Many people ask me whether they should try to sell their home by owner rather than paying a REALTOR to sell it for them. That is a relatively easy question to answer but a hard one for many home sellers to swallow. It’s always hard to give up part of your hard earned equity and unfortunately, many REALTORS fail to truly earn their commission making it even harder to let go.

If you pull up the real estate stats for your local area, you will likely find that over 80% of the home sellers that list their home as for sale by owner eventually enlist a REALTOR to sell their home for them. For the other 20%, more than half say they would never do it again. Of the other half, 7% sold their home to someone they knew so really, less than 13% of FSBO sellers actually stuck it out and weathered the storm.

Why is that so many home sellers turned to a REALTOR? Below are three reasons found during a homer seller survey performed by NAR:

Eighteen percent of FSBO sellers indicated that preparing the home for sale was the most difficult task when selling without the assistance of an agent, followed closely by understanding and performing paperwork (16 percent) and selling within their desired time frame (15 percent).
From NAR’s 2006 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers

As it turns out, FSBOs don’t always come out with more money. The numbers always tell the truth.

Homes sold with the help of a real estate professional in 2006 sold on average for 32 percent more than FSBO sales. The median FSBO selling price in 2006 was $187,200, compared with $247,000 for agent-assisted transactions.
From NAR’s 2006 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers

There are many reasons that a home would sell for more with an Agent but I think the biggest reason is exposure. What does a home seller do when a home has been on the market for a very long time? They reduce the price again and again until it sells. The more exposure you have, the less likely you will need to reduce the price as you have a better chance at exposing that home to the right home buyer at the right time.

• A good REALTOR will have a feel for the market and will be able to help you price your home to sell quickly. If it is priced too high, you will get fewer visitors and have greater competition and if you price too low, people will wonder if something is wrong and it may sound too good to be true.
• Buyers feels more comfortable and willing to spend more time looking around your home when you are not there which is very important.
• REALTORS spend a lot more money marketing your home than the typical homeowner spends on their home.
• A REALTOR has many more avenues to get the word out about your home and word of mouth is the greatest sales tool.
• Most home buyers contact a REALTOR before searching for homes and those agents usually do not search FSBO listings except as a last result. The reason for this is that many FSBO sellers have a “No REALTORS Welcome” attitude.
• 85% of all home buyers begin their home search online and the vast majority is through Realtor websites that only show homes on the MLS.

If you are still interested in selling your home as For Sale By Owner then I would HIGHLY recommend using a service like FSBO Marketplace to sell your home. They offer a free option which will get your home listed on several of the largest websites. Exposure is key when selling your home and they can help.