The Pitfalls of Selling Your Home Alone

By: Andrew Webber
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:16:36
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Many homeowners think that selling home alone without the help of a Realtor will help simplify the process and will save them money in the end. The fact of the matter is that selling your home on your own isn't easy work. In fact, you may actually lose a substantial amount of money when you try to sell your home alone because you aren't well spoken in the language and business of real estate. A Realtor can not only save you money, they can save you time and stress so that you can make the transition from one house to the other as smoothly as possible.

Putting Your Home on the Market

Putting your home on the market requires more than a for sale by owner sign in your front yard. While this is a start, there is a lot more to it. Many homeowners learn about multiple listing services, which is basically an index of homes that are on the market and then pay about $750 to have their home listed. When calls don't start flooding in inquiring about the home many sellers wonder what the problem is. The problem is that it takes more than a listing to get Realtors to visit your home with their clients. Realtors are loyal to other Realtors--that's just the way it works. Also, when you work with a Realtor he or she may be able to network with others to be sure that your home is getting as much exposure as possible, all for the price of the sales commission. A Realtor will also have other avenues to explore with listing your home on the Internet and locally.

If you want to sell your home on your own you will have to not only keep your home in show condition, you will also have to be accessible for appointments when convenient for potential buyers. Showing your home can be exhausting and you may do the home an injustice if you cannot downplay the negative aspects of the home and accentuate the positive features.

The Value of Your Home

Many sellers lose money when they attempt to sell their home on their own because they do not know the market value of their home. A Realtor knows all of the current market values, whether they are rising and falling and can help you get the most for your home no matter what the market situation is. Many sellers unintentionally under price their home because they do not have a professional helping them, or overprice it, which keeps all of the serious buyers away! A Realtor can help you price your home so that it not only sells, but so you can make a profit.

Reputation

Most people that are in the market for a home go with a Realtor; in fact 80% of buyers work with a Realtor because the Realtor has a good reputation and they need help maneuvering the real estate market. If you put a sign in your yard, in the newspaper, or on bulletin boards in various areas buyers have no idea who they are dealing with. Though a buyer may be able to get a good deal on a home that is for sale by owner, they are leery of working with someone that they don't know and may or may not have real estate experience.

Final Thought

As you can see, there is a lot of reason to work with a Realtor instead of trying to sell your home on your own. While a Realtor may take as much as 6% of the selling price, this is peanuts for all of the work and stress that they are saving you from. Legal paper work, home inspections, showing your home, and marketing with other Realtors to sell your home as quickly as possible for a reasonable price is what a Realtor does. When you try to take on all of these responsibilities on your own, unfortunately you have a good chance of failing or losing money.

Selling your home is difficult enough when you think about packing up and moving, but it doesn't have to be overly stressful. A Realtor can do all of the dirty work associated with selling your home so that you can go about your every day life, and still sell your home in record time. Knowing the market, knowing the real estate business, and having connections in local real estate makes all of the difference, and these are not things that your average homeowner possesses, but a Realtor does.

Andrew owns a website that provides useful tips on selling your own home. You can visit his website at: http://www.buy-and-sell-house-fast.com/ for more tips.

Article source: Expert Articles

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