For Sale By Owner

So you've decided to sell your home and you want to try it yourself without using a Realtor.  Many sellers still assume they can sell their own home themselves without using a Realtor.  Some people have had bad experiences with Realtors, some just want to save on the commission, some maybe financially unable to pay a commission (maybe going through a divorce or lose of a job), some have tried it in the past and had success, some just want to try it themselves for a while then switch if they are not successful and of course the rest of the people say "How hard can it be to shove a sign in the front yard and wait for the phone to ring"? 

If only it were that easy.....

I wish it was just as easy as shoving a sign in the front yard and waiting for the phone to ring.  The fact is that there are many other factors that go in to the sale of a house other than a yard sign.

So, you put a for sale sign in the front yard and the phone starts to ring.  Let me fill you in on what to expect.  First will be the Realtors trying to convert you to a full listing with their company.  Then will be the agents that don't want your listing but do want to know if you are willing to pay a commission if they bring you a buyer.  Then the nosy neighbors will call, just curious to see what you are trying to sell your home for.  Then the buyers call.  Most of them haven't been pre-approved yet and have no clue how much of a home they can afford, they just take a shot in the dark that your home is in their budget.  Then you will have the buyers that seem very interested and schedule a time to stop by and take a look....but then never show up.  You will probably get a few "good buyers" that have already been pre-approved and can afford your home...but it's not what they are looking for.  And finally, you might get the luck of the draw with a pre-approved buyer that can afford your home and falls in love with it and writes up an offer. 

One major thing to remember is that if you're not home....your home doesn't get shown!  Who's going to let the buyers in when they want to look at your home and it's 1:30pm and they want to look at it in the next 30 minutes because that's what suits their schedule, not your's.....and you work 45 minutes from your home and don't get off work until 5:00pm?  If you can't show it....you can't sell it!

The Realtors that call wanting to know if you are willing to pay a commission if they bring the buyer and your response is sure, I'll pay you 3%.  After all, the Realtor is the one that does all the work and I can just sit back and relax....right?  Nope, No, wrong answer, try again!  The Realtor is bringing the buyer.  Therefore....the Realtor represents the buyer, not you.  So, who then represents you?  You guessed it....NO ONE!  The Realtor will write up the offer for the buyer and then hand it to you.  The Realtor isn't going to go over the offer and explain it to you.  After all, you are selling your home yourself without representation. So you get NO representation what-so-ever!  It's up to you to wade through the pages and pages of a real estate contract and addendum's to verify you are making the right decision of accepting, countering or declining that offer.  Are you willing to take a chance of not catching even one small mistake that could cost you a lot in the small print on those pages and pages of the contract and addendum's?  It's an awful large gamble to take with the largest investment of your life don't you think?  Do you feel comfortable with the legal aspect of selling your home yourself?  Have you provided ALL of the proper disclosures that you are legally responsible to provide to the buyer in order to protect yourself from lawsuit later on down the road?  Do you know for a fact the buyer is truly pre-approved and not just wasting your time on a Sunday afternoon because they have nothing better to do?  If the buyer doesn't come with a Realtor and instead has a lawyer write up the offer....are you confident that you can read through and understand all the verbiage in it?  After all, lawyers love to throw in lots of extras to protect their customers!  Who's going to hold your escrow?  If you don't even know what that is, then that's your first clue that you shouldn't be selling your home without a Realtor!  These are just a few things you might have to deal with...I could continue to go on and on with things you are legally obligated by law to provide a buyer and things you might not have a clue about, but I'm not....

How do you plan to advertise your home?  Just placing a For Sale sign in the yard doesn't always work anymore.  Especially with gas prices on the rise, many buyers aren't going to drive neighborhoods anymore looking for homes for sale when they can just do it from the comfort of their own home.  Most buyers begin their home search over the internet, not driving the neighborhoods or looking through newspapers.

Then you have to deal with trying to get Realtors to even show your home to their buyers.  Most Realtors won't work with a FSBO because many Realtors feel FSBO's are cluless about selling a home and a huge liability!  Plus...they don't want to worry about showing your home to one of their buyers and then their buyer going around the Realtor and cutting them out of the deal all together.  Which just makes for an even worse situation....a cluelss buyer trying to buy a FSBO from a clueless seller.  It just screams LAWSUIT!

How about in a "slow market"......are you going to take the chance of letting your home sit For Sale By Owner without the potential advertisment you could have received if you had listed with a Realtor and your home was placed in the MLS, in real estate magazines, on multiple websites and more?