For Sale By Owner vs Hiring a Professional Realtor

You have decided to sell your house, and you have lots of EQUITY in your house.  You begin looking into the process of selling your house and realize that if you hire a FULL SERVICE Realtor like The Alexander Home Team - Keller Williams it is going to cost you around 6%. Then you realize that you are going to have other closing costs; for instance, a title policy and some title fees and in order for you to sell your house, around 7.5 - 8% of your EQUITY is going to go to fees.  

So you start looking at other options.  

Option 1 -  No Service (For Sale By Owner)

Sell the house yourself.   If you decide to sell the house For Sale By Owner, ask yourself a few questions.  

1. How are buyers going to gain access into your house? 

2. Is your house going to be secure? 

3. How are you going to market your house?  

4. What should you list your house for? 

5. Once we find a buyer what is next? 

I could go on but lets stop at 5. What if I told you that the average FOR SALE BY OWNER house sells for 8% less than those sold by a Realtor.  So even though you intended to save 3% in real estate fees by not hiring a listing agent to represent you, the buyer did hire an agent and because you had to pay the buyer’s agent 3% commission, selling your house just cost you 10% instead of 7.5-8%.  Call me anytime to further go over this math: 512-361-1568.

Option 2 -  Limited Service 

Let’s hire one of those Realtors that say they will charge me a flat fee or a discounted rate. (Make sure you read the fine print on these deals) Have you ever heard the term you get what you pay for?   Let’s keep in mind that your house is probably the #1 financial investment of your life.  Are you sure you want to trust the DOLLAR GENERAL of Realtors with that investment?  Let’s put it another way. Your child is a very good athlete with a possible scholarship worth $250,000 in their future and he or she tears their ACL.   Are you going to hire the Dr that is advertising a huge discount or are you going to hire the best in town or even the nation?

Option 3 - Full Service

The Alexander Home Team - Keller Williams is a FULL SERVICE Real Estate Team.  We are here to consult you and give you personal advice specific to your situation. Are you moving? Are you getting divorced? Job Transfer? Bigger House? We develop a plan to sell your house that best meets your needs.  

1. For the Most amount of MONEY

2. In the shortest amount of TIME

3. With the least amount of STRESS

While I have your attention let’s talk a little about the Marketing gimmicks that are out there in today’s market.

1. Sell your house in ___ days or WE will buy they house from you  

This is becoming a popular marketing gimmick.   What they don’t say on the radio is that in order to get this guarantee you have to start the price at the bottom of the market and they will insist on you lowering the price every week by around 5%.  Then at 59 days the house is priced well below the market value and you end up GIVING your house AWAY.

1. Sell your house in ___ days or we will sell it for FREE

This sounds GREAT except there is similar fine print involved in this one as well.   They are going to insist on you starting the price at the bottom of the market and agree to reduce the price every 7 days.   

The Alexander Home Team - Keller Williams is a Real Estate team that is built on Service, Integrity and Expertise.   We sit down with you, build a relationship through transparency and develop a plan to sell your house that works best for everyone involved.  We do not believe in marketing through GIMMICKS (although it does work) we instead have decided to market our business in ways that support the community.  We even take it one step further and over 90% of our marketing is spent to support the YOUTH of our COMMUNITY.  

This blog is not to tell you which OPTION you should choose although I do hope you choose option 3 and The Alexander Home Team - Keller Williams.  Instead this blog is to inform you that you have options and that there are benefits to all 3 options.  Personally, I believe in the idea of hiring a professional to do specialized tasks. I don’t do work on my car because I don’t know how to, and even though I could go buy the tools and watch a youtube video and might be able to do it for less than a mechanic, I choose to hire a mechanic to insure that it is done right.  There are no guarantees in the world of Real Estate so what we guarantee are 3 things:

1. The Best Service Possible - Relationships

2. Integrity -  We will tell you the truth NOT just what sounds good.  

3. Expertise -  We are committed to continually growing and learning to better serve YOU

If you or someone you know is looking to sell, buy or invest in Real Estate in the near future, we hope you will give us a call so that we can INTERVIEW for the job to be #YOURLOCALREALTOR.

Thank you

The Alexander Home Team - Keller Williams

www.AlexanderHomeTeam.com

512-361-1568