Should you list your home For Sale By Owner?

This newsletter will be focused on for sale by owner listings. While the majority of homes are listed and sold by real estate agents, there are some home sellers who choose to do the selling on their own. It can be tempting to sell on your own to save on costs, but what you may not know is the amount of money you can potentially lose out on. This newsletter will break down some important distinctions between using a realtor versus selling on your own.

The first disadvantage to selling on your own is the lack of exposure your house will receive. Typically, you can only find these listings on specialty sites like zillow for sale by owner. The house will not show up in the listing service that every single real estate agent uses. Therefore, all of the buyers and clients real estate agents have will never get a chance to see your home.

Another disadvantage is not having access to comparable home sales in your area. All you can do really is go on sites like realtor.com or zillow.com and try to pull recently sold data. The info that you get on these sites is poor compared to what a real estate agent can find using the MLS. A good agent , as an example, can narrow the search down to looking for only 3 bed, 2 bath homes, 1200-1400 square feet, in a .25 mile radius, for homes sold in the past 60 days. A good agent can also look and see how many offers were received. They also can look at the data and find key differences in properties that affect value. A better location on a less busy street, for example. An open floor plan with higher ceilings. Maybe the value is affected because it is 1 street over and is in a better school district. There really are so many factors that come into play when assessing home value.

Finally, the biggest disadvantage is the fact that it is listed as an FSBO. People searching for these typically want to buy at a discounted price. They are looking for a deal. And since you don’t have anyone to negotiate terms on your behalf, you are more susceptible to getting a low offer. Further compounding this issue is days on market. For example, let’s say you list your home for sale, but you listed it $20,000 too high. You love your home. In your eyes, it’s perfect. But, in reality, its worth $20,000 less than what you are selling it for. Because of this it doesn’t sell the first month. Or the second month. Or the third month. At this point, if you do receive any offers, chances are they will be significantly lower than asking price. You will get lowball offers, which could have been avoided had you listed it at a competitive price and advertised across all online platforms, like what happens automatically when you use an agent.

Time is our most valuable commodity. More than money, as you can’t make it back. The older I get, the less I do things myself. Like fix my truck. Sure, I can save a few hundred bucks changing out spark plugs on my truck, but it’s going to take me longer than a mechanic can do it. That’s time lost for me to save a little money. In the case of your home, you will almost certainly be missing out on tens of thousands of dollars, maybe more. You will also be waiting longer for your home to sell, all the while paying the mortgage and other home expenses. All this to save a couple thousand dollars on real estate commissions.

I have a 32 page For Sale By Owner packet that I give out to all clients that end up selling with an agent after trying to sell on their own. You can see it on my blog by clicking the link below. Feel free to download it and see just how important it is to list your house with an agent.

FSBO.pdf

Download PDF • 44.05MB

This is Reggie Powell, Realtor DRE# 02143105 Your Yolo County Real Estate Expert. I live locally in Woodland. It's a great community and a great place to live.