Selling a home buy owner versus using a Realtor

Listing a home with a Realtor is a better alternative than For Sale By Owner, there are many avenues which Realtors can access to market your home for you which you cannot. Not to mention, a Realtor will ensure a buyers capability to purchase your home when reviewing a contract... ensuring they are pre-approved or show proof of cash funds.

A For-sale-by-owner, or FSBO, you're only in front of buyers who view your ad in the newspaper, on Craigslist and a few other avenues which are not top SEO rankings and anyone who happens to drive by the house. A proven and successful Realtor will expose your home to their entire database of buyers, discuss with their team of partners and/or Broker your home and share it with these colleagues, place your home in the MLS, or Multiple Listing Service Database and other avenues they use for marketing if they are an aggressive and professional Realtor. With these tools, you immediately have a large pool of potential buyers. Who do you think will be more successful in selling your home? Listing your home yourself versus hiring a Realtor with the knowledge, expertise and tools to sell your home. A Realtor knows how to build a market analysis and tell you what your home is worth and what It should be listed for. A strongly active Realtor will promote their listings and themselves monthly, over and being promoted by their Broker and the MLS. A successful Realtor invests in promoting themselves and their listings.

How many homes would you sell yourself in a lifetime? Now think about how many homes a successful Realtor closes in a month? A Realtor know all the logistics of buying and selling a home, will walk you through every step of the process, ensure you have the appropriate documents and disclosures to protect you as a seller, has access to legal documents you will not be able to use otherwise, will know particular requirements for various type of loans and if an offer being presented meets the requirements to close and handle all of the potential buyer showings for you. Research has shown that mistakes, pricing errors, and lack of negotiation skills, you’ll cost yourself more than the agent’s commission by trying to sell it yourself.

The main reason owners try to sell on their own home, is to save money on the commission. On average, homes sold by owner sell for more than 10% less than if sold by a Realtor. For sale by owner homes make up a very small percentage of home sales. Read these articles from Realtor.com for more information on this topic:

http://www.realtor.com/Basics/Sell/Why/Fsbo.asp

http://www.realtor.com/basics/sell/why/userealtor.asp

Cathy Starkweather
Realtor & Investment Home Specialist
La Rosa Realty, LLC / Celebration, FL
cathy@jerrybarker.com / 01.407.274.8476