Driving around town lately I have been seeing a by owner company advertising on billboards with the headline "Now more than Ever". I could not help but to think to myself that they are exactly right, but not in their favor.
In a tough, buyers market does it really make sense do have less service? Or to pay a fee to a company that could care less if your home sells or not? Or for that matter does it even make sense to hire an agent for a discounted fee, knowing that they will not be giving you a full service package?
The fact of the matter is that most sellers, think what an agent charges will come out of what they will net, without weighing how much it could really cost them by not using a good full service agent. I understand this may sound confusing but I will explain.
Let me put into another context if you were going to buy a new printer and there were 2similar ones for sale, one for 200 and the other for 350. Most would opt for the 200 printer. But what if you found out the 200 printer uses more ink and the replacement cartridges cost $20 more than the 350 model. You can see you may have paid less up front but in the end it really cost you more.
Now more than ever good agents are continuosly honing thier skills and using every tool available to get as much exposure to get their listings sold.
Can folks really afford to have limited exposure, less information, and less representation? Every year around this time of year we start seeing what the median sales price for agent assisted sales compared to FSBO sales. These studies consistently come show that FSBO homes sell from 16%-30% less than Agent assisted sales. To further put this into context in my market, per the MLS the average home sold for 95.20% of List to Sales price. not too shabby right? I studied my numbers in comparison to that and found my listings sold for over 98%.
My point is that I totally understand someone wanting to try and saving some money, and I absolutely believe it is possible to sell a home without an agent, but what you save and what it cost you will not be the same.
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