Selling Your Home For Sale By Owner

Apr 16th 2012

Posted By: Liza Valero @ 2:08pm In: Sellers Information

As the real estate market heats up, some Property Owners consider trying to sell their homes themselves, "For Sale By Owner".

The big question is why?

Property Owners trying to sell their home online To make more money - but will they? No.

Buyers looking to purchase "For Sale By Owner" homes are looking to SAVE money by not using a Real Estate agent.

They expect the real estate commission to be discounted from the price of the home.

Many times, sellers, not really knowing the market, under price their home. Additionally, because they are not in the real estate business, they may be charged more for all sorts of itmes- newspaper ads, a lawn maintenance company to spruce up the yard, a carpet cleaner to get the carpets fresh, a contractor to fix the roof. An agent will have relationships with these related industries professionals and therefor bring better value to the property owner.

A "For sale by Owner" seller can market their home on the internet, but it is time consuming and almost impossible to get the kind of online exposure a real estate agent can bring to the table. Agents do this every day for a living, they have systems in place to get the word out Globally, quickly.

There are numerous reasons why there will always be a need for Realtors, but I came across a particularly interesting example recently. Seems that the owner of one the nation's largest For Sale By Owner websites, after trying to sell his New York apartment on his own for six months, hired an agent, and paid the standard 6% commission to them when it sold. Oh and it sold for much more than what he had originally been asking. Read all about it in this great article in the Wall Street Journal Online.

I think this is just another example of why real estate agents are here to stay, let me know what you think!

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