Selling a home is hard work. Real estate agents are all too familiar with the many challenges involved in selling a property.
Many enterprising or independent-minded individuals get the idea they should cut out the middle-man by trying to sell their house on their own.
There’s a lot to know about selling property, and if you’re considering selling yours “For Sale By Owner,” you might want to read this first.
Here are the pros and cons of for sale by owner. You’ll also learn about a nifty alternative that can save you a lot of time and money.
The Cons of For Sale By Owner
Before delving into the pros of the for sale by owner approach, let’s take a sobering look at the cons. First of all, you’ll be at a disadvantage in terms of knowledge about real estate law.
There’s a lot of paperwork involved in selling a home.
The less you know, the more difficult of a time you’ll have trying to sell your home. Even if you’ve got a willing buyer on the line, one slip-up in the paperwork can send the whole deal crashing down.
One of the biggest cons of for sale by owner is that you will be solely responsible for marketing the property.
When you list your home through a real estate agency, you will have an entire organization’s backing as the agency handles the marketing responsibilities.
Your home will be included in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and featured prominently on the agency’s website.
You can do some things to help market your property when selling for sale by owner, but many of these things take a tech-savvy mind to carry out.
Setting up a Zillow page and running ads on Facebook takes time and a lot of effort. Real estate agents do that kind of stuff all the time, and they have tricks to make the process go faster.
The Pros of For Sale By Owner
Turning to the pros, one of the most significant advantages of taking the for sale by owner approach, you’ll make more money on the sale by cutting out the real estate agent’s commission.
Some real estate agents will charge a commission of 7%, which is a nice chunk of change when you calculate that percentage against a sale on a property worth $150,000.
Many real estate agents will try to sway sellers away from the for sale by owner approach by inflating their expertise.
While it’s true that a real estate agent can make the paperwork go through smoothly, some may not be worth a 7% cut.
When you’re in charge of selling your own home, you will have more flexibility in scheduling showings. When a realtor handles it, they come up with a date with the buyer, and then they ask if that date and time works for you.
Sometimes these dates and times are incredibly inconvenient because the real estate agent doesn’t know your schedule. If you sell your house by yourself, you can pick the date without being inconvenienced.
Some sellers miss out on an opportunity to sell because their agent arranges for a date they can’t commit to. When you’re selling by owner, you're in control.
The Alternative to For Sale By Owner
What if we told you that there is a way to have your cake and eat it too? You could retain some semblance of independence while capitalizing on an almost immediate sale without expending any time or energy to line up a traditional buyer.
Certain companies are willing to make cash offers on houses, allowing the sellers to skip all of the red tape involved in a traditional sale.
These offers usually come at a discounted price, meaning that it won’t be the same as getting your full asking price if you sold traditionally.
That said, you’ll get your money a lot faster than if you had waited for the lengthy process that conventional buyers go through to get financed by a bank. There will be no real estate agent to pay off either, as these home buying companies don’t typically ask for a commission.
Sell Your Home to Contenza Properties
In the end, selling your home through a real estate agency is a long, expensive road to travel. You can skip the trip by selling your house directly to Contenza Properties.
We buy vacant houses, fixer-uppers, and properties that are in pre-foreclosure. Times are tough, and even if a real estate agent could sell your home, do you have the time to find out?
Get in touch with Contenza Properties today and ask about the benefits of a cash offer for your home!