When you sell your home yourself— also known as FSBO (For Sale by Owner)— it may seem like a great way to save money. Many people may think that acting as your own selling agent would be worth the savings. Here are seven reasons why you may want to reconsider.
Pricing your home can be something that is difficult to separate emotion from. After all, you know how hard you worked to get your home ready for sale and the work you put into it during your time owning the home. It’s hard to keep those things out of your mind while coming up with a price to list your home at.
Licensed Agents know the neighborhoods, the market, and comparable housing prices. Many things factor into making sure your home is priced effectively. Although you have the final say and an agent can’t force you to list at a certain price, their experience and knowledge should be given proper credit.
As a team, you will come up with a price together. Real Estate Agents want you to make money on the sale but they are going to have a realistic way of looking at things since they do not have any emotional attachment to the home.
Selling your house is not as easy as you might initially think. There are many of reasons you’ll want to have a real estate agent on your side. From negotiation to fielding interested buyers to getting to the closing table, hiring an agent to sell your home is likely to take a lot of stress off of your shoulders and may even get your home listed and sold more quickly potentially being the best decision you make during the entire process!
When it comes to selling your home, presentation makes a big difference. Many times sellers want to sell “as is” but they also want to make a profit. If the house needs some work or cosmetic updating, chances are it will sell at a cheaper price than it would with just a little bit of effort.
This situation can be avoided often times with minimal investment and effort. Paint, cleaned/new carpet, or even simply de-cluttering or adding simplistic decor can go a long way in totally changing the appearance of a home, both online and in person. These days people take to the internet to find a home, if your home isn’t appealing online, they are off to the next one and you may never get the prospective buyer in the front door. Licensed Real Estate Agents do this for a living and can help you know what to do to make it more appealing to prospective homebuyers. Typically, agents will also pay for professional real estate photography for your home to make it even more appealing! By investing a little, sellers can often times reap great rewards, but not all improvements work. If you are considering selling your home, it is a good idea to talk to your agent BEFORE you begin on improvements as they will know which ones might get you the most “bang for your buck.”
Yes, you can list your home yourself on Zillow, Trulia, Facebook, etc. But will that be enough? Even if you have a large personal or professional network, they won’t have much interest in spreading the word that your home is for sale. Without access to the MLS and without relationships with clients, other agents, or a real estate agency, you will have a MUCH smaller pool of potential buyers. A smaller pool of potential buyers means less demand for your property, which most likely will result in waiting much longer to sell your home and getting much less money than your home is worth.
Professional photos. Advice on improvements. Staging. List price. Larger buyer pool. Weeding out unqualified or unserious buyers. All these things and more mean higher offers when you use a licensed real estate agent to sell your home!
This is just another fact that goes into what a real estate agent does on the daily. Selling your home can be emotional as we’ve said before. An agent is removed from all of that. Their top priority is to get your house sold and if negotiations are involved (which they most likely will, from purchase price to inspection to closing dates) they aren’t going to have emotional ties that prevent making a good deal. They WILL NOT make a deal without your approval but as they are removed from this emotional side of things, they are able to give you better guidance and advice. Having a real estate agent present to help you refocus on the bigger picture will be essential to getting your house sold without getting hung up in the negotiation phase.
There is more than what meets the eye when selling a home. Licensed real estate professionals can get you to the closing table faster all while taking most of the stress off your shoulders. At one point selling a home on your own may have been an easy thing to do. There wasn’t much on the paperwork side of things and closings were fairly simple. Now, that is not the case. Closing paperwork is complicated and there are many state and federal regulations that have to be gone over, and closings can get overwhelming very very quickly. Many things come into play when selling your home including
- Disclosures
- Purchase Contracts
- Inspections
- Negotiations
- Deed Prep
- Title Work
- Financing
Although your buyer might have a real estate agent, they are going to be focused on their clients interests. You will need someone on your side, too. A real estate agent helping you sell your house is going to know all that needs to be done from time of listing to the day of closing, and they know how to do it LEGALLY! They’re going to know what needs to be disclosed, how to negotiate, and what to do if something comes up as paperwork is being signed.
Contracts, disclosures, and all else that goes into a real estate transaction are not always easy things to understand, especially if you haven’t gone through the process more than once or twice. Having an agent there to navigate the rough waters from listing to closing is a huge key to the successful sale of your home.
Selling a house can be a full-time job, and our agents are here to help take the weight off of your shoulders All of these factors and more spell out why using a licensed professional to sell your home will get you TOP DOLLAR for your home, and in a reasonable amount of time! Check out the “Our Agents” tab and reach out to one of our incredible, experienced, licensed real estate agents today!
https://www.thearnoldrealtygroup.com/agents/
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