Selling a house by yourself, also known as “For sale by owner” is a great way to put your home on the market. It can help you save tons of dollars, but it’s going to be a lot harder to achieve.
Real Estate Agent vs For Sale by Owner hide
However, thanks to a real estate agent, selling your house is going to be easier than if you decide to sell it by yourself.
For this reason, we are going to give you 15 reasons to choose a real estate agent over For Sale by Owner, so that you reconsider your choice of selling a property without assistance.
Reasons to pick a real estate agent instead of For Sale By Owner
1. Getting the price right
As a homeowner, your goal should be to sell your house as fast as you can so you can move to a different property. But are you aware of the current worth of your home on the marketplace? If not, then you need to hire a real estate agent.
Discover what’s your property really worth
They know a lot about home pricing, and they will help you look into recent sales in your area so that you choose the right price. Also, they will compare the recent sales with your house, to determine if your pricing is wrong or not.
If you choose an agent with experience, they will assist you in getting the best price possible for your home sale in the region you live in.
2. Emotions are not in the way
It’s not easy to sell a house, and when you are in the process of putting your home for sale, emotions may get in the way. For instance, you could become emotional the day your house starts getting rejections or negative comments.
Choosing to hire an agent for support can eliminate the process where owners make mistakes of overpricing the property, or selling the house at a low price because it’s not receiving enough offers for an extended period of timr.
Additionally, if you can’t find out why your house is taking so long to get sold, a real estate agent will do the job for you by finding the possible issues and addressing them properly.
3. Attention to detail
Selling a house means dealing with a lot of paperwork. Before selling your home, you need to know what you’re getting into regardless of whether you want to buy or sell.
Purchase agreements can top 8 pages, not to mention federal, state and local documents that are required to sell a home. Fortunately, your agent knows what to do with all the paperwork.
You should consider this if your plan is to save money. Some mistakes or omissions in any document can cost you as much as the commission you were trying to avoid paying, or even more.
For example: Maybe a buyer makes an offer on a house, but it’s reliant on getting a mortgage. There’s no chance that the buyer could buy the property without securing financing, but there’s no contingency put into the purchase agreement to let the buyer out of the deal if financing doesn’t work.
The buyer has the obligation to go through with the sale or be sued if it turns out that the mortgage is not going to happen. What you can do is consider hiring a broker for a short period of time to review your contracts before signing.
4. Fiduciary duty
Your real estate agent has your back no matter if you are selling or buying. Agents have what’s called “Fiduciary responsibility” to their clients. They are legally committed to put your interests first.
As a buyer, do you want to turn over the most intimate financial aspects to a sale by an owner who has no legal obligation to keep everything under wraps? The same applies for turning all information over to a seller’s agent, who has no fiduciary obligation to you but only to the seller.
Your own real estate agent would know whether any information from the other agent is reasonable or not. On the other hand, if you feel like your agent has lied to you or has shared confidential information with other people, you can report it to the National Association of Realtors.
5. Free time
Let’s say you are in a meeting at your workplace and you get a call from an interested buyer. You know you might not be able to answer the call and you might be turning down a great sale opportunity.
Furthermore, you might not be able to leave work early if someone wants to take a look at your house. And since you are not an experienced realtor, this can be a challenge sometimes.
Now, imagine having a real estate agent do it all for you, meaning you won’t have to worry about getting surprising calls while you work. This means your schedule won’t be disturbed at all.
6. Get free from listing
While you can list your home by yourself, you probably don’t have time to keep up with the next steps. Moreover, not being a professional realtor will limit your chances of reaching more potential buyers due to the fact that you don’t have many contacts in the industry.
By getting the help of an agent, you will get rid of all the listings and follow-ups and sell your house in less time because:
- Agents have a long list of contacts that include buyers, investors, and more agents.
- They will spread the word about your home.
- Thanks to their connections, they can get more leads involving potential buyers.
7. You don’t have to negotiate
Even if you know about sales, you might not have enough experience when it comes to negotiating your home sale. On the other hand, the buyer’s agent can be pretty smart and it can win against your negotiation skills, paying you less money than you deserve for the house.
Are you familiar with real estate property deeds, or with who pays the transfer fees or taxes and deals closing prices? If not, then you need an agent.
8. Leave out unqualified buyers
An agent can find out if someone wants to take a look at a house to make an offer, or if that person is just a curious neighbor. It’s a lot of work and a major issue every time you have to alter your schedule to clean your house to make it look perfect for a house tour.
The best thing you can do is limit those hassles to the actual showings where you will receive offers. Realtors have the knowledge to ask the most solid questions to determine how serious of a prospect someone is and if they are potential buyers.
Also, they will ask how long the buyers have been looking for a house to purchase, whether they have seen other homes that would fulfill their needs, and so on.
9. Overlook your home flaws
A real estate agent is an expert in what makes a house sell. They can walk through your house with you and point out changes you have to make to start attracting buyers to get juicy offers.
They can also help you determine which feedback from potential buyers to go with after you put your property on the market to improve your chances of selling it.
10. Plenty of options
If you are looking for a real estate agent, you will have a lot of professional resumes to check. For instance, if you live in Florida, then you will be competing with a lot of sellers, so you are going to need professional help.
11. Multiple listings
One of the biggest challenges of selling your house using a for sale by owner is to list your house. By hiring a real estate agent the process will be easier. These professionals will find the best way to distribute your home to potential buyers.
Advertising is a pay-for-play procedure, so selling your house without help will require you to spend money you might need for other things. Working alongside a real estate agent provides you home access to the MLS, which is considered to be the main system all real estate agents use to browse the most up-to-date house listings.
Bottom line
Finally, if you decide to go with a for sale by owner, you will have a harder time selling your house. The best way to go is to look for a real estate agent who can help you sell your property.
You can try to do it by yourself, but if you want to save both time and money, a real estate agent is going to assist you in every step of the way. An agent brings expertise, which few FSBO sellers have, so you shouldn’t leave a complex transaction as a house sale to someone who won’t do an impeccable job.
With our list of recommendations, the process of selling your house won’t be so stressful and traumatizing for you.
