Dart Folk

Many people want to save on agent’s commission by selling the home themselves, which is called FSBO (for sale by owner). Before you flirt with this idea you need to consider what risks it involves, and then carefully evaluate whether you are ready to take them.

Marketing
The main problem of anybody who is doing FSBO is the marketing problem. Realtors have access to Multiply Listing Service database and their listings are exposed to all other agents. You could list your home through some brokerage that offers low flat fee listing in MLS. However, it doesn’t make too much sense, because buyer’s agent receives half from the listing commission. Therefore, if your listing commission is $500 do you think a lot of agents will bring their clients to receive $250 commission?
There are many websites that are targeted specifically for FSBO buyers and sellers - so you do have options, but they will cost you. To this cost you should add lawn signs, newspaper advertisements and others. The reason I think you will have to heavily advertise is because the group of buyers who don’t work with Realtor is way smaller than those working with one. Therefore, in order to reach that group you will have to spend a couple of nickels on marketing.

Pricing the home
Appraising your house can be single most important activity in the whole process of the sale. Under pricing will caution buyers that there is something wrong with the home and the sale will take a long time. Overpricing will result in a longer sale price. Furthermore, if the house is overpriced most likely it would not be sold and you will have to lower the price. Again lowering the price and the length of the property on the market will caution you buyers, which can cause you to lower prices again. That’s why it is crucial to price home at a correct market value. Being a FSBO it might be hard and time consuming to do it yourself. You will have to be ready to spend some time on these.

Negotiations

You have to be ready to negotiate for your home. You need to know that buyers FSBO assume that your house will cost lower, because you don’t pay a commission to a Realtor. Some buyers will even come with an agent who will have a research on their hands to prove you why your house should sell for less. You have to be ready to deal those issues.

The bottom line is you have to take into account your time, marketing costs, potentially lower price of your home and calculate how many do you really save on that commission.

Angela Zelvenschi is a Realtor in Great Toronto Area. While she works with estate all over, she specializes in North York, Mississauga and Etobicoke.
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