It sounds easy to sell a home, right? All you have to do is advertise it in the paper or on Craigslist, throw a sign in the yard and sit back while the buyers beat a path to your door, right?
Maybe.
If you advertise your house at the right time, in the right place and the right buyer happens to see it, comes in and buys it, great! That would be the ultimate FSBO dream.
The reality is that most buyers are represented by agents. These agents search the multiple listing system (MLS) to find homes for their buyers and are contacted by dozens of agents daily who have listings that match their clients' criteria. The ad that you paid a lot of money for might get missed.
On the other side of the coin, there is the level of marketing a real estate agent can do for your listing. You can pay a flat fee to be listed in MLS, but your marketing stops there. You do not have the tools within MLS that licensed agents can use to reach out to hundreds of other agents who all have buyers who are looking for your particular house.
Then there is the money you save by doing it yourself. You can save thousands of dollars in commission, right?
Maybe. Remember the scenario of the right ad at the right time that reaches the right buyer? It applies here. If your house sells immediately, then, yes, you will save on commission.
If your house does not sell right away, then you might spend a couple of hundred dollars each week on advertising until it does sell. What if it takes a year? That's more than $10,000 right there. Chances are you will end up reducing the price by $5,000 to $10,000 or more before your house sells. What about all the kids' soccer games or family outings you had to miss because you were running an open house?
The choice is ultimately yours. For more information on what a REALTOR® can do for you, follow the link.
Why use a REALTOR®
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