The Case For Sale By Owner
Odds are the first thing your thinking of is that 6% commission you'll owe to sell your home. When you're talking about a $300,000 home that's real money. By selling it yourself you've put yourself in place to control most aspects of the selling process. Of course this means that it's entirely on you to get this home sold. Beyond listing you in the databases and a yard sign kit, you're responsible for finding prospective buyers, showing them the house and handling the house sale process. This means you get to control when the house is available to show and you don't have to be constantly vacating your home when the realtors are around.
Things to Look Out For with For Sale By Owner
1. Multiple Listing Service
I would not consider any form of service to help sell your home without a realtor that didn't list your home with the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This is the system that real estate agents will access to show their potential buyers homes. It's also the database that feeds most any of the research tools for prospective buyers. You'll be missing a huge portion of your target demographic by not being in that database.
2. Security
Security is definitely something to think about when selling your home yourself. That will be your phone number listed. You'll be the one showing your home with strangers so you should take adequate precautions. This is really a shared concern for realtor or not but one you should consider nonetheless.
3. Don't Forget the Buyer's Agent
Remember that a traditional 6% commission with a realtor pays 3% to the buyers agent. If you don't offer that commission there's little incentive on the buyers agent to show their clients your home. So just because you listed your home for $500 doesn't mean you won't be paying out another sum of money for the pleasure of getting agents in your home.
4. The Closing Process
Many of the packages from the various services do not include help during the closing process. There is a lot that goes along with this process and having someone to help guide you through all of the steps is very helpful. You might want to hire a Real Estate Attorney or pay an agent a flat fee to help you with this process.
5. No Mediation
In the event that something goes wrong in the process the realtors are typically the intermediaries in this process. If you are doing it yourself you'll have to interact directly with the buyer. Those who have been in this position will tell you that it was very helpful to have their agent in the middle of this process.
6.The Case for Hiring a Realtor
Selling a home is a large proposition and I can bet you would like to get the best money you can as quickly as possible. You probably are not an expert on real estate and 2 months spent online researching real estate is not a replacement for a good realtor who knows the business, the local market and the process. They will have the best information available with respect to market research so that they can recommend the best price for your home. They'll be able to offer you tips on making your home more attractive to potential buyers. They'll show your home for you, field all inquiries and present offers to you as they come in. In essence they remove the burden from you, with the exception of keeping your house clean. They'll often highlight your home to agents in their office and schedule previews with groups of agents from other offices. In short they'll be able to provide a lot of qualified leads that you might not know how to find.
Also don't let cost be your sole determining factor. In many cases the commission is negotiable and agents might be willing to reduce their fees .