Selling your house costs money - not least because you are expected to hire a real estate agent to help you. However, to get around this, more than a few homeowners decide to sell their home without an agent’s help - and more than a few of those fail catastrophically.
In truth, you likely won’t save money by refusing to hire an agent; you will probably waste money as well as time on the ordeal. Here’s why seller’s agents are integral cogs in the process of selling a home.
You Don’t Have Access to the Best Selling Platforms
You can put a for-sale sign in front of your home, place an advertisement in the local newspaper or real estate magazine and throw some photos on Zillow - but that’s not how must buyers find houses. Rather, most buyers use a multiple listing service (MLS) from their agents, which pulls houses that match certain criteria (like location, number of bedrooms, pool access, etc.) for buyers to peruse. Unfortunately, owners don’t always have access to the sources used by MLS, which means you will be missing a huge chunk of your audience by choosing this sales route. Even worse, buying advertising space in each of those locations will cost you money, which might have been better spent on an agent.
You Don’t Know How to Stage Your Property
You know how you decorated your home - but that doesn’t mean you know the best way to decorate your home. Buyers don’t want to feel like they are touring someone else’s home; they want to be able to envision themselves living in the space. That means you can’t leave your own belongings strewn around your home when you are trying to make a sale; instead, you need to stage it.
Agents have connections to home staging experts, who not only have honed talent in home decorating but also know where to find furniture and décor that will entice buyers. In many markets, staging is an absolutely crucial step to selling your home, and if you don’t have access to a staging expert, you might not make the best possible sale.
You Aren’t Familiar With What Buyers in Your Area Want
Does your audience want a turnkey location, or do they want a fixer-upper? How old is the average buyer in your area, and what is their lifestyle? You probably can’t answer these questions without a significant amount of research, and most owners don’t bother to perform that research because it costs time and money. Unfortunately, if you skip the research phase, you won’t highlight the features of your home your audience craves, and you won’t make an optimal sale.
Agents can point you toward the precise attributes desired by your buying audience. For instance, they will tell you if you need to acquire a home warranty for sellers, if you should paint or make other renovations, if you should install certain features in your home. You might be able to piece together this information by performing your own research, but it won’t be easy or free.
You Can’t Competently Communicate With Other Agents
Unless you are a real estate agent yourself - which you likely aren’t, given that you’re still reading this post - you don’t have much familiarity with the jargon of residential real estate. That means when buyer’s agents call you to inquire about your property or negotiate your price, you might not be able to understand their requests or provide the information they require. What’s more, you lack connections within the real estate community, which means you might not be able to access the agents who contact you on behalf of clients. Even if you do manage to put your home under contract, the communication associated with closing a real estate deal is immensely complex, and you will likely feel great strain trying to keep up with your buyer’s agent. It’s much easier and safer to rely on a seller’s agent, who has experience talking all things real estate.
You Can’t Tell How Much Your Home Is Worth
You can use every estimator on the internet to tell you what your home is worth, but none of them will be the same. That’s because different tools use different metrics to evaluate your property, and you won’t be able to tell which one is most accurate for your area. In some neighborhoods, having a larger backyard is more valuable than having several bathrooms, but in some neighborhoods, the opposite is true. Only an agent experienced in your area - who can has frequent exposure to the expertise of an appraiser - can help you determine the worth of your home. Then, you’ll be able to sell your home fast and at the best possible price.
