Why You Should Not Sell Your House As A For Sale By Owner

In this market there are a lot of home sellers that contemplate the concept of selling their house on their own without the services of a Real Estate Agent. They are trying to keep their costs to a minimal and in the process are willing to do some extra things on their own to sell their home as a For Sale By Owner. Does it work? Well 10% nationally sold their home without the assistance of a Realtor to list their home for them last year....ironically, 9% of those that sold involved a realtor in the transaction one way or the other...... And the average for sale by owner tends to get less money for their house than a home listed for sale by a Realtor...On average the price is 21% less. We have all heard the story by now of the owner of forsalebyowner.com tried to sell his home last year for a little over six months unsuccessfully and hired a Real estate agent to list and sell his house and even after paying the 6% in commission he still made $150,000 more than what he had it priced at. Most FSBO'S tend to hire a Realtor at some point in the process. Now one knows the exact number but it is well over 80% of the families that try to sell their home give up. Today, I met with and spoke in great detail with a family that tried that route.... They explained to me the perils they went through in trying to sell their house. Finding comparable sales for the house were very difficult. They had to scrounge through various websites to see if they could come up with a price that would work. After that failed they interviewed a couple of Realtors to get their price opinion on their house and used that as a pricing matrix. Second, getting calls at all hours of the day and night about wanting to see their house....They said the phone would ring starting at around 7a.m. in the morning to well after 9p.m. at night and even more so on the weekends.... it was quite frustrating dealing with all the calls they said and not knowing if the person on the other end of the line was legitimate or not. Third, having random people just walk up to their door unannounced and ask if they could see the house because they saw the sign out in the front yard....Most of the time that happened at night with the kids getting ready for bed or during dinner hour. Without the prep time of knowing someone wants to look at the house they were scrambling to keep the house clean at all times....With three children actively involved in sports and extra curricular activities and both parents working...You can only imagine how difficult it was. Fourth, having complete strangers walk through the house not knowing if they could buy a house or not...Were they casing the house out for a potential robbery? A few people they said made them feel uneasy.. Fifth, advertising the house...How do they advertise it? What do they write? How many photos do they take? What type of pictures do they take? Where do they put it? How will people find their house? Paying for all these services including getting it out there on the internet cost money....Almost as much as it would cost they said to hire you. Sixth, not knowing what to do if someone wanted the house. How do I write an offer? How do I know if their mortgage is approved? What are the steps involved in the process? There were they said various websites to help you through the process; but it is very difficult to navigate with a full time job and children at the same time. Last, peace of mind of knowing that with a Realtor they can set some of the guidelines and boundaries and not feel overwhelmed led them to call me today.... Is selling a house on your own doable? Maybe. Is the savings there versus hiring a Realtor to help you sell your house? Probably not...There is a lot of factors that need to be weighed in when you are looking to sell your home on your own. these were ones that they never really thought would be too bad until it was happening to them.....And probably the reason more than 80% of FSBO's end up using a realtor at some point Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker Coldwell Banker United www.davedicecco.com.