You may be wondering what kind of people sell their own homes. Do they have some special trait or ability, do they possess a natural salesman-like quality, or are they just normal people who are sick and tired of giving away their hard-earned money? Let me take this opportunity to reassure you. Selling your own property privately does not require any special traits or natural abilities, in fact millions of people around the world have done it and millions more continue to do so today. The person who decides to sell privately as a For Sale By Owner (or FSBO) is just a normal person like you or me. What sets them apart is that these owners, who may or may not have prior experience selling a property, take the time to learn the “trade secrets” of how to do it right. They are looking for a practical resource of information, one that has been carefully designed to guide homeowners through the process of preparing a home for the market, and once they find it, they make it work for them. One of those resources is this article. Let’s take a look at some of the private selling myths that have gained popularity over the years.
Private Selling Myths
Many people believe that they cannot sell their own home without the help of a real estate agent. Some believe that it is even illegal to do so. This is not true, and I’ll take a moment to break it down and prove it to you with an example. Forgive my example for being somewhat simplistic, but it will serve to clarify my point anyway.
In a home sale there are probably 6 participants, the Seller (the owner), the Buyer, the Seller’s attorney, the Buyer’s attorney, and then there is the Seller’s realtor and the Buyer’s realtor. Through a simple process of elimination, we will see which of the previous participants are necessary to complete a sales transaction. We will try to remove each set of transaction participants and ask the question “Can the sale go through?”. If you can’t, then we need those participants and they can’t be removed. If you can continue, then we can remove the participants from the transaction and still continue. Let’s start removing participants from the transaction.
If you remove either the seller or the buyer from the transaction, obviously the sale cannot continue, so these two participants obviously have to stay. What about the lawyers? If we remove the attorneys from this transaction, then there is no one to investigate the existing property title, and there is no one to legally transfer title to the property being sold to its new owner (Buyer) after the sale. On top of this, without attorneys, there is no one to legally oversee the exchange of money so that the seller gets paid once the title is delivered to the buyer. It’s pretty obvious that the lawyers need to stay in the transaction so we can’t get them out and move on. That leaves one group: real estate agents. Can we remove the real estate agents from this transaction and move on? Since millions of homes are sold every year without the use or involvement of real estate agents, then the answer is a resounding “Yes!” Realtors can be removed from the transaction, and it can still proceed without cause, making it abundantly clear who is needed and who is not.
Now that we’ve clearly established who is needed to process a property sale, we need to address some popular misconceptions that seem to have gained credence over the years. Many of these falsehoods are nothing more than hearsay and rumors that have been around long enough to be mistaken for fact. For example, some people believe that a Real Estate agent has some mystical power that helps them get more money for a house than if it were sold privately by its owner.
People who promote this idea often argue that the Buyer knows that the Seller does not pay any commission to a Realtor, so these savings should go to them in the form of a discount. Could not be farther from the truth. Ask yourself this simple question: “When did it become customary, or even reasonable, to give Buyers everything they want, and worse, how is this apparent right to an automatic discount enforced?” In other words, under whose authority is this discount applied? The simple fact is that no one can force any Seller to sell for less than they are willing to sell!3 Following the same logical line, if it is true that a Buyer is automatically entitled to a discount because the Seller is not paying a commission, so is it also true that the seller should receive a bonus, in addition to the fair market value of his property, for improving and keeping the property in good condition over the years? Of course not! It’s ridiculous because market value is market value, period. There’s no denying that it can be helpful to have a sales representative make your case for a better sales price, but the fact is that a Buyer doesn’t really care who sells the house or who makes the case for a better price. final sale, they just want to buy the best house they can for the least amount of money.
On the other side of the table, a seller doesn’t really care much about who is buying the house either, they just want to get the most money for their property. The truth is that in any market Sellers will not get a penny more for their properties than they are worth to Buyers who are willing to buy them; and those Buyers will not pay one penny less than those Sellers are willing to accept for those properties. This is the very definition of market value;
The fair market value of a property is the price agreed upon by an informed and willing seller and an informed and willing buyer on a free market, each without undue pressure to buy or sell, and each acting on his or her own benefit. your best interest.
The bottom line is that nothing has changed in over 500 years, the value of property in a market is still simply a matter of supply and demand, and creating demand for your property is simply a matter of good marketing, and that’s the that these articles are about! They have been designed to teach you the proven techniques of how to market your property so that you get the most value, in the least amount of time. These articles are full of practical tips and advice on how to sell your home privately “by owner” and get fast results with more money in your pocket! No gimmicks, no magic, just good marketing! You’ll learn how to prepare and market your home for a profitable sale, how to negotiate with a potential buyer, and all without ever going to a real estate agent!