6 Key Reasons Why You Shouldn't Sell Your Home Yourself

From time to time there are homeowners who decide to forego hiring a real estate broker and sell it themselves. While some transactions are successful, more often than not, the lawn sign will eventually change from a do-it-yourself sign to one of a professional broker. Selling your home is a complicated task and is best handled by an experienced, licensed broker. Some reasons why:

1. Realtors Legitimize Your Listing

Realtors legitimize your listing and provide a layer of security by limiting your exposure to the public. Brokers pre-qualify their clients before they show your house. Buyers working with agents are more likely serious prospects. You are less likely to tie up your house with an unqualified buyer or put yourself at risk or in a potentially unsafe condition.

2. Strategic Marketing

Realtors are master marketers. Brokers spend a significant amount of time and money on marketing the properties they represent and understand how best to showcase that property to prospective buyers. They are experts in their neighborhoods and have hundreds (if not thousands) of contacts who regularly view their offerings and can help them locate the perfect buyer. Agents can also offer inside information including when is the best time to list a property, how to properly stage your home and home repairs/renovations to consider before you list the property to maximize your asking price. Unlike selling your home yourself, realtors will also give you the unvarnished truth of what your home is actually worth and price it competitively and fairly so that it will sell in today’s market.

3. Help with Negotiations

There are all kinds of small and large details associated with buying and selling properties. Overlook one small detail and your buyer could walk out the door. Negotiating directly with a party and not using a broker gives you no distance or leverage in a transaction. It often ends in a stalemate especially if the homeowner won’t compromise with a prospective buyer. Agents are the perfect intermediary to take any emotion or anxiety out of a sale. They know how to talk tough and when to smooth things over and put the sale back on track.

4. Realtors have a Team

Not only do most realtors have an internal team of colleagues to help sell your home, they also have relationships and access to professionals including home inspectors, contractors, decorators, pest control companies, handymen and lawyers. So, even if you make it through selling the house all by yourself, there is still a lot more work to be done. Homes must be inspected and contracts need to be drawn up. Finding your own professionals can be both expensive and time consuming if you don’t know where to turn. So even though you may think that you’ve saved some money by selling yourself, you may end up spending that savings on these related costs. Realtors know the best people to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

5. Social Media and the Internet

While you may have a robust facebook account and be a whiz on Twitter it probably can’t compare with your real estate agent’s reach. In almost all cases they have more followers, friends and connections than you do and people deliberately seek them out to search for dream properties. Sure, you may have a friend of a friend who might give you a call about your property, but the main reason agents have social sites is for prospective buyers to browse through their listings and find the perfect match.

6. Real Estate Agents are the only ones who can List your home in MLS

The Multiple Listing Service is only open to licensed agents and brokers and has reach nationally as well as regionally and locally. While you’re wasting money on a newspaper advertisement, your property will get far more attention and exposure using this well-established service.

So save yourself time, money and aggravation and do it right the first time so you don’t have to replace lawn signs when your do-it-yourself strategy yields less than impressive results.