PROS

Selling your home without an agent means More Money. If that's not an incentive, what is? By selling it yourself you save the fees or commissions (thousands of dollars) that you would have to pay an agent. But beware, many people make costly mistakes that will cost much more than hiring an agent plus a lot of undesirable stress.

CONS

Real estate agents are paid good money for a reason. Selling a home takes a lot of time and energy. Open houses, dealing with potential buyers, closing sales and dealing with the legal issues are familiar turf for us and our experience can impact the sale.

Be realistic about what you are willing to do. Will you drop everything to make a showing? Are you able to ‘close the deal' and ask for an offer? It is not everyone who can take on such a big project or can handle the tension of dealing with buyers.

1) An agent can Evaluate Your Home

Choosing the right price for your home is crucial to making a sale. You risk everything if your price is too far off the current market. You don't want to discourage buyers because you are pricing too high and you don't want to throw away equity because of a low asking price.

2) Will Prepare Your Home for the Market

Now it's time to look as objectively at your own home as you did to other peoples' homes.

Your prospective buyers will be scrutinizing your home; has it been taken care of or neglected? Will there be expensive repairs or are they hiding something? Taking the time to clean up and make repairs will repay you with confident buyers anxious to make an offer on a home that has been properly taken care of.

3)  Advertise Your Home

Place the home in the MLS, many other internet sites, signs, flyers, postcards, etc. This is very costly and the agent pays for this expense and what happens if the house does not sell? The agent eats the cost.

4) Knows how to Show and Sell Your Home

An agent knows how to deal with potential buyers and weed out the good ones from the bad. For example...credit pre qual......

5) Understands Legal Issues

Selling and buying homes requires legal paperwork. Writing contracts to sell your home is tricky business and normally need an agent or an attorney to help you.