Sellers: Realtor or no Realtor?

A month or so ago I gave buyers a few reasons they should consider hiring a real estate agent (See Buyers: Realtor or no Realtor?). Now I’d like to do the same for sellers. I don’t know about you, but numbers are both interesting and important to me. I’m sort of a bottom-line person I guess. I like to see comparisons and make my decisions based on historical data.

I came across an article from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) today. It’s on their Web site, www.realtor.org, and it shows the results of a survey conducted by NAR in the summer of 2005. This article was published in January of 2006. Some of the data in the article is probably only interesting to me, but I pulled out a couple things directly relevant to sellers.

So here’s the question: How does a home seller benefit from using a real estate agent?

1. The median home price for sellers who use an agent is 16.0 percent higher than a home sold directly by an owner; $230,000 vs. $198,200; there were no significant differences between the types of homes sold.

I’d say the most common reason people decide to sell their house themselves is to save money. They don’t want to pay 4-7% in commissions. But look at that statement – sellers who use an agent get 16% more for their home than sellers who don’t! If you subtract a 7% commission from that 16%, you’re still coming out 9% ahead with a real estate agent.

2. According to (then) NAR President Thomas M. Stevens from Vienna, Va., “Owners without professional assistance also have problems in understanding and completing paperwork, prepping the home for sale, getting the right price and selling within the time planned.”

If you are in a time crunch especially, hiring a real estate professional to stage and market your property is the single most important thing you can do to meet your deadline.

3. Nine out of 10 home buyers use a real estate agent in the search process.

This is huge. Real estate agents know the most important audience they can market to is other real estate agents. That’s what makes the MLS so important. But as a real estate agent, we also know how to talk to each other through the MLS. FSBO sellers who purchase the flat fee MLS listing are losing out on that key element and the knowledge real estate agents have of staging properties. For more on that, please see my rant on Flat-Fee MLS Listings. Remember that real estate agents sell what they know. They and their clients want to pull up a list of homes on the MLS, narrow that list to five homes, look at those homes, and write a contract. For buyers using a real estate agent, FSBOs rarely make the list, much less the cut. If you must sell your house yourself, show your house to as many real estate agents as you can.

If you’d like to know more about how I work and what I can offer you as your listing agent, please call me at 843.574.3193.