Get pre-approved, find the house yourself, have a real estate lawyer draft or review your offer and contract, open escrow with a title company, and pay for your own inspection and appraisal; the agent's tasks do not disappear, they become yours.
This is the practical version of the previous question. Nothing here is difficult on its own. The risk is not any single step, it is that the steps have deadlines written into a contract you did not draft.
The order it goes in
- Get a real pre-approval, not a pre-qualification. An unrepresented buyer is already unusual, and a seller reading your offer wants a reason to take it seriously.
- Find the house. Public listing sites, driving neighbourhoods you want, and asking listing agents directly to show you their own listings.
- Price it yourself before you write anything. Recent nearby sales, adjusted for size and condition, and the price per square foot the area is actually getting.
- Have a lawyer draft or review the offer. This is the step to pay for. In states that use a standard association form the lawyer is reviewing rather than drafting, which is cheaper.
- Open escrow with a title or escrow company, and read what they send you rather than signing it.
- Book your own inspection immediately, and any specialist the inspection points at, inside the inspection period.
- Keep your own calendar of every contract date. Nobody is keeping it for you now.
- Read the closing disclosure against the contract, three business days before signing, and ask about every line that differs.
What people get wrong
Two things, over and over. Missing a contingency deadline, which quietly converts a refundable deposit into a non-refundable one. And assuming the listing agent is neutral: they are not, they are paid by and owe their duty to the seller, and they are allowed to be perfectly pleasant while being on the other side.
The third, less common but more expensive, is skipping the inspection to make an offer more attractive. An unrepresented buyer has already removed one set of eyes. Removing the other set is not a strategy.
What it saves, honestly
Since 2024 the buyer-side fee is negotiated rather than customary, so what you save is whatever you would have agreed to pay. Against that, put the cost of the lawyer, and the value of judgement you are supplying yourself.
It is a reasonable trade for somebody who has bought before and has priced the market carefully. It is a poor trade for a first purchase in an unfamiliar city.
Questions people ask
Can you make an offer on a house without an agent?
Yes. An offer is a written contract; anybody can make one. In most states you will use the standard purchase agreement form, and having a lawyer review it before you sign is the sensible version of doing this.
Who writes the contract if I do not have an agent?
A real estate lawyer, or the listing agent using their state's standard form, which you should then have reviewed independently. The listing agent works for the seller, so their draft is not neutral advice.
Will sellers take my offer seriously without an agent?
Yes, if the offer is clean: a real pre-approval, sensible terms and dates, and prompt responses. Sellers care about closing, not about who represents you.