1. LESS HASSLE AND LESS FRUSTRATION: When selling your home by owner, you don't have to leave your home every time an agent wants to show it, or clean it every morning before leaving "just in case". You know when people are coming and can prepare when needed. When a buyer makes an offer, there's not all that frustration of "back-and-forth" telephone tag between agents to reach an agreement. It can be done in minutes, and end with a friendly handshake and smile between owner & buyer prior to going to contract. 2. NOBODY ELSE CAN SHOW YOUR HOME AS GOOD AS YOU: You know your home better than anyone. The schools, the neighborhood, what is special about your home and the area, as well as other unique details about the property. A well-maintained, fairly priced home virtually sells itself, your role is to simply to provide additional information that a buyer wouldn't know just from looking at the home. 3. YOU'RE IN CONTROL: Nobody is going to tell you what to do. You can advertise how and where you want to, schedule showings when it's convenient for you, talk directly with prospective buyers yourself, even take your house off the market for a while if a situation arrises. You aren't obligated to a 3, 6, or 12 month contract... you make your own rules. 4. MORE MONEY IN YOUR POCKET: This is obvoiusly the main reason that most FSBO home sellers are selling their home themselves. You can save up to 7% commission by doing it yourself. On a $200,000 home you may save up to $14,000. Heres another way of looking at it. Lets say that your home will sell for $200,000 and you owe $144,000 on the mortgage so you have $56,000 in equity. If you pay $14,000 in sales commissions, thats 25% of your hard-earned equity! Sell it yourself and you'll save a very large portion of your equity! 5. YOU CAN SELL FASTER: If you list your home with a real estate agent and have to add in a full commission you'll probably inflate the asking price to cover the cost of the commission. Two to four months later you'll come to the painful realization that no one is going to buy your home at that price, and you'll end up reducing the price (or accepting an offer) equal to the original amount you would have asked if selling by owner. Do it right the first time, and avoid taking the loss. 6. LESS UNCERTAINTY: Because you meet the prospective buyers, you have a much better idea how interested people are in your home, what they like about the home, how serious they are about buying and what their timeframe and situation is. The direct feedback is easier to live with than wondering how things are going, or worse, why no one has made an offer yet. 7. IT'S EASY: "If you can sell your own car, you can sell your own home... All you have to do is find a buyer who is willing and able to buy your home, once you find a buyer... lenders, lawyers or title companies take over (depending on your area of the country). Check out the largest network of For Sale By Owner publishers http://www.FSBOnetwork.com Permission to use this article is granted as long as the author information and website link is included. |
