Generally people choose to sell their home by themselves for one of two reasons. First and foremost, nobody wants to pay the 6% fees charged by most real estate agents. Secondly, some people feel they could do a better job selling the property themselves and relish the challenge. Why not do it for both reasons?
It is a common misconception that agents do very little for the money. They show a few clients through the property and pocket thousands of dollars for their efforts. It is money for jam. In practice this is far from the truth.
Most sales representatives earn very little income and the industry relies on hopeful sales people who believe they are going to be successful. They work for next to nothing in the belief that they have what it takes to make it big and earn a huge income. Mind you, some agents do make very good money but they represent less than 5% of the sales reps. If the reps don't get the money, where does it all go?
o Prospecting for new listings
o Servicing existing listings
o Office and systems overheads
o Commission splits to the office
To be successful the sales reps need maintain a steady stream of new properties to sell. They need to be economical with the costs of selling but more than anything else, they must be able to close the deal quickly and efficiently to provide a win-win deal for all parties.
The top agents treat the whole process as a numbers game. They want to earn a salary of $X. However the average net commission earned is $Y. Therefore they need to complete the sale of X divided by Y properties. They also have figures that show how many phone calls, letter drops, home inspections etc that are needed on average to complete one sale. They have assistants to help with the bulk tasks and are not interested in more difficult properties. They leave those properties to the more enthusiastic, but broke, novices. Making money in real estate sales is a statistical exercise and has little room for emotion or 'belief in the property'.
Where the top agents do very well is in closing the deal. They help to take the emotion out of the situation and help the parties to make a good decision. It is not a situation where one party scores over the other, both should walk away pleased with the deal. This cannot be stressed enough. It is where novice agents fail and the situation is even harder for the person selling their own home.
Another serious consideration for the owner seller is the limited access to the most popular tools as the real estate websites. There are many web sites available to owner sellers but the reality is that very few people visit those sites whereas nearly all the buyers will visit the primary real estate managed websites. Therefore you are potentially locked out of the most effective means of advertising.
Never the less, the owner seller has some strengths to compete with the agents. While they want a straightforward sale, you will be prepared to go the extra mile to sell the property. You would be able to show all the benefits of the property and would be able to give detailed inspections as many times as it takes.
You would probably be more passionate than the competition. However this can be a double edged sword. While your passion could rub off on the buyers and make them more enthusiastic. It could also make you bitter and resentful when they criticise the property or make a low offer. In practice it is very hard to negotiate such a critical deal with a balanced sense of perspective. After all, we would all take the high option when given a range of appraisals for our property but a more sensible approach would probably be to aim for the mid point from the outset. But who does that? Remember, try to aim for a win-win deal.
Have a go and try selling by yourself but try to leverage your advantages as an owner seller e.g.:
o Take your time and provide the buyer with a better service
o Show the buyer why you love the property
o Be completely honest and open in your dealings, many people are suspicious of agents
o Share the financial benefits of selling by yourself with the buyer
Finally, it doesn't have to be completely one way or the other. There will be services available for owner sellers by specialist companies competing with traditional agencies. Also it should be possible to negotiate a limited deal with an agency to use their websites etc but still sell by yourself.
Be realistic, unemotional and with the right attitude you could be highly successful. Give it a try.
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If you wish to sell your Colorado Springs real estate property, you can find a good Colorado Springs REALTOR who will help you with your venture and take care of all the tedious paper work it involves. If you have any questions about Colorado Springs commercial real estate please contact Mike Stuard.
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