Real Estate Agent, Realtor, or Sell It Yourself? A Lake Wedowee Seller's Guide to the Three Options

When people on the lake decide to sell, the first question is usually not “what is it worth.” It is “do I need to hire somebody for this?” Some of our neighbors have sold a lake house on their own and done fine. Others have called us after three months of showings that went nowhere. And many people use the words “agent” and “Realtor” as if they mean the same thing, which they do not.

This article lays out the three options honestly, from a seller’s point of view: selling yourself, hiring a licensed real estate agent, and hiring a Realtor. Along the way we have added short notes for buyers, because the choice a seller makes changes the experience on the other side of the table too. Yes, we are Realtors, and we will tell you where we think that matters. We will also tell you where it does not.

Option one: selling it yourself

Selling without an agent is legal in Alabama, and some people do it well. The honest case for it is simple: you keep the money you would have paid a listing brokerage, and you control every showing, every conversation, and every decision.

The numbers show how uncommon it has become. In the National Association of Realtors’ 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, for-sale-by-owner transactions fell to 5 percent of sales, a historic low, while 91 percent of sellers used an agent or broker. The same report found that 60 percent of owners who sold on their own already knew their buyer, often a friend or relative. That is the situation where selling yourself makes the most sense: the buyer is already found, and what you need is a closing attorney, not a marketing plan.

NAR also reports that the median FSBO sale price was $360,000 versus $425,000 for agent-assisted sales. We want to be careful with that figure. It does not prove an agent adds $65,000 to a house; the two groups sell different kinds of homes in different places. What it does show is that owner sales cluster at the lower end, and that the savings on commission are not the whole math.

Here is what selling a lake house yourself actually involves, based on what we see people run into:

Pricing with almost no comparable sales. Lake Wedowee is a small market, and waterfront homes vary so much by water depth, shoreline, and location on the lake that two houses a mile apart can be worth very different amounts. Public sites do not handle this well; Redfin’s Wedowee page, for example, has shown a median built on a single sale over a three-month window.
Getting the house in front of buyers who are not local. Most of the buyers we work with come from the Atlanta, Birmingham, and Auburn areas. Reaching them means more than a sign on the county road.
Handling the lake-specific paperwork. Every dock and seawall here sits on Alabama Power land under a permit that the guidelines say is non-transferable without Alabama Power’s written consent, with written notice to the shoreline office at least seven days before transfer. Miss that and your buyer’s closing can stall.
Knowing what you must disclose. Alabama is a caveat emptor state for existing homes. The Alabama Real Estate Commission’s consumer page says that neither the seller nor the seller’s agent, unless asked, is required to disclose defects except those which might pose an immediate health or safety risk, and that sellers must not misrepresent conditions they are asked about. Where that line falls on a given septic system or seawall is a question for an attorney, and an owner selling alone has to find that answer on their own.
Being available. Showings happen when buyers are on the lake, which means weekends and holidays, and every one of them is you.

For buyers: an owner-sold house is not a bargain by default. You are negotiating with someone who has no professional obligation to you, in a state where the burden of inspection falls on you. Under the 2025 changes to Alabama law, a buyer can tour a home without signing an agreement but must have a written buyer agreement before an agent helps prepare an offer. If you are looking at an owner-sold property, that agreement is how you get someone on your side of the table.

Option two: a licensed real estate agent

Every person who sells real estate for others in Alabama must hold a license from the Alabama Real Estate Commission. Getting one takes a 60 clock-hour course and a state exam, then a 30-hour post-license course within the first six months, followed by continuing education every two years. Licensees also work under a broker and are bound by Alabama’s agency and disclosure law, which the Commission enforces.

That license is the baseline. It means the person can legally list your house, put it in the multiple listing service through their brokerage, handle the forms, and get paid for it. For a seller, hiring any licensed agent gets you four things an owner sale does not: a second set of eyes on price, a brokerage behind the marketing, someone else answering the phone, and a professional who is accountable to a state commission if something goes wrong.

What a license alone does not tell you is whether the agent knows this lake. A licensee from Birmingham or Atlanta can list a house in Wedowee. Whether they can explain to a buyer what the dock looks like at winter pool, or where the 795 foot line falls on the lot, is a different question. When you interview agents, ask how many waterfront sales they have handled on this lake specifically.

One more change worth knowing. Since April 18, 2025, Alabama law requires a written listing agreement before a licensee markets a property, and that agreement must state the brokerage’s compensation. So the fee conversation now happens in writing, up front, with any agent you hire. There is nothing hidden about it.

For buyers: a licensed agent on the listing side owes you honesty but not loyalty. Their duties run to the seller. The practical benefit to you is that the house will be in the MLS with accurate information, the forms will be the current state-approved versions, and there will be a licensed person responsible for what you are told.

Option three: a Realtor

Here is the distinction most people miss. “Realtor” is not a job title or a license level. It is a trademark. The National Association of Realtors says the term identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of Realtors and subscribes to its Code of Ethics, and that only members can call themselves a Realtor. Membership runs through a local board and the state association, and members must complete ethics training every three years.

So every Realtor is a licensed agent, but not every licensed agent is a Realtor. What does the difference buy a seller?

The Code of Ethics is the main thing. It goes beyond what state law requires, and NAR describes its purpose as requiring members to cooperate with each other in furthering clients’ best interests. In practice that cooperation is what makes the MLS work as a shared marketplace: your Realtor lists your house, and every other Realtor in the region can bring a buyer to it. A seller can file an ethics complaint with the local board, which is a route that does not exist against a non-member.

The second thing is the paperwork and training ecosystem. Realtor associations produce the standard forms, run the courses on new laws like the 2025 RECAD changes, and keep their members current. When the rules changed twice in eighteen months, which they did, that mattered.

What membership does not guarantee is experience on your lake. Plenty of excellent Realtors have never sold waterfront. So the question for a seller is not “agent or Realtor” in the abstract. It is “which Realtor knows Lake Wedowee.”

For buyers: when you work with a Realtor on the buying side, the Code of Ethics applies to how you are treated too, and after the 2024 national settlement your Realtor’s compensation is negotiated with you in writing rather than set by the listing. You know what you are paying for before you make an offer.

Where we fit, and where we might not

We have been Realtors with Lake Homes Realty on this lake since Terry got his license in 2009, after we moved here full-time from Carrollton. Terry retired from the Georgia State Patrol as a Major; Sherrie came out of sales and marketing and handles staging and design on every listing. Terry shows most waterfront by boat, which answers half of a buyer’s questions before they walk in the door, and we started Lake Wedowee Home Management because so many of our clients are not here year-round.

That is what we offer. We will also say plainly: if your buyer is your brother-in-law and you have agreed on a price, you do not need us, you need a good closing attorney. And if you would rather work with another Realtor you already trust, we would rather you have good representation than none.

If you are somewhere in between, which is most sellers, the difference between the three options usually comes down to how the house is priced, who sees it, and whether the lake-specific details are handled before they become problems at closing. Those are the things we do every week.

Talk it through before you decide

If you are weighing these options for a lake house, call us at 404-317-5120 or use the contact page. We are happy to walk the property, give you an honest read on price and timing, and tell you whether we think you need us. Sometimes the answer is no, and we will say so.