FSBO Information

Are You Thinking About Selling Your Home Yourself?

This page is designed to give you some information to consider when planning to sell your home without professional assistance.

Reasons people desire to sell their homes themselves.

1 You had a bad experience dealing with an agent

2. You don't know the value of the service that an agent provides

3. You want to save money

4. You think you will have more flexibility

5. Your ego gets in the way

Now lets break those reasons down.

1. All agents are NOT created equal. If you get a bad car, do you stop driving? Do you never buy that kind of car again? Everyone gets a bad deal at least once in their lifetime, and this can be especially devastating if that bad deal happens when undertaking such a critical endeavor as selling your home. But if we all gave up on every profession every time we hit a bad representative, then we'd be back to wearing yak hide and trading shells for sticks. Selling your home is one of the most important and difficult tasks you'll ever undertake. Think carefully before you shut out the professional Real Estate agents available to you, and the invaluable services that they provide.

2. The belief that you will NET more money by not having to pay a commission is a hard one to understand. Let me start by saying that the type of buyers that look for For Sale By Owner (FSBO) homes are bargain hunters. They are savvy and know that they can reduce the price of your home by the cost of the commission, therefore they offer far less for your home then you are asking. Also, you have to negotiate your price and terms for yourself. An agent is not only trained to negotiate, but is an outsider that can negotiate objectively and without emotion. Most buyer's are moving into town and need a place to live. The FSBO has no marketing tools to tap into this pool of buyers. An agent, however, has the tools to market your home to these most valuable buyers (ones that need to buy now). By reducing your pool of buyers to the bargain hunters, the odds of getting full price for your home are small.

3. You think you will be tied down to one agent. However, marketing your home yourself may greatly reduce your home's exposure to agents with ready, willing and able buyers. An agent that has a buyer that is interested in your home, a home that does not pay a commission, will require the buyer to pay his/her commission. Do you think the buyer will be willing to pay full price for your home, pay the commission to his agent, and purchase your home? Would you? Not likely, especially when there are a variety of homes on the market whose owners are working with agents and assuming responsibility for their commissions.

4. Does your ego tell you that you can do as good a job as a professional Real Estate agent? That may be true. However, consider it this way: Would you pull your own teeth, or would you see a professional Dentist? Would you represent yourself in court, or would you hire a professional Attorney? Would you perform surgery on yourself, or would you seek out a professional Surgeon? In other words, a Professional is just that; a Professional. Real Estate agents are professionals who work for you to sell your home. There are many aspects to selling a home in North Carolina, Marketing, Mortgages, Lawyers, and many other tasks that a real estate agent takes care of.

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A Note On Commissions: Like most other professionals, Real Estate agents don't get paid until the job is done. Unlike other professionals, our job takes from 30 days to several months to complete. In the meantime, we provide not only the quality time and dedication that you deserve, but also a wide range of marketing and advertising tools designed to effect the best possible home selling experience; tools which you, the self-seller do not generally have access to. And all of this comes out of our own pockets, because we don't get paid until your house is sold. So, whether you call it a Commission or a Marketing Fee, it is a price well paid.

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Can you sell your home yourself? Yes you can. If you are diligent and can dedicate the time, labor and resources that will be required for the task, you most certainly can sell your home yourself.

My question to you is, if you can NET as much by employing our services as you can by selling your home yourself, and you can save yourself the time, labor and stress involved, then why not let Alotta Properties take care of the details?

If you have any questions or comments about selling your home, please feel free to call us. We will be glad to assist you in any way we can.

Alotta Properties, Inc. 2009 Hope Mills Rd., Fayetteville, NC 28304

Phone # (910) 426-7492 Toll Free 1-877-4ALOTTA(425-6882)