When it comes time to sell your house, your goal is to maximize the profit you earn from the sale. Some sellers will try to sell their home as For Sale by Owner (FSBO) in order to try and streamline the process and earn more money. However, going the FSBO route has become more trouble than its worth and more expensive than hiring a real estate agent. We are a little biased as to why you should hire and agent to sell your home, but the following tips are the plain facts about why its better to hire an agent versus doing it yourself.
Most importantly, you will net more money
How could hiring somebody make you more money? Here are the facts.
Zillow did a report on people that chose to sell their house using FSBO. 46% of them reported that saving money was one of the top three reasons for their decision. However, you will lose money by not hiring an agent. Homes listed as FSBO sit on the market longer (which is not good) and sell for less money than homes listed with an agent. The latest data reveals that the average sale price for FSBO homes was $200,000 versus $265,000 with an agent. You can’t argue with a $65,000 difference! The same Zillow report revealed “While 36% of sellers that [at first] attempted to sell their homes on their own, only 11 percent of sellers—in other words, less than a third…actually sold without an agent.”
Real estate agents have a strategy and vast resources
Multiple studies have shown that over 90% of home buyers search for homes online. Real estate agents have the MLS listing program to advertise your home, a real estate website to post it on, and a proven marketing strategy that will maximize the number of people seeing your home online. In addition, agents have a network of potential buyers to tap into to sell your home more quickly.
Negotiations
If you do not hire an agent to sell your home, these are just a few of the parties you will have to negotiate with on your own:
- Buyer, who wants to get the best deal as possible.
- Buyer’s agent, who is contractually and legally obligated to serve the buyer’s best interests.
- Buyer’s attorney (depending on where you live in the country).
- Home inspectors that are hired by the buyer and will most likely find something wrong with your house to negotiate the price down.
- The home appraiser, who will look at your home with a critical eye for what the home is truly worth
If you hire an agent (who is trained to talk with all of these parties and more) you don’t have to worry about managing, contacting, and negotiating with everyone. Agents make your job easier.
In general, FSBO has become much more difficult
The number of industry regulations and disclosures have become mandatory and increased nationwide over the last 20 years. As this has happened, the number of FSBO properties have dropped to just 8% of all homes for sale. The number of hoops you must jump through and the amount of regulations to keep track of make FSBO not worth the personal time and effort on top of looking for and buying a new home for yourself.
Overall, hiring an agent to sell your home will save you time and energy, and will sell your home faster for more money. If and when you are ready to sell your home, contact our agents. Our team is made up of local experts that are willing to give you all of the help and support you need. We helped 300 families buy new homes in 2019 and are poised to surpass that amount in 2020. Give us a call at 208.391.5308 to have a better home selling and buying experience.