The 3 Options When Selling Your Home

It you have decided to sell your home, you can go about the entire process two ways. You can sell it by yourself or have other people, in the form of real estate agents or brokers, assist you. If you have bought or sold a house in the past, you are well aware of how these options work. However, if you’re new to the “real estate business”, you may need to understand each option more.

The first option home owners can consider is to sell the property themselves. In this option (also called For Sale By Owner or FSBO), everything, from property evaluation to preparation of all legal documents needed to effect transfer, is done by the owners. A lot of home owners prefer this option because they can conduct the sale according to their desires. In addition, the full cost of the property, less taxes and other necessary expenditure, remain intact. They don’t have to allocate a percentage of the total sale as commissions to brokers or agents.

The second option is to secure the services of real estate agents or brokers. When you decide to go by this route, you are relegating some of the tasks, from securing the necessary forms and documents, to marketing and contacting potential buyers to others. In real estate, there are two kinds of agents or brokers: the discount broker and the traditional broker.

A discount broker (of Flat Fee broker), as the term implies, will charge you a flat fee (between $500 - $1000) and will provide you with a few basic services which may include (but are not limited to) listing your property on MLS sites, preparing marketing collaterals, providing you with a “FOR SALE” sign for your yard, and will also refer buyers to your property. Being brokers, they are entitled to receive a commission from the home owner, but since they only provided partial service, the commission they receive is usually smaller (about 3% of the total sale price).

A full service or traditional real estate broker, on the other hand, are usually members of real estate agents association and/or are affiliated with a real estate company. These individuals will assist you in all possible aspects of your real estate sale. They will advertise your property for you, give you tips as to how to properly stage your home during open house events, they will take calls and answer queries – name it and they will probably do it for you. Naturally, being professionals (and being their business), they will have professional fees. If a real estate agent is successful in securing a buyer for your home, the standard commission due them is 6% of the total sale price.

It would be best if you sat down with several real estate agents (from different companies) and discuss their services as well as their professional fees. You are not obliged to commit to anything and you should not allow yourself to be pressured into agreeing into a contract you do not understand. Take your time and evaluate your options – after all, it is your property that’s on the line.