Selling Your House By Yourself? Be Patient With Your Client!
You've decided it's time to sell your home. Once this decision is made, then the questions start coming.
- How much is my property worth?
- How long will it take to sell?
- What does it cost to sell my property?
- How much will I net after the sale?
All great questions! As a consumer, where can you get these answers?
In the age of the Internet, it's common to take to the keyboard to do some research. There is plenty of information online, but you'll quickly see that it's not specific to your real estate market. Of course you can call a real estate agent to ask some questions....but you're thinking of selling the home yourself. How hard can it be? You set a price and stick a sign in your yard?
Let's talk about specifics.
Pricing:
Pricing is more than picking a price and putting it on a flyer. Many people will use the online sites, such as Zillow, to guess the value of their home. But that's just a estimate....a Zestimate. These sites use data from a wide variety of sources and are only a ballpark, nothing to use in pricing your home.
A real estate agent will use concrete market data from their MLS (Multiple Listing Service). They pull actives, back ups and closed sales to get a picture of the market.
- How many comparable homes are currently active and in back-up
- How quickly are homes selling, average time on the market
- What are the list prices and how close are the sales prices
- Ratio of closed to active properties...determine how many months of inventory
Once you get this data, you and your agent will talk about your goals, timelines and needs to determine a list price that will achieve these goals.
So now you've picked a price, time to market the property. Now most buyers start their searches online. The era of searching the supermarket real estate magazines and the back of the paper for ads is gone. By the time those publications come out, the homes are normally sold...and buyers know this.
You need to be online!
If you are going to sell your home yourself, how can you do this? The truth is you can't. Members of the MLS list properties they represent online and these are then pushed out to other public sites via syndication. A consumer does not have access to this service so you are missing out on hundreds, or thousands of real estate search sites and exposure.
What are your other options for marketing? There is always the sign, FSBO, in the yard. Perhaps if you are in a very busy location you might get a response.
"What about open houses?"
Sure...do those! Lots of them. The truth is that most of the people who come into open houses are just curious. They are driving by on a lazy afternoon and would like to peek into a home...just to see what it's like. Again, serious buyers are online searching and then arranging to see what they like with their agent.
If you do find a buyer, often they are using an agent. Most FSBO sales involve paying a commission to a buyer's agent. But remember, a buyer's agent is not just bringing you a buyer, they are also representing that buyer. The buyer is expecting a better price because you are not paying the full commission, and you are often grateful for an offer. An experienced buyer's agent will take advantage of this.
A quick search of the sales data in any market shows that homes which are sold by owner sell for less than those which are represented by an agent. *
As you get into the sales process, there are other aspects of the close where negotiation can take place; termite, home inspections, appraisals. Navigating through these stages can also cost more money. Add to that the fact that you might not have a back up offer, due to the lack of exposure, and you could feel desperate to keep that buyer happy.
That's not coming from a position of strength and could cost you money!
I understand that the idea of keeping a few extra thousand dollars is appealing. Anyone can open a door and put a sign in the yard. That's so true! But that's not why you hire a real estate agent. You hire them because they know the market, they know the other agents, they know the inventory....they know how to navigate the process....for a successful close.
In the end, your pocket book might be bigger because you hired an experienced agent.
*http://www.realtor.org/field-guides/field-guide-to-quick-real-estate-statistics
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