owners who succeed at it are usually the ones who fit one of the five DIY scenarios I described, who do not skip the attorney and CPA, who run a real process instead of winging it, and who go in with the eyes open about the 6 to 12 month timeline and the 200 to 500 hours of work required.

It also fails a lot. Per Worldwide Business Brokers, only about 20 percent of Main Street listings actually close. Per IBBA, businesses sold without advisors earn roughly 31 percent less. The math is what it is. For deals above $1 million in particular, the broker fee is almost always smaller than the value gap that representation closes.

If you read all of this and conclude DIY is the right path for your specific situation, use this article as the playbook and go. If you read it and conclude you would rather have professional help, get in touch. We will tell you straight whether your deal is a good fit for representation, and if it is not, we will tell you that too. The conversation costs you nothing, and the honest read is the only kind worth having.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell my business without a broker?

Yes, but it makes financial sense in only a few specific situations: very small businesses under roughly $200,000 where broker minimum fees consume too much of the proceeds, sales to a known qualified buyer (family member, key employee, supplier, competitor) who has already approached you, structured internal succession plans like ESOPs, and owners with prior transaction experience and the time to manage a 6 to 12 month process. Outside those cases, the empirical data favors broker representation for most deals above $1 million.

How much does it cost to list a business on BizBuySell?

BizBuySell offers three FSBO listing tiers: Basic at approximately $66 per month, Showcase at a mid-tier price, and Diamond at about $200 per month, with 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month minimum terms. BizBuySell does not charge any success fee or commission. The listing fee is the entire platform cost, and listings auto-distribute to BizQuest and LoopNet, both owned by the same parent company (CoStar).

What documents do I need to sell my business without a broker?

At minimum: 3 to 5 years of tax returns and financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow), an SDE or EBITDA recasting workpaper, articles of incorporation or organization, operating agreement, lease and major customer contracts, an asset list, employee roster (anonymized), insurance policies, intellectual property assignments, and any active litigation summaries. A teaser, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and a Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) are the marketing documents you will use to qualify buyers and present the business.

How long does it take to sell a business without a broker?

Most DIY business sales take 6 to 12 months from listing to close, with the median time-to-close on BizBuySell at roughly 170 days per their 2025 Year in Review. DIY sales generally take longer than broker-managed sales because of less efficient buyer outreach and more buyer hesitation about FSBO listings. Sales to a known buyer (family member, employee, supplier) often close in 30 to 90 days because the matching function is already done.

Do I still need an attorney and CPA if I sell my business myself?

Yes. DIY does not mean unrepresented. A transaction attorney is essential for drafting and reviewing the NDA, the LOI, and the definitive purchase agreement, plus ancillary documents like the bill of sale, promissory note for any seller financing, and lease assignment. A CPA is essential for clean financial statements, tax planning, asset versus stock sale analysis, and Form 8594 purchase price allocation. Skipping either of these is the single most common DIY mistake and routinely costs sellers far more than the fees would have.