Why Selling A Home With a REALTOR® Beats FSBO

by www-tjandersonhomes-com

I’ve been a Nashville REALTOR for more than 15 years. Obviously, I’m sold on the value of what a REALTOR (specifically, I and my colleagues) can do for Nashville homebuyers and sellers.

But I’ve also been a repeat homebuyer in Nashville, and a repeat homeseller in Nashville. Every part of my experience shows me that selling a home with a REALTOR is easier, smoother, and all-around more effective than the for-sale-by-owner approach. If you’re getting ready to sell a Nashville home, I hope you’ll call a Nashville REALTOR — even if it’s not me — for a lot of reasons. Starting with an important one:

Data says homes sold with a Realtor bring in more money.

From a Realtor magazine story about “The Cost of Selling Without a Real Estate Agent”: “FSBOs earn an average of $60,000 to $90,000 less on the sale of their home than sellers who work with a real estate agent.”

When that piece went live, the median selling price for agent-assisted homes, nationwide, was $250,000 (according to data from the National Association of REALTORS).

For-sale-by-owner homes: $190,000. Cases where a seller hands the home over to someone they know: $160,300.

The dollars difference is stark, and significant. I completely get the desire to wring the most money possible out of your home sale. I also get how avoiding a REALTOR commission seems logical. The data just doesn’t bear out the dollars-and-cents benefits, and ultimately, sellers across the U.S. have been recognizing that. In recent years, FSBOs hit an all-time low, with only eight percent of sellers choosing to go it alone, down from 14 percent in 2004.

Money is, of course, just one consideration.

REALTORs help with a lot more than setting a market-appropriate price for your home. We also help make your home sale run smoothly, take time and frustration off your schedule, and weight off your shoulders.

What FSBO home sellers have to do themselves

Prepping your place

This is easier for handy sellers who are really into home design. But for many of us, knowing what kinds of deferred maintenance need to be dealt with, what upgrades are necessary and just how deep to go — it can be challenging. All that stuff is a balancing act of doing what’s best to attract and keep buyers without spending more time and money than you’ll get back. REALTORs who’ve been dealing with home sales in your area for years have the experience to help guide your decisions, and they have the instincts to see where your home’s problem areas are.

Finding qualified, serious homebuyers

Years of being in a “seller’s market” can make it feel like perfect buyers just pop up like summer-night fireflies. The reality is much more complicated. Before buyer’s agents start showing homes, we work with our buyers to make sure their budget is realistic and they can secure financing.

When you work with a good listing agent, they’re getting your home on the MLS, and actively marketing your property to other agents through social media and their own marketing lists and networks. Your REALTOR is connected and determined, and you’re benefiting from that. On your own, the likelihood of meeting a lot of unqualified buyers and tire-kickers — or worse, crickets — is a whole lot higher.

Scheduling showings

A listing agent will schedule and host open houses, field requests and vet them before bringing them to you, juggle your schedule and preferences and organize showings accordingly… Ultimately, they’ll shoulder the practicalities.

With a FSBO listing, you’re doing all that wrangling — and if you choose not to work with buyers who have agents (which dramatically reduces your buyer pool), you’re also showing your own place, which can be time-consuming and complicated (and fairly awkward, too).

Negotiating a selling price directly

Hate confrontation? You sure won’t love negotiating a home sale. Talking to a lot of onetime FSBO-ers, I’ve found that this tends to be the most painful experience — made that much harder by personal attachment.

A REALTOR can advise you, inform you and carry the weight of negotiations. It can be a tough process, but it’s objectively easier with someone who’s done it hundreds of times on your side.

Sorting and completing contracts

Negotiating a home sale comes with reams of fun contracts, with contingencies and conditions and time limits and lots of other helpful details. A REALTOR runs point on all of this, advising you, providing you with all the proper paperwork, and helping you move forward.

With an FSBO, you can hire an attorney, or you can work with the buyer’s agent as a transactional agent. However you decide to operate, the ball’s in your court for moving everything through and keeping on top of the details. Some sellers are wired for this, and excited by it. Some aren’t. It’s another thing to weigh out when you’re wondering whether working with a REALTOR is the right fit.