I Always Sell My Homes Myself, but Sale by Owner Isn’t for Everyone. Here’s Why

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Selling your home yourself can save you money but there’s a lot more effort involved. Here’s why it isn’t the right choice for everyone. 

Over the past decade or so, I’ve sold several homes. Each time I have looked for someone to buy a property I own, I have done the process myself. I do not hire real estate agents to help me with the selling process.

By not hiring a real estate agent, I’m able to save on commission. The cost of a seller’s agent is usually around 3%, which can add up to a lot of money. I still have to pay the buyer’s agent but I save thousands by selling on my own — and that’s all extra money I can keep in my checking account.

Despite the savings, though, I know that selling by owner is not the right choice for everyone. Here are a few key reasons why that’s the case.

There’s a lot more work involved in selling a house yourself

When you hire a real estate agent, they take care of a lot of home-selling tasks for you. They’ll usually have professional photographs taken of the house, write up a listing description, put your property onto the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), and handle the process of showing your property.

A real estate agent is also going to give you advice on pricing, deal with buyer questions, receive offers, help you find a title company, and do a long list of other tasks — all of which you will have to do yourself if you don’t have an agent working for you.

It takes a lot of time to do everything on your own, especially if you haven’t done the process before and must figure out how.

You could make mistakes that end up costing you

When you sell your house, you obviously want to make a big enough profit to pay off your mortgage and hopefully walk away with some extra money in your pocket. But if you’re selling it yourself, you could make mistakes that reduce the amount of money you are offered.

You could, for example, price the house improperly or not do the staging and prep work necessary to get a good offer, or you might not realize what you should look for when an offer comes in.

I’ve sold a lot of properties and I also have a law degree, so I feel reasonably confident I’m not likely to make a lot of errors during the listing and sales process. But, for those without tons of experience or industry knowledge, there’s a lot of potential for things to go wrong.

You’ll need to deal with negotiating all on your own

Most of the time, a buyer won’t just offer you the exact amount you are asking for under the exact terms you want. Usually, you’ll get an offer (or more than one offer) and there will be some back-and-forth negotiating.

If you have a real estate agent, your agent can negotiate on your behalf. Your agent can provide suggestions about how to respond to an offer, can help you come up with a counteroffer, and can represent your interests during the negotiating process.

You have to be ready to review the paperwork

Finally, there is a lot of paperwork involved in a home sale, including the offer contract as well as seller disclosures and documents you must provide to the title company. An agent is familiar with all of these documents and can read them over and help ensure there’s nothing within them that could adversely affect your interests.

If you don’t have a professional representing you, it will be up to you to read the fine print and make sure the terms of the deal are fair.

While there are clearly a lot of downsides to selling yourself, you do have to remember that you can save a lot of money. So, ultimately, you’ll have to think about how comfortable you are working without help and whether you’re confident you can avoid errors during the selling process and ensuring all is in order for the buyer’s new mortgage loan. This will help you decide if FSBO is right for you.

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