The Pitfalls of Selling Your Home on Your Own!

Lately we have seen many For Sale By Owner Online Services coming up in the market, which generally charge you a lesser commissions to list your property privately as compared to a Licensed Real Estate Agent. Consumer gets attracted towards these services, as they want to save. Mark Weisleder (lawyer, author and speaker to the real estate industry) discussed a experience of one of the Ontario Consumers, in his column for the Toronto Star News recently.

This story tells about how this consumer started with a flying start and then fell all flat. She was able to list her home for $419,000 using one Private sale service and even create a bidding war after an open house. Eventually, she received an offer for $10,000 more than she was asking and accepted it: $429,000.

But then, the buyers were able to terminate the contract without a scratch, as Seller not being a professional in the field was not able to secure her interest and left some conditions in the contract, which were not in her favour. Later on, another buyer came along with their own licensed real estate buyer’s agent, who was able to negotiate her down to $405,000 and it sold. As the seller, she also paid the agent a commission of $8,000, bringing her money earned down to $397,000.

The seller herself said that if she had chosen to use a Licensed real estate agent to sell her home in the first place, she’d likely have sold her home for $430,000, and even after paying the commission, make $13,000 more on the sale of her home than she did selling it herself.

One lesson learned in this transaction is that if she said she probably would have felt she overpaid the agent if she had used one in the first place without going through the hassle herself.

This story is a example for many, as small savings in the beginning, can turn out to be huge Loss or a nighmare later on. Some times it is sensible to leave it to the experts. Just like you visit a Lawyer for Legal Representation, Doctor when you get sick and just like, you are expert in your own profession…..so why is Real Estate any different?