TEN REASONS WHY YOU NEED A REALTOR TO SELL YOUR HOUSE1. The 2 most important considerations when selling a home is Price and Exposure. If your home has been on the market and has not sold it’s one of 2 things. It wasn’t priced right, or didn’t receive the right kind of exposure/marketing.
For a house that has already been on the market, in a relatively strong real estate market (the Marin Real Estate market peaked in July and August of 2005 and is still strong in some areas of Southern Marin) to bring it back on in a declining market as a For Sale By Owner, for many is seen as an act of desperation.
These sellers, even with a price reduction don’t seem to understand why they seem to only attract bottom feeders and predatory buyers looking for a steal … or realtors, that only chase listings that have expired and For Sale By Owners that they hope they can convert into a client.
2. If your house is not listed that means there is no assurances to the professional realtor that if they show your property, that their buyer might go around them and try and cut a deal with you. And, why not? It happens all the time. Some buyers, if they think they can save some money, will try anything.
Without a listing agreement, there’s no guarantee that the buyer’s agent will be compensated. Even if the FSBO offers to pay the buyer’s side of the commission, most agents won’t want to go through a transaction with a self-represented seller across the table.
This means the pool of potential buyers for FSBO homes is limited primarily to unrepresented and probably unqualified prospects.
3. For Sale By Owners is an attractive concept in a Seller’s market. However, when the market starts to turn cold history has shown that people tend to use Realtors.
4. In fact, a 2002 study on Home Sellers reports that the median sales price of an agent assisted home was 27% higher than ones sold By Owner.
5. For Sale By Owners are also locked out of many home search engines and Web sites including Realtor.com the number one site for buyers looking for homes for sale.
6. Buyers will feel intimidated. Potential buyers will spend less time in a FSBO home especially if the homeowner is present during the showing, and they’ll be shy about discussing it’s pluses and minuses with their own agent if the owner is within earshot.
7. Buyers will also be less inclined to make an offer if they know that they’ll be negotiating directly with the seller.
8. Having an agent on each side of the transaction creates an effective emotional buffer between the seller and buyer.
9. These are unusual times, the stock market and economic markets around the world are in a tailspin. Mortgage options are limited from what they had been, and the super jumbo loan rates have gone up significantly. This is not a good time to “test” the market.
10. And lastly, Buyers are worried about potential legal problems with For Sale By Owner sellers. As we all know real estate transactions are fraught with potential liability, particularly in California where there are extensive disclosure requirements. A For Sale By Owner who overlooks even one required form or legally mandated disclosure could face a protracted and expensive buyer lawsuit after the transaction closes.
