“For Sale By Owner” Often Means “No Sale”

The above trends are sobering, if you’re considering placing your house on the market today. You may want or even need a quick sale, for several reasons. These reasons vary from person to person, but the bottom line is, if you’re saddled with a house and payments that you just don’t want or need anymore, you Page 1 of 5 don’t have time to list with an agent.         

Working with a real estate agent is costly. Since real estate agents are working on commission, they get paid quite well for giving buyers access to the thousands of property listings in their database. They often handle dozens of properties and really don’t care which ones get looked at – as long as they get a commission from at least one.           

There’s another cost of using real estate agents. Many times, Realtors will advise you to “fix up your house” before putting it on the market. You can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and countless hours of effort trying to make it “marketable.” But most sellers don’t have that type of cash ready, and it can become a tremendous burden.         

In spite of all your efforts, there’s absolutely no guarantee that your house will sell if you use a real estate agent. You could do all of the above, and still be left with a property that sits on the market,month after month.

Here’s a challenge for you. Talk to someone who has recently sold their house. Ask them what they had to go through to sell it, and how much it cost, including repairs, painting, and other “fixing up.” Ask them if there were unexpected “last minute costs” and “surprises” that came up and how much they paid in commissions and closing costs. Finally, ask them how long it took them to sell, from the time they first approached their agent, until the final closing. It’s a real eye-opener, to say the least     

Many times, because of problems and high fees associated with real estate agents, people decide to try to sell their house themselves. They’re hoping to save money, cut down on commissions, and see more money. Let’s see what happens when people use this approach.           

“For Sale By Owner” Often Means “No Sale”  

While those who market their house themselves want to cut down on costs, and earn more money from the sale, the reality is often quite different than they expected.           

For instance, if you choose this route, you will have to cover all marketing costs yourself. This means paying for signs, newspaper ads, and even holding open houses to let others know your property is on the market. All of these marketing costs add up over time.           

When you choose to sell “For Sale by Owner,” you still need to fix your house up, to make it more marketable. It may need a new roof, or other costly repairs, and you could be forced to invest quite a bit of money into getting it ready to sell. Another concern is the legal paperwork involved with selling a property. There are title searches and other documents, disclosure statements, not to mention pre-qualifying the buyers financially.         

Many people become overwhelmed at the sheer amount of work that it takes. They never realized how much time, money, and effort it takes to get a house noticed and shown in a highly competitive marketplace. Remember, there are Realtors showing clients hundreds of properties from their databases competing with you.           

Finally, and most seriously, you will be showing your property to complete strangers, hoping that one of them will choose to buy. But you could go to all the work we’ve described, and still not make a sale.                  

Sobering fact: "Increasing complexity of the transaction process and the amount of time required are two major factors in the FSBO decline. A third factor is likely the issue of security in admitting un screened strangers into your home." Source:         

Martin Edwards, JR, President, National Association of Realtors.