Hiring A Realtor To Sell Your Home Has Benefits....Serious
By Mark & Annmarie Lenson
People Like Us…….People Trust Us
Put Our Experience On Your Side……..We Sold Almost 800 Homes
Do not misunderstand this article. We never had a problem with someone trying to sell a home themselves. The major upside to a Realtor when someone tries to sell their house themselves is that when the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) does call in the Realtor, they tend to appreciate us dramatically more.
The bottom line is that homeowners will net 8% - 27% more when selling through a Realtor. Lately, 27% more. (See below for details on why.) Since tracking this figure from 1986-1990, the above percent stayed at 8% without wavering. Recently, homeowners research shows the homeowner making (netting) 27% more when using a Realtor. In addition, there is a lot more than the money to consider.
In this day and age, opening the privacy of your home to a stranger to go through your living room, family room, kitchen, bedrooms, etc..... is not worth the ramifications you can run into for the elusive savings you think you will get. Is opening your home to a thief, sexual offender, sadist, murderer, or whomever, whatever, worth it? If an incident happened to your home or family member, how badly would you wish you had used a Realtor, no matter what they charged?
Would you open your home NOW to a stranger? Then what is the difference when your home is for sale other than you are giving an open invitation to the world to enter your home?
Realtors are trained for the above situations. And, typically, you (the homeowner) are not home when the stranger is in your house. Realtors have a rapid sophisticated network to notify one another with descriptions and locations of thieves, rapists, etc... where they are lurking and what modus operandi is being used. Realtors are also trained to ferret out tire kickers and those who are not qualified to purchase a home.
Realtors can also follow up with Buyers without looking eager. For Sale By Owners can not.
When going through a house, seasoned Realtors know when to emphasize a feature, say nothing, or paint a picture of the Buyer's preference. It is all too easy for homeowners to talk themselves right out of a sale, or down in price, when they know absolutely nothing about the needs, wants, and desires of the person they are letting into their house.
Where do For Sale By Owners advertise? Newspapers and yard signs. Where are the vast majority of sales coming from? Via Realtors through the MLS system, the Realtor referral network system, and scores of other marketing methods. Ergo, the piece of pie the home seller is using to locate a buyer is only a sliver of the whole of where the marketing needs to be done.
Realtor's are trained to pre-qualify buyers before they even show them the house. Homeowners can only hope the person going through their home went to a qualified lender and reviewed their income, expenses, credit, savings, etc... and pre-qualified them for a pre-determined price range. A homeowner cannot expect an answer or certainly not a truthful answer if a homeowner were to ask a prospective buyer, "How much money do you make?" "What kind of credit do you have?" "What are your debts?"
On the chance that a homeowner locates a prospective buyer, what do they do next? This is where a Realtor truly shines. (See the Article On 200 Things A Realtor Does.)
Incorporated in the real estate fee is the agent assisting in the art of negotiating. Contracting, locating closing services to the homeowners advantage, bringing the homeowner through the extensive labyrinth of protecting the homeowner from all the trials and tribulations of the inspection and repair process, disclosures, changing closing dates if needed, etc..
When a homeowner puts their own house under contract, does the homeowner really think that someone else is going to do all this work for free?
