Reak Estate Agent Or FSBO?
My husband & I are new at this.... We have bought a fixer-upper and plan on selling it in a month or so for about $20,000 more that what we have in it. We can't decide whether to get a real estate agent of try to sell it ourselves. I have a business degree so I feel capable of doing it, but I am a little nervous about it.. Any suggestions??
If you feel capable I say give it a try yourself first. Thats what I did. I put my house up fsbo but found out that alot of people are scared to purchase something not using an agent(which I think is silly). because I had only about 4 people take a look at my house when I had it up for sale but when I listed it with an agent, 30 or so people came and looked at it and I had an offer in 3 weeks. Also some people who look at your house fsbo are looking for a steal of a deal because they know you are not having to pay a real estate commision so they think you should pass on that savings to them..ha! But like I said, you should try yourself and see what happens, It cant hurt. and if you do sell it fsbo make sure to have a real estate lawyer look over the paperwork to make sure everything is okay, that should only cost around 150 dollars(nothing compared to a real estate agents commision). And lastly if you do go with an agent I beg of you to find a really good one who is smart. alot of real estate agents are ex used car salesman and you have got to be real careful, trust me, I had problems with a bad agent like you wouldnt believe. good luck
Ok, so I'll give exactly the oposite advice and then you can do whatever you want. The real estate agent, if you get a good one, is worth every penny of their commission. Even a not very good one may still be worth it. The MLS service is what is known in MBA school as an efficient marketplace. It advertises a product widely among a group of buyers who are interested in buying. This means that you are most likely to find your ideal purchaser via this method. Yes, you can take out an ad in the paper. Yes you can put up a sign in the window or yard. Yes, you can negotiate the contract and know your real estate law. But you cannot place the property in the largest market in you area without a realtor. When you buy you are hoping for an inefficient market. When you sell you want an efficient market.
You can list your property on the MLS for around $300-500, depending on where you're at. You can find this info in any search engine, under "MLS listing." Most of these companies will put you on MLS for six months, include you on a couple of websites, and offer signs and lockboxes at addtional cost.