Today everyone is trying to save money and one way people are trying to save money is by selling their home by themselves without using a real estate agent.
Unfortunately, many do-it-themselves home sellers truly underestimate the commitment required to sell a home on their own. Every aspect of selling a home takes a lot of time from marketing the home to figuring out the correct sale price with the best terms.
Over time, a home owner may sell his property, but at a heavy cost of lost time due to incorrect pricing and ineffective marketing all of which may cause them to regret trying to sell their home on their own in the first place. Don't be penny wise and dollar foolish.
Many times homeowners who decide to market and sell their home without using a licensed real estate agent or a Realtor(R) there's a good chance that they will ultimately become extremely frustrated with the home-selling process and may eventually list their home with an agent anyway.
One of the many reasons "For Sale By Owner" (FSBO) homes fail to sell quickly is that they set the sales price much too high by trying to avoid a monetary loss.
Secondly, there is a very good chance that the home seller did not perform an accurate market analysis on their home. A market analysis is a very important step in setting a homes selling price because it takes into consideration other recently sold comparable homes in their neighborhood. Not taking the time to do this step could certainly set the home seller up for failure early on.
Another pitfall an FSBO may fall into is the inability to correctly assess the salability of their property because they ignored such details as curb appeal, clutter inside their home and other distractions that could create a negative impression of their home to the buyer. Real estate agents know how to deal with buyers and know how to anticipate buyers' objections and can fix these problems before they affect the sale of the home.
Other areas that very well may hamper an FSBO's successful sale of their home are listing the home and being available for showings.
Lastly, unless an FSBO is familiar with the entire sales process such as dealing with all the written contracts, handling negotiations and counterproposals, ordering home inspections, dealing with title companies, ordering a competent NHD report and the closing of escrow, these could be the straw that breaks the camels back for the home seller. Unless you are really ready to tackle all of these issues, you should really leave the selling of your home to a professional. You'll be glad you did.