For Sale By Owner Guide Suggested Reading

Thousands of homeowners decide to sell their home without using an agent, and many are successful. 

Before you decide to sell your home without professional representation, consider these factors carefully.

Why Do People Have a Real Estate Agent Sell Their Home?

• Professional Protection:  Your home is probably your biggest asset.  You want to do everything you can to protect that asset and your proceeds from its sale.  If something goes wrong from a legal standpoint, there can be an abundance of liability.  Realtors are trained to complete the process in compliance with all the laws, disclosures, regulations and standard procedures.  By using a Realtor, once the sale closes, it is really closed, and contesting the sale is much more difficult.  Also, good Realtors are covered by $1,000,000 worth of liability insurance and errors and omissions insurance.  If you don’t have an agent represent you, you do not have that protection.  Having Realtors show your home using a lockbox means that buyers will be screened by the Realtor and accompanied by an agent.  The lockbox records who enters your home, and the last agent through is responsible for the proper care of your home.  Selling a home yourself means you may let anyone through your personal home. 

• Increased Exposure:  Putting a sign in the yard and ads in the paper will give your home some exposure.  Real estate agents have contacts with potential buyers, the Multiple Listing database, and effective marketing strategies to try to generate enthusiasm for your home from as many buyers as possible.  Our team also has a marketing specialist (Laurie has an MBA in it) to create more emotional appeal that buyers will respond to. The more potential buyers there are, the more likely it is that these buyers will compete for purchasing your home.  Real estate agents use various negotiating strategies to create this competition.  In some markets, such as the one that's ending now, it’s not uncommon to have multiple buyers bid against each other, increasing your sales price.  With a Realtor, buyers can get information about your home at any time, and view your home all the time.  In selling the home yourself, it is on the market only when you are available to answer questions or show the home.

• Fewer Headaches:  Most homeowners can sell their own homes.  The question is whether they want to take the time to learn the process, then apply that untested knowledge toward selling their biggest asset.  Remember your first attempt at anything complicated.  Was it a complete success, or a learning experience? Successful real estate agents have sold hundreds, perhaps thousands of homes.  They’ve learned something from each sale, and they apply that knowledge toward selling your home.  You keep doing what you do well, and a real estate agent can take care of the legal and organizational details of selling your home. 

• Value:  Sellers sell homes themselves usually because they want to save the 5-6% commission.  When buyers make an offer on a For Sale By Owner home, they will frequently automatically offer at least 6% less than your asking price because they want to save the commission, and even more if you've said, "but we're flexible."  But the buyer and the seller can’t both save the commission.  When a buyer represented by a buyer’s agent makes an offer on a For Sale By Owner home, the buyer’s agent will try to get a full commission because there isn’t another agent to help him finish the sale.  Most For Sale By Owner homes are sold to a buyer represented by a Realtor, who negotiates for a living.  So the seller is at a disadvantage, unless the seller is a professional at negotiations.  At this point, sellers need someone to use powerful negotiation strategies (Tim, our negotiating lawyer can share some with you) to persuade the buyer to pay more.  Because of more marketing exposure and strong negotiation, the seller can pay a commission to the agent and still net even more money than if the owners sold it themselves, not to mention save money on the carrying costs of owning a property sometimes many months longer than necessary. 

We would like to interview for the job of marketing and negotiating the sale of your property.  It takes about 20 minutes, and there's no obligation, just useful information.  If there is a good fit between you and our team, we can work together to help you achieve your real estate goals.