We hear that all the time. Many people think they can sell that our house on their own. And they can. But the question is not whether or not you can do it but should you do it.
It’s not complicated to sell your house on your own. Go to Home Depot buy a sign and put it on your lawn. There are numerous websites where you can advertise a house being sold by owner. And then you just sit back and wait for the phone calls to come. Right?
Maybe it’s not quite that simple. Will you get phone calls? Probably. Will you get people coming to look at the house? Quite possibly. But it goes a little deeper than that.
First of all, how do you know you have it priced properly? How do you know the potential buyers that are coming in are qualified and able to purchase your home? How do you know they are real buyers, and not nosy neighbors, or people looking for decorator ideas or possibly even people with nefarious motives?
The answer to those questions is simple. You don’t know.
But let’s say you get past all that. Let’s get into some other reasons.
As a person selling your own home, you are still subject to the same regulations that Realtors are. Do you know when you need to have a lead paint disclosure statement on file? How about the seller’s disclosure? If you need to email sensitive papers do you have the ability to send them in an encrypted format?
Now let’s talk about why people think they should sell their house on their own. And the biggest reason is financial. Sellers think that if they sell it on their own, they can save the Brokerage fee of 5% or more.
Well let’s look into some other facts though. First of all it used to be historically that 87% of all homes sold with the assistance of a Realtor. This would leave the homeowner with 13% of the available market has potential buyers. That certain thing cuts down the pool of potential buyers. But of that 13%, 8% was properties being sold between family or between people who already knew each other. So that means the buying pool is down to 7% of the buying public. And in past couple of years, that percentage is changed to over 95% of sales are going through Realtors. And the remaining 5% going between family or people who knew each other already. Now that potential pool of buyers is really diminished.
Let’s talk about the sale price next. The median price of a home sold by a realtor is 14% higher than someone who is selling on their own. Let me think about that for a second. My limited math skill is telling me that a 14% higher price would equate to more money in the seller’s pocket then a savings of 5% or more? Do you agree with that?
So why would you want to try to sell a place on your own and go through all those headaches?