Selling Your Home by Yourself or through a Real Estate
The 700,000-strong National Association of Realtors is lobbying for laws that would require the need for real estate brokers or agents as part of the home sales transaction. Much to their disappointment, no laws have been enacted since the beginning and homeowners can still sell and represent themselves in a home sales transaction.
Despite advices given by residential real estate brokers that sellers are better off with a sales agent, homes for sale by owners of FSBOs are fast gaining popularity in the market with as many as 30 percent of homeowners making successful sales without the help of home brokers and agents. More sellers are attracted to the prospect of selling their homes via FSBOs to do away with the 5 to 7 percent commission given to home real estate brokers and agents. This could translate to a big amount of cash depending on the price of your home.
Marketing your home as an FSBO entails a big responsibility that will require time and focus from the homeowner. Simply put, the homeowner will take over all the activities that agents and brokers usually perform when selling their clients’ homes. This includes inclusion in the local realtor listing services, aside from the advertising and marketing the home.
All potential buyer showings should be personally attended to, as well as making calls and follow-ups to buyers or their real estate brokers. The job of checking out the background of potential buyers will also rest on your shoulders. Despite this seemingly difficult job in marketing the home for sale, homeowners using this method find it worth their while. The bigger cash out after the sales closure is their motivation to pursue home sales via this path.
However, with the current market trend where a significant increase in foreclosure homes have flooded the market with more inventories of homes for sale than there are buyers, homeowner’s selling their homes on their own will be in a tight spot. It has become a buyer’s market and sellers will need all the help that they can get.
