For many people looking to save money on the sale of their home, going for sale by owner MLS is a great option. With the median home prices in areas like Denver approaching $400K and Seattle at $675K, listing commissions are an astounding $12,000 and $20,250 respectively. That’s a pretty large chunk of change.
Although you can avoid these fees by selling your home yourself, for sale by owner MLS does come with its own challenges. Here are three that we see quite often that home sellers are not prepared for.
1) As a for sale by owner, you will get a ton of calls and most of them won’t be potential buyers.
This is probably the biggest complaint we hear from people trying to sell their own home. The second you list your house For Sale by Owner and publish to sites like Trulia and Zillow, agents will come banging down your door. In most states, when you sign an exclusive right to sell with an agent, other agents can no longer legally solicit your business. When you are a For Sale by Owner, these laws do not apply. BlueMatch operates in Washington, Colorado, Minnesota, and New York. These four states combine for over a hundred thousand licensed agents. This means there are a lot of eager people wanting to solicit their services to you.
2) Figuring out ways to show your home is a pain
When you work with an agent, chances are they will be using a professional showing service like Centralized Showings or Showtime. These services make sure potential buyers are working with a licensed agent. There are also checks and balances in place to provide you with a sense of security. When you list your home yourself, you will have to yield your own showing calls and plan the showing. You will have to trust the person coming into your home is a licensed agent that you can track down if need be or you will have to be in the home during the showing. The latter is usually an industry no no since being in the home with a potential buyer can make them feel very uncomfortable.
3) There are more active buyers working with an agent than not.
The idea of paying zero commission is nice but could be very costly. When a buyer shows interest in your home and they are working with an agent, chances are that agent will reach out to you and ask you what you are paying in buyer commission. By refusing to pay a reasonable buyer commission, you risk wiping out a huge chunk of the buyer pool. Just like in any free market, price is driven by supply and demand. When you decide to sell your own home, your goal should be to drive as much interest as possible. The more interest you create leads to more competing offers. More competing offers often times means a higher sale price. Not paying a listing commission is fine but you should always plan on paying a fair buyer commission if you decide to For Sale by Owner.
Choosing to list your home as for sale by owner MLS can be a daunting task. But with BlueMatch, it doesn’t have to be a headache. Contact us today to set up a consultation for your home.
