Saving up the commission can easily be translated to more money in your pocket when selling your home, which is why there are numerous sellers tempted to sell by themselves without seeking assistance from a real estate professional. However, this short term cost-saving strategy may not be as good as a long term decision after all when it comes to money, time or effort. To help you make the wiser choice for yourself, check out these 8 reasons why you should consider hiring a real estate professional:
- Selling is a full time job. Let’s put it out there, selling a house is not as simple as putting up a “For Sale” sign on your lawn – it’s work. It’s speaking to numerous callers saying they want to see the house, scheduling and cleaning up for the showings, hosting open-houses, and spending time even with the unqualified buyers when they’re not even serious in buying or making an offer. For you, this can mean either: long days in months which results to more pressure to your family; or low-balling your price just to finally sell it because you’re already fed up with the stress.
- More bills and less money in your pocket in the long run. Try summing it up for yourself. Since you’re not really selling homes for a profession, you have to compete with professionals for serious buyers who would have their online ads and websites that easily pops out in search results, attractive neon-lighted “For Sale” yard signs, and open-houses with ice cream trucks right outside before they can reach to you. If you are to level in that competitive market, just imagine the dollar signs you’ll be cashing out, the pressure and effort – for the more innovative yard signs you have to think about, sponsored ads you had to pay for, more creative open-houses you had to host, and the paper ads and flyers you have to print and distribute or mail to send.
- Fixing up your home. The bills for selling your house never ends with the promotional ads, you’d still need to also stage your home. Home staging means fixing it up and adding accents to your house to make it more attractive and help your buyers see themselves living in it when they make the deal. Without professional help, this mean you’d have to through Bed Bath & Beyond for the right showing towels and curtains, paying for the renovations and repaints with your neighborhood fixer-upper, and paying for the home cleaning services before and after the open-house just to get it all squeaky-clean.
- The long wait. Without the same 9 point marketing plan from the years of experience in selling homes or the buyer lead generation platforms in your disposal, you’d need to have that patience for that serious buyer with a suitcase of cash to knock your door and negotiate. According to statistics, that would mean at least 88 to 157 long days of waiting.
- Quoting the right price. When you’re asked how much you’re pricing your home, it’s a given to definitely think about the bills, time and effort that you’ve spent, but your buyer would never understand that. Your buyer may even be working with an agent who knows an appraiser and will quote your home to a lesser price that’s not even worth all the hassle that you went through. Without a real estate professional to back you with the negotiation, it’ll be way too easy to haggle you out of your home.
- Finding a lender. Yes, another surprise, in case you find yourself a first-time homebuyer without an agent, you may even need to find a lender to ensure no pull-backs in financing. When you’re selling your house to get your family to your dream home, your buyer would also need a lender to help finance your quoted asking price. It can’t also be just any lender, the mortgage consultant you have to refer your buyer should be able to deliver on the expected closing, or you can expect more delay in the transaction.
- Back to studying. You read it right – studying. Depending on which state you’re in, selling your house means paperwork. When you’re not talking to looky-loos or cleaning your tub anymore and finally got yourself into the transaction, you’d need to get busy learning which documents are required to be signed and prepared for the transfer. It’s no biggie, you can always have your state website and FSBO kits online to help you with what you need, but really, do you have the time when you actually have a real job to manage?
- Follow up. The process that even agents irk away from – following up. When you have a day job and career to attend to, you won’t have the time to call, make emails, or even drop-by your buyers to chase after them for signatures, or schedule with them the walk through, inspection, appraisal or survey. However, since you’ll be selling on your own, you’d need to have more patience to wait them out and anticipate delays.
From what our fellow real agents say, selling your home is like going to Vegas, sometimes you hit the jackpot, most of the time you don’t. Be wise in making your selling decisions. If you think that it’s not for you, always feel free to reach out for help and call us at (704) 237-0313 or (704) 617-0847.
