If you look around the Internet and TV commercials, you’ll be bombarded with the message that you should never, ever consider selling your home without a realtor. With the fact that these commercials are often paid for by realtors themselves who make a hefty commission off every sale, it can be difficult not to think there’s some kind of ulterior motive behind all of these advertisements.
But then, what’s actually selling a home without a realtor like? Namely, what parts of the home-selling process are made easier by avoiding a realty company altogether? The goals of home-selling are, of course, the same with or without an agent. Everybody wants to get the highest price they possibly can, as quickly as they can, with little to no hassle. There definitely is some paperwork you’re going to have to do yourself that realtors will insist is impossible for the layman to complete. However, with the Internet filling in any gaps in knowledge, you have selling your own home all by yourself as easy as ever.
Get more money out of your sale.
Once everything is all said and done with a sale, you’ll typically pay around 5% in total commissions, with 2.5% going to the listing agent, and 2.5% going to the purchasing agent. That’s $5000 for every $100000 on your asking price. Having that commission in mind makes people much less receptive to price bargaining, since they know they need to cover their realtor costs, where people who sell homes by themselves will take home every dime they manage to secure from their buyer. In fact, you can sell to mobile home dealers and get a cash payout for it.
Cut out the middleman.
Those who are impatient or who believe that for something to be done right, you have to do it yourself, are well-served by selling a home on their own. One of the most compelling reasons to sell without a realtor is that you won’t be tied down by their timetable — no waiting for calls, and no placing all of your trust in another party. You have complete control over what happens and how fast. So long as you’re able to hold your own come negotiation time, there’s a lot to be said about not having to deal with someone in the middle of everything.
You know your home best.
Compared to a realtor that just takes a crash course on your home, and then tries to funnel as many people through it as possible until someone bites, you know how to best market your home because you’re the one who has spent all of the time living inside of it. You’re much better-equipped to market the positive attributes of your home, while suggesting better workarounds or solutions to the negative attributes than any realtor who’s more than likely completely emotionally detached from the selling process.
Conclusion
In the past, it might have been a near impossible task to sell your home on your own – that’s true. Nowadays, with online marketing tools everywhere and more than enough information online to essentially become a realtor yourself with just a few days of research, there’s less and less incentive to outsource the selling process. You’ll be able to have complete control over all of the aspects of closing the deal on your house, and in the end, there would be more money in your pocket than when you used a realtor.