Thinking FSBO? Top Five Reasons to Sell Your Home with a Real Estate Agent Instead
If you have been considering putting your Waterloo region home on the market for sale now is a great time. If you are considering ‘skipping the middleman’ and attempting to sell it yourself – for sale by owner or FBSO as it’s more commonly known – hold that thought.
Maybe you are balking at the idea of losing ‘all that money’ to a Realtor in commission. Perhaps you think that your son’s photography skills and your niece’s ‘social media’ savvy are all you need. However, the success rate of sale-by-owner homes is not impressive. As with any service, using a professional has its distinct advantages. Here are our top 5 reasons to work with an agent when selling your home.
You’ll Maximize Value
First of all, let’s address the elephant in the room. It’s quite true that when you hire a real estate professional to help sell your home you will, after the sale has been made, end up paying them around 5% of the sales price. Which can sound – or look – like a lot when you are actually writing the cheque.
However, we can assure you, they are worth every penny. Agents understand how to navigate the local market and properly price your home to sell in ways that you simply aren’t trained to. This experience and expertise mean they can maximize your sales price, netting you a much higher profit, even with their commission fee, than you would ever have been able to achieve if you ‘went FSBO’.
Marketing Matters
Selling your home calls for much more than putting a for sale sign in the yard and listing it on Craigslist, in the local paper and/or sharing a few pictures on Facebook.
When it comes to marketing the best real estate agents do much more than meets the eye. Before they list your property, they’re going to help you professionally stage and present it. They will then arrange for professional photography of your property to ensure it commands attention. Increasingly that even includes professional videography, which is the case, for example, when you list with us at Team Pinto, as you can see below.
After that, any good Waterloo Region real estate agent will then build a whole marketing campaign around your property and showcase it to a far wider network than you (or that social media savvy niece) could ever do alone. All of this usually results in a faster sale at a better price and guess what? It’s all a part of the service.
Super Staging
We have said it here so many times but for such good reason; staging a home when selling elevates a property to its fullest potential and can help it sell for more money.
Staging can be as simple as decluttering and removing your personal items or as in-depth as refurbishing areas of the home or, as often the case, somewhere in between. The goal is to present potential home buyers with a home they can envision themselves living in. Real estate professionals can help you ensure that your home is staged correctly and that a decor faux pas or a forgotten (but essential) repair does not derail a sale.
The Less Hassle Solution
Selling a home is no easy task. Trying to sell it yourself can be a life stealing nightmare. When you hire an agent, they’ll take care of everything from start to finish. Go it alone? You are, sorry to say, in for some big – and not so pleasant – surprises.
Beyond the preparation of listing your home, you also have to find time to show the property to prospective buyers. On their schedule. You’ll need to stage an Open House to create some buzz (especially without that professional advertising ) and as people who do it most weekends, we can tell you that even for the pros it’s very hard work.
You’ll need to determine the best asking price based on months worth of statistics. You’ll have to field offers (if and when they come in) negotiate a final deal and then make sure the closing goes ahead quickly enough to satisfy your buyers. You’ll need to know what to do and say if the buyer’s home inspector raises a red flag. And all of this is just for starters.
Agents make the entire process hassle-free. They’ll schedule all of your showings, host open houses, and vet worthy prospective buyers. They’ll handle all negotiations and paperwork, and you don’t have to lift a finger. And because they’re professionals, they’ll be able to make this all happen far faster than you could ever do on your own.
Buyers – and Their Agents – Just Don’t Like FSBOs
One big disadvantage to selling your own home that is often not mentioned is that most buyers don’t want to deal with owners directly. Owners often have unrealistic expectations for the outcome of the sale of their home and as a result, their emotions – and lack of experience – can influence their ability to successfully sell their home both quickly and for the right price.
Buyers simply often feel uncomfortable touring a home with the seller and will often simply get it over with ASAP because of this fact, barely stopping to consider the home at all. Agents know that they are in for some major problems if their clients even consider making an offer on an FSBO and they know that they will end up doing far too much work because, in order to serve their clients, they’ll have to pick up the slack and arrange what the FSBO seller does not know how to just to get the deal done. So they are rarely going to be keen to show their buyers the property at all.
In the end, selling your home is a big deal and for most, it’s their biggest asset on the line when they do. Therefore is it worth taking unnecessary risks simply to ‘save money’ (which most FSBO sellers don’t anyway) We don’t think so. Do you?