Many companies have begun charging for services that encourage home sellers to become unrepresented sellers by selling their homes themselves. Here are several of their claims: 

THEY CLAIM:
When selling by owner, you don't have to leave the house because an agent wants to show it, or clean it every morning before leaving "just in case". You know when people are coming, and can prepare accordingly. And when a buyer makes an offer, there's not all that frustrating back-and-forth telephone tag between agents to reach an agreement. It can be done in minutes, and end with a friendly handshake and smile between owner & buyer.

 REALTORS KNOW:
When a buyer has trouble getting in to see your house because they have to make an appointment with you, it makes it LESS likely that they will buy your home and MORE likely that your home will take longer to sell. Since each home is utterly unique, buyers can't wait to see every home on the market for a month and then go back to a home they saw that first day to make an offer on it - it will probably be gone. Buyers know this, so they make offers on the first home they see that they would want to live in, even if they might have liked yours better. Also, regarding the "friendly handshakes", there are LOTS of different kinds of people out there. People don't always come across to each other the way they need to in order to close the transaction to the benefit of both parties. Often, people are either too scared to be mean, or they come across as too defensive and aggressive because they are nervous and not sure of themselves. Or, both parties want to be reasonable and know how to be reasonable, they just don't know what reasonable IS. They don't have enough experience to know what would be typical or atypical.   You probably wouldn't want a transaction with them based on a "friendly handshake".

 THEY CLAIM:
You know your home best; the schools, the neighborhood, what is special about the area and the house, as well as other details about the property. A well-maintained, fairly priced home virtually sells itself; your role is simply to provide additional information.

REALTORS KNOW:
Homes simply show a lot better when the owners aren't present. As any buyer who's been out touring homes can attest to, it's very difficult to feel comfortable in a home if the owners are there. It is difficult to do the work of imagining yourself living in the home if you are expending your energy trying to be polite. It's also true that most people will not feel comfortable discussing the flaws of the home in front of the owners, and the things which cause the most trouble are the things which get left unsaid, the worries that fester. It's absolutely vital for buyers to be able to bring up their concerns, the things they DON'T like right then, so their agent or the other buyer, if there is one, can say, "Hey, that's not so bad, we could just do _____!" Also, people need to be able to feel comfortable expressing their pleasure and excitement over the home. They need to NOT feel like they are going to be blowing their negotiating position if they keep saying, "I love this house!" because that process of talking about how much you love a home is what gets the buyer stoked to actually make an offer.

THEY CLAIM: 
Nobody is going to tell you what to do. You can advertise where and how you want to, schedule showings when it's convenient for you, talk directly with prospective buyers yourself, even take your house off the market for a while if you can't find the right house for you. You aren't obligated to a 3, 6, or 12 month contract...you make your own rules.

 REALTORS KNOW:
This one is a little weird. When you hire someone to perform a service for you (i.e. an agent), you most certainly are in control. If you don't feel like you can control your own agent, then you should definitely not attempt to negotiate a sale on your own. You need someone who can advocate for you.

THEY CLAIM:
Obviously, this is the main reason why most FSBO home sellers are selling their home themselves. You can save up to 7% commission by doing it yourself. On a $200,000 home you may save up to $14,000. Here's another way of looking at it. Let's say that your home will sell for $200,000 and you owe $144,000 on the mortgage, so you have $56,000 in equity. If you pay $14,000 in sales commissions, that's 25% of your equity! Sell it yourself and you'll save a very large portion of your equity!

REALTORS KNOW:
This is all true, sort of. Their numbers are accurate, but they don't take everything into consideration, which is probably why Realtor listed homes fetch 27% more, on average, than non-Realtor listed homes (according to the NAR 2002 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers). When you consider the costs of the seller's time and the costs of the property taking longer to sell... One of the big costs comes via the temptation to lower the price of the property because the seller thinks THAT is the reason their home isn't selling when it is really just that it's not on enough buyers' radar screens (because real estate agents aren't finding out about it or because people can't get in to see it easily). We've all sold wonderful FSBOs that were on the market WAY too long given their desirable location and their below market price. We've also all sold homes within days of it being listed by another Realtor after they had been FSBOs - sometimes for over a YEAR.

The thing is, for buyers who are really serious about buying a home, it's just easier to have a Realtor and it's those SERIOUS buyers you want coming to see your house, the folks who are educated about the market. It's a fact that nationwide, 85% of buyers buy their home with the help of a Realtor. Of the other 15%, half were transfers between people who already knew each other. This is probably why, according to the NAR survey, only 35% of FSBOs� said they would attempt to go it alone next time - and remember, a lot of these folks sold to members of their own family!

THEY CLAIM:
If you list your home at a full commission with a real estate agent, you'll probably inflate the asking price to cover the cost of the commission. Two to four months later you'll come to the painful realization that no one is going to buy your home at that price, and you'll end up reducing the price (or accepting an offer) equal to the original amount you would have asked if selling by owner. Do it right the first time, and avoid taking the loss.

REALTORS KNOW:
This one sounds real good, but it's based on some erroneous assumptions about how markets work. It's also in complete opposition to what they just said about how an unrepresented seller gets to KEEP all that "excess" money. A house is worth what a buyer will pay for it, not what they seller WANTS to get to cover their costs. This is basic Econ 101 stuff. If you look at RMLS data and compare it to FSBO data, no doubt about it: Realtor listed homes sell closer to original asking price (many times OVER) than FSBO. In part because the seller gets a professional opinion about what their home is worth and in part because the seller doesn't fiddle with the asking price thinking THAT is the problem when really it's just that folks aren't getting in to see the house easily and when they do, they are made uncomfortable by the owner's presence. In other words, correct pricing is a function of supply vs. demand. Realtors INCREASE the pool of prospective buyers (demand) thereby INCREASING price.

 THEY CLAIM:
Because you meet the prospective buyers, you have a much better idea how interested people are, what they like about the home, how serious they are about buying and what their timeframe and situation is. The direct feedback is easier to live with than wondering how things are going, or worse, why no one has made an offer yet.

REALTORS KNOW:
Pick up a phone and call your agent. Ask your agent why they haven't called you with feedback from the showings! And meeting the prospective buyer isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes, people get feelings about the buyer/seller and that can affect the home sale, when it doesn't have anything to do with anything. Better to keep focused on your own needs and the logistics of the sale then expend any energy thinking about if you LIKE the people who are going to buy your home or if they LIKE you. This sounds harsh, but in the long run, it leads to greater happiness for both buyer and seller. Also, people won't necessarily give YOU, the homeowner, honest feedback about your home. They don't want to be rude. Again - this is why it is good for the seller to be absent during the showing. People can then IMAGINE the home as their own, and not waste time trying to be friendly and polite.

THEY CLAIM:
"If you can sell your own car, you can sell your own home... it's that simple" said one of our home sellers. And he's right, once you find a buyer... lenders, lawyers or title companies take over (depending on your area of the country).

 REALTORS KNOW:
Wow! This claim is really wild. Look - normally, you have two sets of nice people who don't know what they are doing trying to buy/sell a home. And everything works out just fine because nobody knows what laws the other person (usually the seller) is breaking. But what if you got involved with a buyer who DID know the laws? They could really hurt you. Here's an example: You take your home off the market because you have an accepted offer. You buy another house with the money you are going to get from the sale of your existing home and hire the moving vans and make your earnest money ($5,000) on the home you've just bought nonrefundable. The day before closing the buyers tell you that you have to lower your price by $10,000 or they will turn you into the federal government for not ever giving them the statutorily required Lead Based Paint Addendum. They claim it's a good deal for you because the fine for not giving it is $25,000. What do you do? Or maybe they just say, "Sorry we are buying another home we like better. Oh? You don't think we can pull out of the deal? We can because you never gave us a Disclosure or a Disclaimer". What if the home you are selling was your mother's or a rental? Does that make a difference? Do you know? The idea that you just get a signed deal and then lawyers or title people take over? Well, perhaps it works differently in other states, but in Oregon there are no lawyers unless you PAY for them and the title company will ONLY follow the written instructions they get from both the buyer and seller. That's their role, not giving free advice that might open them up to potential legal liability. This is another aspect of "are you really saving money?" If there are no problems, yes. But we all buy insurance even though we don't REALLY expect our homes to burn down or our legs to get ripped off in industrial accidents.

 Another  final consideration:

Most folks don't think about the potential security risks they are taking when they attempt to sell their own homes. In any other situation, if a total stranger came to your door and said, "OK, I'm here - now let me in to take a look around." You would not do it. But if you want to sell your home, you have no choice. Realtors here in the State of Oregon are fingerprinted and go through FBI background checks before we are given the electronic key-card that will open the lockboxes on homes for sale. These lockboxes record which agent accessed the lockbox and when. And, since you aren't home during the showing, you don't have to worry about your personal safety.

Selling your home yourself can work just fine, but be sure you make that decision with all the facts and weighing all the pros and cons. Please contact us if you have questions particular to your situation.

 Oregon First Realtors