If you’re planning to sell you home in the near future, there are a few ways to go about it. The most common, is to hire a real estate agent to list your house for sale and take care of all the details and complications that inevitably come with selling a home. The second option is to forget about real estate agents and list your house for sale yourself.

 

These homes for sale are referred to as FSBO, or for sale by owner homes. Using a realtor and selling your home FSBO both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you ask me, for sale by owner homes have fewer advantages than using a real estate agent to list your house for sale. Here I will try to outline as thoroughly as possible, the advantages and disadvantages of for sale by owner homes versus for sale by realtor homes. One of the greatest advantages of selling your home through a real estate agent is that you can avoid the hassle and work that comes with selling for sale by owner homes. Real estate can get quite complicated, especially if you don’t have any real estate experience. Reading real estate blogs doesn’t count as experience. There is an awful lot of work involved in selling a house FSBO. For sale by owner homes son’t sell themselves. You’ll have to advertise your house for sale and you’ll be competing with all the other homes for sale by realtor. Realtors know what they’re doing and have experience selling houses. That’s why a lot of for sale by owner homes stay on the real estate market a lot longer than other homes for sale. For sale by owner homes tend not to get nearly as much exposure as homes for sale by real estate agents do.

 

Even if you’ve got all the time in the world to sell your home, you should be aware that potentials buyers become suspicious when a house for sale has been on the market too long. They think that if the house for sale was a good deal, it would have sold already, or else there’s something wrong with it. This can drastically decrease the selling price of your house for sale. If you don’t use a real estate agent, you may lose more money in negotiations with other real estate agents when selling your home because real estate agents have a lot of experience when it comes to negotiating th price of your hous for sale. Also, if there are any complications in the paperwork, you’ll have to consult a real estate lawyer, which will again add to the cost of listing your house for sale as FSBO. Another disadvantage of for sale by owner homes is that the buyer is often more comfortable dealing with other real estate agents. Even if you advertise your house for sale, other real estate agents might intentionally avoid showing it to their clients. That’s why, generally, listing homes for sale by owner is a bad idea. Though you’ll save some money by not having to pay a real estate agent for their services, you’ll likely make up the difference having to pay for your lack of experience in real estate.

 

Another advantage of listing your house for sale through a real estate agent rather than FSBO, is that real estate agents have access to special real estate resources that the general public can’t access. For example, real estate agents have an entire real estate network of contacts to draw from if they need anything. Real estate agents are also associated with real estate brokers, which do a lot of their advertising. The real estate company also helps real estate agents to sell homes for sale because people trust the big real estate names. You couldn’t possibly generate half the advertising that real estate agents do for the same price. Real estate agents also have access to the multiple listings site, or MLS. You can only list homes for sale on the MLS if you’re a real estate agent or some other type of licensed realtor. You might see for sale by owner homes on MLS now and then but those homes for sale had to be listed by a real estate agent. Some real estate agents will list for sale by owner homes on MLS for a fee, of usually around 2 or 3 percent of the selling price of your FSBO home.

 

At that point, if you’re already paying a commission to a real estate agent anyway, why not just let them take care of everything for you. Though selling your home might not seem so difficult, there’s a lot more to it than you might think. Advertising your house for sale is extremely important, but that’s just the beginning. Remember that you’ll have to arrange showings, which might mean taking time off work to see potential buyers at a time that suits them. This is just another of those unexpected costs associated with for sale by owner homes. If your have interested buyers and you get an offer, you will likely have to negotiate the price of your house for sale with an experienced real estate agent. Needless to say, you probably won’t get as much money for your house for sale as you would if you’d just hired a real estate agent to do the negotiating for you. The next step is to draw up the necessary paperwork – not so simple without a realtor. Without a real estate agent, you would be wise to hire a real estate lawyer to make sure you haven’t missed anything important that could get you into trouble and cost you a lot of money. Real estate agents are so used to checking these agreements that they can pick out any problems very quickly. In the worst case, you won’t be able to sell your home FSBO and will end up having to hire a real estate agent anyway to correct your mess. This will mean paying up to double what you would if you’d just listed your house for sale through a real estate agent to begin with. Still another advantage of listing your house for sale with a real estate agent instead of FSBO is that real estate agents advertise their clients’ homes for sale on their website. Real estate agents’ websites usually allow you to view homes for sale, and have links to web blogs that offer lots of information about real estate and homes for sale. These real estate blogs are usually written by realtors about real estate topics such as how to list your house for sale, when to list your house for sale, why for sale by owner homes stay on the market longer than homes for sale that are listed through real estate agents, and so on. Real estate blogs can be especially useful source of information to someone trying to sell their home FSBO who doesn’t know the first thing about real estate. So what is the first thing about real estate? The first thing about real estate, as any realtor will tell you, is advertising.

 

The best real estate agents are the ones who know how to advertise homes for sale. Some real estate agents use real estate blogs to advertise their services. Lots of people, especially those with for sale by owner homes, will go to real estate blogs for tips and advice. This is the ideal place for a real estate agent to advertise their services amidst the real estate information in their real estate blog. Would you like to create your own real estate blog? This is really only a good idea if you know a thing or two about real estate. You can create your own real estate blog by searching for real estate blog hosts that supply you with a real estate blog template that you fill in as you please. It’s important to be sure that your real estate information is reliable because real estate agents also look at real estate blogs now and then, and they will expose you if they discover that you’re lying about your real estate expertise.

 

Also, you cannot call yourself a realtor unless you have a real estate license from the national real estate association. Don’t try to sell your home FSBO because you’re interested n becoming a realtor and you want the experience. You could lose a lot of money on the sale of your house that would be better spent on taking some real estate courses. Or better yet, read real estate blogs for free to get an idea of what it is that realtors do. If you hire a real estate agent to list your house for sale, you can work closely with him or her to see what real estate agents do. Most real estate agents will be more than happy to guide you on your way to becoming a realtor. Best of luck with all your real estate endeavors!