For many people, a rule of thumb is to avoid an FSBO listing at all costs, whether they’re buying or selling. They do whatever they can to avoid listing their houses for sale by owner – even if it costs them more – and they also steer clear of looking at homes not listed with a Realtor. Here are 6 reasons to avoid an FSBO listing of your house in Walton County.
TIME
Listing your home on your own takes up a ton of time. You’ve got to get everything ready for the listing on your own, research what other similar homes are selling for, and find places to market your home. Then, once you do get people interested, you’ve got to make time to get your home ready for showings, actually show people your home, and negotiate with them on price and details.
If you’ve got a job, a family, or anything else going on in your life, you may want to avoid an FSBO of your home for this reason alone.
COST
You may think you’re saving a ton of money by going FSBO. After all, you won’t have to pay a real estate agent their commission, right? However, you’ll be paying out of pocket for anything to do with staging and appraisal, as well as all costs related to marketing your home. This can easily add up to thousands of dollars with very little guarantee of a return on your investment.
To contrast, real estate agents carefully calculate how much they’re going to spend in preparing and marketing each listing, and they’ve got the economies of scale on their side to save them money.
PERCEPTION
Some sellers avoid an FSBO listing on principle. They wonder what sort of condition the home will be in, and whether the sellers will be a pain to work with. When you list FSBO, you run the risk of immediately disqualifying a large portion of potential buyers, making it that much more difficult for you to sell your home.
LIABILITY
When a real estate agent makes a mistake, such as not properly disclosing something about your house, you are protected from any liability. However, when you list your home yourself, you’re not protected. This can not only cost you a lot of potential sales and time, but it can get you into big legal trouble. For many people, this is a big reason to avoid an FSBO listing.
PRICING
Finding the right price for your house is part science, part great guessing. But real estate agents have a ton of experience and knowledge, as well as some tools at their disposal, to help get it as close as possible to right.
When you price your own home, how do you know you’re pricing it right? Is your sentimental attachment causing you to price it too high and lose offers? Or is your desperation to sell making you list it too low and leaving money on the table?
NEGOTIATING
Everyone loves a good deal, especially someone buying a home. So some home buyers try to haggle and nitpick every detail hoping the sellers cave.
If you’re selling your own home, knowing how much to knock off to cover some minor damage repair, or where to draw the line between reasonable requests and unreasonable ones, can be difficult. This can lead to a lot of lost time, frustration, and a lower price than you’d like.
Experienced Real Estate Agents in Walton County
If you want to avoid an FSBO of your home in Walton County, trust our team of professionals to sell your home with as little hassle as possible.
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