Do I need a Realtor?
Do I need a Realtor to sell my home?
Do I need a Realtor to help me sell my home... NO. Let me say that again, NO you do not. "Buu-uuh-uut your a realtor, your not supposed to say that Kevin". Look guys, I am, have always been and always will be, a straight shooter to everyone I come across and my honest answer to this common question is, No, you do not need a realtor to sell your home...
Lets rewind time back to 2012 when I owned a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home in Dallas Texas. My girlfriend and I (now wife) were packing our bags and moving back to the southeast and needed to sale our home. Me being the independent strong alpha male I am, told my wife that we didn't need a realtor and that I would sell the home myself. So I did some online research on how to sell a home and 24 hours later, I was a honorary realtor (not really). I did all the right things; I checked my home's "Z-estimate" on Zillow, I looked at some other homes on Zillow that had sold, I scoured the internet and came up with my list price. My wife had a nice camera so I setup the tripod and started snapping photos. I then paid to list my home on all the popular websites like Realtor.com, Zillow.com, FSBO.com, Facebook, Myspace (yes, it was cool back then) and I waited... and waited... and waited. I had a few random tire kickers call, a ton of realtors call wanting to "help" me sell but nothing solid.
About a month later, I decided that this wasn't working. There was a couple that we went to church on the regular, and the husband was a part time realtor so I started pestering him for advice. Long story short, we worked out a deal and he helped me list my home. We stuck with the same price that I had originally set on my FSBO listing over a month ago and in the first weekend "on the market" I had multiple offers and closed on the home 30 days later for a price that was above what I had listed it for.
Let me ask you this:
If your driving down the road and smoke start rolling from your hood and your engine dies. Will you fix it yourself or will you put it in the shop? Could you google, youtube, call your mechanic friend, borrow/buy some tools and figure it out. Sure you could, but is it worth it and how long will it take?
If you want to paint the exterior of your house, do you hire a painter or do you have the skills, the supplies, the equipment and the know-how to do it.
If you want professional family photos, do you go buy a fancy camera, a tripod and download the free Photoshop app and do it yourself or do you pay a professional photographer?
Im sure you get my drift... so can you sell your home as a "For Sale By Owner" or fix your own car, paint your house or do your own family portrait? The answer is YES, of course you can if you have the know how, the tools, and the time. But the average home owner doesn't have all (or any) of these attributes and trying to go the FSBO route isnt the best option for them. Here are a few other points to consider if your doing a FSBO.
1. Over 90% of homes purchased are done so with a Realtor representing the buyer because its FREE for a buyer to use a realtor, why would you not hire Free professional help?
2. Realtors normally do not like showing their buyer clients FSBO listings due to many reasons that I wont get into. This means FSBO sellers could be missing out on 90% of the buyers out there (see point above).
3. A good realtor works 40-60 hours per week doing nothing but buying and selling homes... Trust me they know things that the average home owner does not know about how to sell a home quickly and for top dollar.
4. A good realtor knows how to write contracts in order to protect their clients in case things so south (again, they do this stuff everyday)
5. A good realtor can save their clients thousands by sharing their local connections (great lenders who have the best rates, great handymen that can save you tons on repairs, great photographers that you make your home look better than it really is, contacts with moving companies to pull strings and get you on the schedule, etc...)
6. A good realtor has many strategies that may result in multiple offer situations and is an expert in using those situations to get you the MAX $$$'s for your home.
So in summary, yes you can sell your home yourself as a FSBO if you have the knowledge, the time, the tools and the skills to do so and if done successfully, you may save a few thousand $'s. But you could also just as easily royally screw it up and cost yourself thousands or end up in court. Buying or Selling a home will be the single largest transaction most people ever par-take in, so I strongly suggest that you hire a professional and let them get to work...
