For Sale By Owner (FSBO)

Pros and Cons of For Sale by Owner

When selling a home, some sellers will choose to go the For Sale by Owner (FSBO) route. In this process, no agent is involved so it saves both the buyer and seller a considerable amount of money in commission fees. While this sounds like an excellent option, it does have its downsides. An inexperienced seller that doesn’t know what they’re doing it may actually end up losing you money.

Read on to find out more about the FSBO process and the pros and cons that come with it.

Pros

Lower Commission Fees: Most people choose the no agent route to save money. When selling a home with an agent, you can expect to pay a 6% commission fee, a 3% fee to your listing agent and a 3% fee to the buyer’s agent. If you decide to go the no-agent route, you will only be responsible for your buyer’s agent’s fees.

More Control Over the Sale: When you sell your home, you have control over every aspect of the sale. This includes the listing price, the improvements made and who you are showing and selling it to. However, with great power comes great responsibility and complete control can also mean a lot of stress in the selling process.

Insider Knowledge: No one knows your home as well as you do. Therefore, you can provide your sellers with information about the home to add a sense of transparency while bringing out its selling points.

Cons

Pricing: Without an agent you won’t have access to the market data you need to accurately assess your home’s value. An under- assessment can cause you to lose a considerable amount of money. If you over assess it, you may have difficulty selling it.

A Biased Opinion: An agent will give you unbiased tips that will get your home ready to sell. For instance, they may tell you your bright green living room needs a neutral paint job while you might think it looks great. Your agent will always give you an honest opinion of what your home needs to make it attractive to buyers.

Trouble Attracting Buyers: An agent has access to the MLS, the number one web site that people go to when it comes to buying a house. They also have other connections that can help get interested buyers in the door. Without these connections, you may have trouble selling your home.

Lack of Real Estate Knowledge: A lack of real estate knowledge could become an issue when you are dealing with advanced technical jargon, contracts and more.

It’s Stressful and Time Consuming: The biggest reason most homeowners will not want to sell their own home is because they simply don’t have the time to deal with it. When you consider how stressful the process is, hiring an agent just might be the simplest thing.

An agent is a good way to save money when selling your home, this is what they do day in- day out.