Would you be interested in selling your house yourself? Why should you pay a Realtor to sell it? The reason most people decide to go the For Sale By Owner route is to save on paying the Realtor commission of 5% or more. And I agree, that can turn into a sizable chunk of money.
But do you want to go through the headaches that come along with it?
Even though you’re not a Realtor, if you sell it on your own you are still subject to many of the same regulations that Realtors have to adhere to. Do you know under what circumstances you need to have a sign Lead Paint Disclosure on file? What do you do about the seller’s disclosure? When you email documents back and forth, do you know how to send them safely encrypted? These are items that people selling by their own need to have answers for.
Sure you can put an ad up on many of the websites designed for people selling on their own. And you can put a sign in the lawn with your phone number. And you will probably get calls to see the house. But are the buyers qualified? Can they actually afford to buy your house? And are they really interested in looking at your house with the idea of purchasing it? Or do they have some other reason for getting into your house?
But let’s talk about the finances. As I said, many people who go the For Sale By Owner route are doing it to not have to pay the Realtor commission fee. Well it’s a fact that the median price of a house which is sold by realtor is 14% higher than the median price of a home sold by the owner. So if you will get, on average, 14% more for the home, does this justify saving a 5% Realtor commission? Not according to my limited math skills.
And there’s another reason why you should have a Realtor. It used to be 87% of all sales were handled by a Realtor. That number is now increased to 95%. So that really limits the amount of available buyers that you can market your home to. And a large amount of the remaining 5% will be transfers between family or acquaintances.
So if you can get, on average, more for your house while using a Realtor, why wouldn’t you?