You might be a little surprised to see a real estate broker post a blog with that headline. It's not a trick, though: There is an article that ran in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday bearing that title, so of course I read it to see what the author had to say, and I can't say I really disagree with any of it.
In fact, by spelling out many of the costs (in time and money) of selling a home yourself, I think the author has inadvertently made a great case for why sellers SHOULD hire a real estate broker. As a FSBO (For Sale By Owner), the author explains that you'll need to:
- Price the home accurately by "visiting comparable homes, pulling public records on recent sales and doing research on the Internet."
- Hire a professional photographer.
- Design and print brochures that "look professional. Make sure all of your copy is clear, accurate, and lists all features of the house." She also references hiring a graphic artist to do some of this work.
- Post information about the house to Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, including paid advertising on Facebook.
- List the house on major websites such as Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com.
- Set up "a simple website for about $500."
- Create and upload a video to YouTube, and/or hire a company to create a professional video tour, then link the video to social media and any other websites where you're advertising.
Take a second to go back over that list and add up the cost in time and the cost in money of researching, selecting, planning, designing, and advertising. Also consider whether you've done a professional-quality job at each of these tasks, and how quickly you've executed each of them. Let's assume that you did all of this quickly, accurately, and with ease, quality, and affordability. I know, it's a bold assumption, but just play along.
So all of the above is done, and now you're home free, right?? Wait, just a few more things:
- Since you've done a great job so far, your phone is now ringing for showings. In fact, it's a little obnoxious that you're a busy enough person and are now trying to manage, accommodate, and keep track of showings during weekdays, evenings, and weekends. A little piece of you wonders who all these people are that you're going to let into your home, whether any of them are thieves, creeps, psychopaths, or bonafide qualified buyers.
- Unless you want to eliminate 88% of potential buyers (that's the percentage of buyers who bought a home in 2013 who were represented by a real estate broker), you'll probably want to offer a commission to a buyer's agent, typically 2.5% of the sale price.
- Once you've received an offer, assuming it came from a buyer who is represented by an agent, you get to negotiate the terms of a 12-page contract against a professional negotiator who knows that contract inside and out. If the buyer DOESN'T have an agent, then you'll be deciding with the buyer on such terms as tax prorations, financing timelines, inspection contingencies, post-closing possession terms, closing cost credits, two pages of sale-of-home contingency terms, and maybe whether the FHA UMIP will be financed or not. All common knowledge, right?
Assuming the contract goes smoothly (don't you just love my assumptions!) - meaning the inspection goes fine, the buyer has no problem obtaining a mortgage in the specified time frame and no problem selling their home, and everybody's happy - you get to the closing table. You take a look at your net proceeds and start to add up the costs - what you paid the buyer's agent, all the advertising, marketing, photos, brochures, websites, etc. - and the time you put into researching every decision every step of the way, showing people the house, and learning about legal concepts you'll probably never use again. And you realize that for little to no extra money, you could have done absolutely ZERO of all of that, and instead just dumped all of it onto a competent pro with a single swipe of a pen.
If you're aware of all this and still believe you're best served by going it alone, then by all means, have at it. Otherwise, just uncap your pen and we'll take care of the rest.
