Why Not Sell “By Owner”?
Selling your own home seems so easy. You just plant a for-sale sign in the front yard, hold an open house, then sit back and wait for the purchase offers to come in. The fast-paced real estate market makes selling on your own seem even easier. Appearances can be deceiving. Real estate agents know for-sale-by-owners (FSBO’s) rarely manage to sell their own homes. It’s not that they don’t understand the process, many have been through one or more transactions. The difficulties lie in pricing the property to sell, executing a strong marketing plan and motivating interested buyers to take action. FSBO Dorothy is a case in point. She’s had her house on the market at $95,900 for nearly a month, but she hasn’t received a single offer. She’s taken all the right steps from researching sales of comparable homes to placing advertisements in local newspapers, posting the home on several FSBO Web sites, holding two open houses and manning the telephone. Shes says the newspaper ads and open houses g
