Looking to sell your home without a Realtor? Do you want to connect with buyers, sell your home for the most money, save the commission of a Realtor and sell quickly so you can get to where you really want to be living in the shortest amount of time?
Then you must attract the most buyers for your home and get the best offers. Just like anything that is up for sale, you need to attract a qualified buyer. Let's take a look at how buyers shop for homes, what buyers do, and where buyers look when they start their search.
To begin with its now well known that just about everyone in the US is on the internet. In fact, 9 out of 10 Americans are now online.
When home buyers take their first step towards buying a home, 41% of them begin searching for homes on the internet. There are another 11% that start on line to get information and learn what to do. So 52% of all buyers take their home buying 1st step on the internet! By the way this is up 35% from just a year ago. About 48% use some other method as there 1st step in finding a home. The majority are online and that number is growing.
Once we get past the 1st step for all buyers, and ask how buyers searched for a home during the time they were looking to buy, 90% say they used the internet to help them find a home. Of those buyers that were under 44 years old, 96% went on line and used the internet to help find a home! The other number to keep in mind is that the median age of a buyer is 31 years old.
Armed with that knowledge in considering selling a home "For Sale By Owner", your first conclusion must be that you have to get your home online where buyers are looking. You'll have a 52% higher chance of attracting a buyer if your home is online than if you just stick a sign in your yard and pray someone knocks at the door.
Now you know you have to be listed for sale on the internet, and you also know your property must be listed on the websites where buyers actually go to look for homes. But, from what we know in our studies about buyers, is that they prefer to work with an agent and they use professional real estate agent websites to find homes for sale.
Those numbers also tell us that even though buyers like to use the internet to find a home, more buyers than in the past are using an agent to buy a home. Educated buyers see good value in hiring an agent.
Home buyers are more sophisticated and well informed than ever before. They have more tools and technology at their fingertips than ever before, (and they enjoy using it). They live fast paced lives, and they have less time to spend haggling with novice sellers.
Buyers prefer working with a professional real estate agent or broker to buy a home because they can see all the benefits of having a professional on their side. The numbers show us that 87% of all home buyers purchased a home through an agent or broker! That number has actually increased not decreased over time.
Buyers see the value in having a real estate professional at their side. A Realtor costs them nothing, it saves them time and it gives them an experienced consultant to work through the process of making the largest purchase in their lives. The question for the FSBO becomes, Why wouldn't you want to work with an agent? Especially when they bring buyers. Perhaps you as a seller simply are looking to save a few dollars in your pocket or you can't afford to hire a real estate professional.
Selling on your own to save the commission money.
The point of selling without a professional Realtor is usually to keep the commission and save some money isn't it? The only problem with that is that the numbers show that FSBOs will have a different result. Research shows that sellers that hire a professional real estate agent to list and sell their home are more likely to get more money than those people that don't. For example, According to NAR, The typical FSBO home sold for $174,900, compared to $215,000 for agent-assisted home sales. That's more than a $40,000 difference!
How is it possible that there is such a difference? One issue is obvious, real estate professionals know the markets and know the business of selling. They know how much a home should sell for at any given time. They are like doctors always taking the pulse of the market and prescribing the right prescription to get a home sold.
Another reason is that when a buyer buys from a for sale by owner, they are the ones expecting a discount! They know the seller has cut out the agent and that there is more room for negotiation. The buyer wants to get a deal! They want to save the extra money that the seller was hoping to pocket and they will take advantage of the seller. So is the seller really getting value for cutting out the real estate agent? Wouldn't a seller get more by hiring an agent? Of course they would.
Going the FSBO route means you have to take on a second job that you are not trained for. This is not like selling a car in the auto trader. This is a house and its like taking on a second job. You have to do the work of promoting and setting up open houses, answering phone calls from 9am to 9pm, professionally market the home, contact other agents and your sphere of contacts to let them know the home is for sale, buy and set the signs, find and pay the fee for an online FSBO company to post your listing on the internet and the Multiple Listing Service, negotiate with buyers, learn which contracts and documents to use, how to handle the negotiations and follow the local, state and federal laws related to home selling, plus a whole lot more that comes with closing.
It all sounds easy at first, however, when you're looking to sell your home without an agent or broker, you're taking on a whole lot more! If you're thinking it might be time to find an agent contact me via text or phone at 941-894-4063 or click on the link to reach the Sarasota Suncoast Team. We are connected to 90,000 agents across the world through Keller Williams Realty. We can help you find an agent and get your home sold for the most money, in the least amount of time.
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