Here’s an interesting fact for you: The number of people trying to sell their homes without the help of a REALTOR® remains at a record low. According to the 2007 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers put together by the National Association of REALTORS®, www.realtor.com, only 12 percent of the real estate transactions last year were for-sale-by-owner.
That number remains unchanged from one year earlier. FSBO propertiesIn fact, that number has been dropping since 1997, when a record-high 18 percent of real estate transactions were for-sale-by-owner sales. You can read about this trend here. This doesn’t surprise me.
Selling a home is no easy task even during a boom real estate market. When the market is slumping, as it is now, it’s even more difficult. Homeowners need the knowledge and skill of a REALTOR® who knows the market. Think of all the dangers of going the for-sale-by-owner route.
A REALTOR® knows what homes in your neighborhood are selling for. If you try to sell your house on your own, the odds are good that you’ll set a price that is too high (something that many, if not most, for-sale-by-owner sellers do) and your home will languish on the market for months before you finally make the adjustment.
Then there’s the marketing. In today’s housing market, you have to promote your residence to get showings. No longer can you simply pound a “For Sale” sign in your front lawn. Skilled REALTORS® will promote your home in newspapers and magazines and on the Internet. They’ll create high-end virtual tours that potential buyers can access 24 hours a day on their computers.
REALTORS® also network with other agents: Often the perfect buyer is found during these networking conversations.
How will you handle the showings your home does generate? REALTORS®, often working with their own teams of assistants, schedule showings, field follow-up calls about residences and make sure that all potential buyers are actually financially qualified to purchase your home.
And don’t forget the negotiation process. REALTORS® work with sellers to make sure they get the best price possible for their homes. This often means working with buyers who make offers initially deemed too low. Through careful negotiations, real estate agents can boost that initial offer so that it’s one that’s fair to both seller and buyer.
Most homeowners who go the for-sale-by-owner route do so because they don’t want to pay the commission on a sale to a REALTOR®. But here’s the problem with that thinking: For-sale-by-owner homes don’t sell for as much as do homes that are sold with the help of a REALTOR®. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, homes sold with the help of a real estate professional in 2006 sold on average for 32 percent more than did homes sold for-sale-by-owner. The median for-sale-by-owner price in 2006 came in at $187,200 compared to $247,000 for REALTOR®-assisted transactions.
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