FSBO or Not
By Robert J. Bruss, Inman News
DEAR BOB:
Twelve years ago we successfully sold our home "for saleby owner" and saved the real estate sales commission. Now we aretrying to sell our townhouse without an agent and are encounteringnothing but problems. The additional legal paperwork and requireddisclosures are amazing. More important, we discovered that evenpaying a local Realtor to put our listing into the local multiplelisting service (MLS) for a $795 fee hasn't brought results. Thelocal agents aren't showing our home although it is reasonablypriced and we offer a 2 percent broker co-op commission. We had onevery serious buyer who came back three times. But she wanted us toreduce our sales price by 6 percent to compensate since we wouldn'thave to pay a sales commission. Any suggestions how we can sell ourhome and save the sales commission? --Norman V.
DEAR NORMAN:
No. As longtime readers know, I do not recommendattempting to sell your home alone without a professional realestate agent. Although I am a real estate broker, unless I sell arental house to my tenant, I always list it with a local Realtor.There are many reasons.
Full-time, professional real estate agents know local market values,whether they are rising or falling. By attempting to sell alone, youcould be vastly underpricing your home. Or maybe it is overpriced soprospective buyers will stay away.
Most prospective home buyers shy away from "for sale by owner"newspaper classified ads. They fear the seller is "strange" for notlisting with a realty agent. There is a good reason more than 80percent of home sales are handled by real estate agents.As a do-it-yourself home seller, although you paid $795 to put yourlisting in the local MLS, that doesn't mean it will be activelymarketed. The MLS is a very powerful marketing tool, but your homealso needs exposure on the Internet, such as www.Realtor.com, andother Web sites, which only a pro-active listing agent can provide.Offering a mere 2 percent sales commission to a buyer's agent is aninsulting joke. Get realistic. In today's competitive home salesmarket, you should list with a successful, aggressive real estateagent to get your home sold and to comply with today's disclosurerequirements to prevent future legal problems.
DEAR BOB:
Twelve years ago we successfully sold our home "for saleby owner" and saved the real estate sales commission. Now we aretrying to sell our townhouse without an agent and are encounteringnothing but problems. The additional legal paperwork and requireddisclosures are amazing. More important, we discovered that evenpaying a local Realtor to put our listing into the local multiplelisting service (MLS) for a $795 fee hasn't brought results. Thelocal agents aren't showing our home although it is reasonablypriced and we offer a 2 percent broker co-op commission. We had onevery serious buyer who came back three times. But she wanted us toreduce our sales price by 6 percent to compensate since we wouldn'thave to pay a sales commission. Any suggestions how we can sell ourhome and save the sales commission? --Norman V.
DEAR NORMAN:
No. As longtime readers know, I do not recommendattempting to sell your home alone without a professional realestate agent. Although I am a real estate broker, unless I sell arental house to my tenant, I always list it with a local Realtor.There are many reasons.
Full-time, professional real estate agents know local market values,whether they are rising or falling. By attempting to sell alone, youcould be vastly underpricing your home. Or maybe it is overpriced soprospective buyers will stay away.
Most prospective home buyers shy away from "for sale by owner"newspaper classified ads. They fear the seller is "strange" for notlisting with a realty agent. There is a good reason more than 80percent of home sales are handled by real estate agents.As a do-it-yourself home seller, although you paid $795 to put yourlisting in the local MLS, that doesn't mean it will be activelymarketed. The MLS is a very powerful marketing tool, but your homealso needs exposure on the Internet, such as www.Realtor.com, andother Web sites, which only a pro-active listing agent can provide.Offering a mere 2 percent sales commission to a buyer's agent is aninsulting joke. Get realistic. In today's competitive home salesmarket, you should list with a successful, aggressive real estateagent to get your home sold and to comply with today's disclosurerequirements to prevent future legal problems.
posted by Susan VanSlyke at 9:11 AM
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