Busting The For Sale By Owner Myth by Art Gib

Real estate pricing varies across the country in order to make certain that the best deals are available in whatever region a person is looking to by or sell real estate it is advisable to hire a professional real estate agent. There is a stigma among some homeowners that real estate agents do little more than collect a hefty commission check for doing nothing more than placing a sign out in the front yard and taking a few pictures of their house for publishing fliers.

In an effort to save the six percent that realtors charge to list and close the sale of a home the fore sale by owner market was born. Many people that attempt to sell their home are tempted to circumvent the system by foregoing the hiring of a real estate agency to assist them in the sale of their home. To try and avoid paying a commission the for sale by owner approach actually can cost the home seller more money than they would have spent if they had used a real estate professional to sell their home.

For sale by owner signs appear in yards all over neighborhoods in cities across the nation. The for sale by owner housing market sees almost as many owners selling their homes as it does listings with real estate agencies. The big difference in selling a house through a real estate agent and selling a house without an agent all boils down to marketing.

Marketing a property that is for sale by owner is very difficult. In an effort to avoid paying out a commission to a real estate agent many people foolishly try to sell a house by themselves and have a difficult time in attracting potential buyers to the neighborhood. The internet extends a few options for the do it yourself seller, but without properly listing the property information and allowing an agent to put the house for sale into the MLS database it is doubtful that the house will have anyone looking at it.

Even if the home happens to be the ideal piece of property for a buyer, the buyer may never be aware of the real estate offering because they have no way of knowing that the house is available, unless fate has them in the neighborhood and they happen to pass by the house that is for sale by owner.

The majority of people looking to buy a home regularly check the internet for homes being listed for sale in their area. Even with a small local listing most for sale by owner homes go unnoticed by the thousands of buyers that surf the net in search of their dream home. With a simple sign in the yard the for sale by owner marketing approach to selling a home is similar to holding up a stop sign in front of charging stampede of wild elephants.

For sale by owner signs do little to attract potential buyers and homes that listed by their owners have a very small chance of selling on the open market.

By contrast hiring a real estate agent to do the work of bringing in potential buyers and spreading the word about houses that are available is a relatively simple matter. Listing agents take photographs of a house and help the owner to set a realistic price based on the comparison of similar houses in the neighborhood that have been sold in the past few months.

With proper signage and the ability to post a new listing onto the national MLS database the potential increases for buyers to view and make inquires about homes that are for sale. Most serious buyers ask their real estate agent to check the MLS database each morning for new listings that have been added to the system and update them on properties that match what they are looking for. As potential buyers research the MLS database for inventories of houses that meet their requirements they conduct specific geographical searches that can narrow down the number of available homes listed by real estate agents by price, year build, style of the home, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and square footage of the property.

Without the same information available to the buyer from a do it yourself for sale by owner search being available those homes that are not represented by a realtor are automatically missed. Many for sale by owner homes are completely overlooked by searches that are conducted by the realtor and their clients. As the weeks turn into months the for sale by owner properties are reduced in price over and over in a vain effort to attract passers by that may be interested in the home.

With each price reduction the home owner is giving up some equity that have built up in the property and in essence sacrificing their homes value in hopes of closing a better deal for a buyer. But without the property being marketed to other real estate agents and their clients many of the for sale by owner homes are forced to reduce their asking prices even further until it no longer is equitable for the owner to sell the house and they resign to keeping it.

In the long run many of the for sale by owner properties that could have been sold with the assistance of a realtor months earlier end up reducing the asking price of their homes to the point that they actually cost the seller more in discounts from money that was given up in order to attract buyers than would have cost the seller to pay the real estate commissions to a buyers and sellers agent. The lost money that the homeowner has given up by being stubborn headed and believing that they could as good a job, if not better than, if they had brought in a professional real estate agent, would have been far better spent paying a six percent commission to a realtor that could have helped them sell their home in a fraction of the time that they can on their own.

By hiring a real estate agent home sellers actually have to suffer fewer headaches in putting their house on the market than they would have if they went with a for sale by owner.

RE/MAX Louisiana(http://www.remax-louisiana.com/)provides buyers and sellers with real estate maximums quality professional service. Art Gib is a freelance writer.

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