Selling a home without the help of a real estate agent, also known as FSBO or “for sale by seller owner,” has often been perceived by those home sellers who prefer to do so as beneficial in many ways. Chief among those benefits has always been the amount that would have to be paid in the form of an agent’s commission, which the owner would not be obligated to pay, thus “saving” or keeping the money for personal and other uses.
In addition to the above, there are other reasons, many of which have been deemed beneficial, why a homeowner might decide to sell their home or investment property without a real estate agent. Among those reasons or benefits are:
• Reduced price for a faster sale
• Direct negotiations with the buyer
• Marketing and sales without pressure
• High percentage of the sale price
Reduced price for a faster sale
Some home sellers realize, since they were once buyers, that the goal of a home buyer is to make the best deal (for the least amount of money) possible on a home, in the same way that most homebuyers do. home sellers expect the highest price for the price. house they are selling; Therefore, the price of a house discounted by the real estate agent’s commission is in many cases more attractive than a price with the commission included. Based on this understanding, the homeowner makes a profit by offering the property for sale at the reduced price with no commission for a faster sale.
Direct negotiations with the buyer
Home sellers who prefer to enter into direct negotiations with their prospective buyers are in complete control of any outcome those negotiations produce and accept responsibility for it. However, the benefit(s) derived from direct negotiations is having knowledge of each stage of the transaction involving your homes rather than waiting for status updates from an agent dealing with multiple homes simultaneously. – and the buyers of those houses – involved with so many transactions. A FSBO home seller is free to contact the buyer to inquire about anything relevant to the transaction; and this can sometimes be significant in a variety of ways.
Marketing and sales without pressure
Home sellers who have not committed to a real estate agent, either verbally or in writing through an exclusive listing, are not required to “show the property during reasonable hours,” as many have agreed to do. have listed themselves with the agents, so that they are not left open to claims of “refusal to show,” “failure to cooperate,” or “taking the house off the market,” all of which are claims that may be concerning, but were often used by eager and highly motivated real estate sellers to convince a home seller to provide access to their property for a time that the seller had what he/she considered to be a well-qualified and interested buyer. The absence of this type of pressure during the marketing and sale of a home is the condition under which the fsbo sellers consider it beneficial.
Higher percentage of the sale price
In a March 2011 article titled ‘How to Sell Your Home Without an Agent’ and edited by Real Estate Career Hub, et al., it is stated that, “A 2008 Consumer Reports study found that nearly all homeowners in their survey who sold on their own got their asking price, while sellers using agents received an average of $5,000 below their asking price…” and “…Figures from the National Association of Realtors show that the median sales price for owner sellers was 97.5 percent of their asking price, while agent sellers got only 95 percent.”
This data may be supported by the fact that the price was already lower than it might have been if a real estate agent’s commission had been included; but also the seller’s net price is often adjusted lower, in dollars and cents, than the dollar amount represented by the commission percentage, so that when the agent conducts negotiations to adjust the sales price downward , and the commission percentage remains in In fact, the percentage of the price requested by the seller is affected more.
A circumstance that has occurred in recent years, due to the mortgage crisis, is that more homeowners than ever found themselves “underwater” (owing more than the value of the home). This is even more the reason why getting the highest percentage of a sale price is so important to today’s home sellers.
