Let’s do a little refresher course.
Today’s housing market is a huge industry, involving several different groups of realtors, banks, and customers. It can be daunting to think about selling your home yourself, or “for sale by owner” (fsbo) as it is widely known, but thousands of people do it every year and save money.
According to the National Association of Realtors, FSBO home sales accounted for nearly 10% of the market in 2010. The other 90% were agent-assisted. For sale by owner real estate has been a growing market and increasingly puts pressure on realtor agencies to sell at competitive prices and get the best deal for their clients. Here are the top 3 reasons that fizbo’s (slang for “for sale by owner” home sellers) decided to do the hard work without the assistance of a realtor and brave the housing market themselves.
Take Your Time and Avoid Stress
More often than not, homes sold through realtors are priced higher than homes sold FSBO. This is due to pricey commission rates for buyer/seller agents. Although they know the industry, using agents increase home prices which in turn increases the time it takes to sell. When you are your own realtor, you are free to market and sell your house at your own pace and with a more reasonable asking price. Agents also have the disadvantage of dealing with several properties at once, so they might be inclined to sell a home even though it isn’t selling for what its really worth in order to increase their turnover.
Attention
Typically in 2010, realtors were juggling several different properties on any given week. Realtors only have so much time that they can devote to your property, and depending on the asking price and how much they’re guaranteed on commission, certain homes could remain lower on realtor radars than others. Selling your home For Sale by Owner allows you devote the time and put in the extra effort to showcase your home in its most attractive light. After all, who knows your home better than you? The homeowner is the best seller.
Commission
Perhaps the biggest and most tantalizing reason to sell your house For Sale by Owner is the amount of money homeowner stand to save by avoiding paying agent commissions. Statistics show that agent-assisted homes typically sell for more than FSBO homes, and that is because realtors factor their commission into asking prices. If you’re working with a realtor who stands to get a 3% commission off a $250,000 home, that’s $7,500 dollars going to their pocket. Why not price the house lower, sell it faster, and save thousands of dollars by selling your home yourself?
Though the incentives are great, home sellers have to be prepared to do the work in order sell their homes successfully. Plenty of market research is necessary when determining an asking price, as that’s the biggest reason why certain homes don’t sell and others do. Several services are available online specifically for For Sale by Owner home sellers. Flat Fee Multiple Listing Services are cheap and get homes into databases of available homes and in front of the eyes of buyers. There are also services available to help with price negotiations, the sometimes confusing paperwork involved, and closing the sale. Yigdigs has several much-needed services to help FSBO’s sell their home fast and save thousands.
Tags: 3 reasons to go fsbo, For Sale By Owner, FSBO, Yigdigs
