For those who don't know, FSBO stands for For Sale By Owner
This is a pretty good resource for Realtors when it comes to talking to people considering doing a FSBO sale. Since it is a news report, one can assume that the information given is unbiased. The video is also being recommended online to people who are looking to sell their homes.
It is easy to understand why people might balk at paying a 4-6% commission when they sell their home. Houses are expensive and so it looks like Realtors are getting quite a bit of money. What always amazes me is that people are willing to shell out $3000 up front, with no protection if the house doesn’t sell.
When hired, a Realtor uses the money that is part of the commission to fund advertising. They make sure that as many people as possible are aware of your house being for sale. If the house doesn’t sell, they do not get that money back. This means a Realtor is extra motivated to make sure your house sells, and that it sells at a good rate.
Grapevine and all those other marketing services don’t have that same motivation.
Hi Julie
ReplyDeleteA recent experience with an agent has left us feeling a bit less likely to do it again, at least with selling. We ended up selling to the first person through the door. The agent wanted us to agree to the first offer and exerted much pressure to take the deal, which was $10k less than our ask, this on a home listed at $226k. This upset my wife and the pressure to accept the next offer too was not what we were expecting. We sold at a price we were comfortable with, but our dealing with this agent has coloured our view of agents. We now see them as working for themselves, not the seller or the buyer and it will be difficult for any agent to change our opinion. I don't know the financial story behind the breakdown on the commission, but for us to pay her $5.5k to sell our place, given that her major expenses were hiring a stager, and a photographer, printing up some colour handouts, and the MLS listing, were mostly for gas and coffee & donuts for the open house, seems to us that she made a bit of money on us. And I should mention that she also made even more money as we used her to purchase our new home, which was significantly more than the one we sold. So, all in all, she made $14,5k for a few days work. Not bad money I say.