When selling your home, it’s understandable that you want to cut as many costs as possible to earn as much as possible. But although selling your home For Sale By Owner (FSBO) may be tempting, there are many reasons why you should consider hiring a real estate professional.
1. Buyers – Most motivated buyers use an agent. They are looking to make a quick transaction and they are not going to waste time driving around looking for a “For Sale by Owner” sign. In addition, if they do actually find a FSBO they like, they still want to work with their agent for protection. They think they can get a deal because you won’t be paying an agent for your end of the transaction, so they make low offers anyway. Why go to all of the trouble?!
2. Correct Pricing & Marketing Plan – The market changes constantly and the strategy an agent uses to sell your home is an important factor in bringing you top dollar. Agents will price your home effectively and create a definitive marketing plan that will get your home sold in as little time as possible. It may seem like an easy thing to do, but one wrong move can leave your home on the market too long and make buyers question what is wrong with it.
3. Exposure- It takes casting a wide net to reach as many folks as possible to find that one special buyer for your home. A FSBO sign out front and listing your home on a few websites can’t compare to the power of the Multiple Listing Service and other networks real estate agents have access to.
4. Liability- Real estate laws change every day, and real estate agents stay current with them. It’s risky to think that you know what you need to disclose; what documents you need to provide to a buyer; what to do when you get in to escrow; what things you need to repair and what can be left alone; etc., esp. when we live in a day and age where people bring law suits at the drop of a hat. Not only do you open yourself up to litigation, agents do not want to bring their buyers to you. Why? Because you are a liability to them and their clients.
5. Logistics – Believe it or not, there is a lot of things that go into selling a home. Real estate agent’s know the process and can guide you through the entire transaction, from knowing what items to repair/prepare when getting your home ready, to staging your home, to announcing the sale to the community, to open houses and marketing, to negotiating, disclosures, inspections, appraisals, title reports, closing the deal and giving away the keys. And I promise you, the minute you put that sign out front, you are going to get hounded 24/7 by real estate agents wanting your listing, or asking if you will pay them to bring you a buyer anyway. It can be a real pain in the you-know-what.
6. Safety & Comfort for Buyers – You certainly don’t want to open your house up to just anyone, but at the same time, buyers aren’t comfortable looking at houses when the owners are around. How do you accomplish protecting your home, but not being there when buyers come to see it? Can be a pretty tough thing to do.
7. Ability- Buyers preview homes at all hours and if a showing is not convenient to them, they move on to the next house. Do you have the ability and time to answer every phone call and every knock on the door? Can you leave work to show your home to an out of town buyer at 10:30 am on a Tuesday? If not, you reduce the already narrow opportunities of selling your home to next to nothing.
8. Hassle- You will have to deal with the questions, the knocks on the door, the phone calls, and people wanting to walk through your home at all hours of the day and night. And that’s before you open escrow! Once escrow is opened, you will have to deal with the termite inspector, the mortgage evaluator, the home inspector, etc., when an agent can handle all of this for you, letting you concentrate on your move.
9. Negotiations- Do you know how best to evaluate a buyer’s offer and respond to their contingencies; to who pays for what closing costs; to their timetables for appraisals; inspections; financing and more? Will you be able to diplomatically ask for money if an offer is too low without alienating them? If you sell your home yourself, not only will you have to do this, but you will also have to run all of your concerns/complaints, negotiations for repairs, etc. directly through the buyer. Unless you’re an expert negotiator, this can be hard to do!
In the end, you will spend a heck of a lot of time, effort, money and heartache selling your home yourself, and ultimately may not make much more than you would paying a real estate agent’s commission. Why go to all of the hassle? I say it’s worth the money and peace of mind to hire an agent.
My So-Cal Backyard 