Pros and Cons of Selling Your Home FSBO vs Hiring a Realtor

Deciding to sell your home is a big step, and one that many homeowners don’t take lightly. 

This is why sometimes people question if they should trust someone to help them sell their home, or if it would be better to do it themselves.

There are pros and cons to selling on your own compared to working with a professional real estate agent, here is a comparison of the two options so you can decide which is best for you!

Pros of Selling Your Home Yourself

1. You Have Complete Control

• Having complete control of selling your home allows you to make every decision, and allows you to make choices that may not be made by a realtor. 
• You don’t need to explain the choices you make or jump through hoops; you can sell your home however you want and negotiate the deal as you see fit.

2. You’re the Expert on Your Home

• One of the reasons people decide to sell their own home is that they know the home inside and out, from living there and knowing first-hand how the home works. 
• This makes you an expert on the home – as compared to a realtor who only knows so much – and can be a strong selling point for a buyer. 
• You can speak on the home’s features and answer questions immediately without having to use a realtor as a go-between. 

3. You’re Not Paying a Commission

• When selling with a realtor, you have to pay the realtor a commission, and it comes right out of your sale profits. 
• Even after negotiating commission price with them, most sellers still pay between 5-and-7 percent of the total profit. 

4. Build Rapport with the Buyer

• Since you are in constant communication with the buyer or/or their agent, you will be able to speak to them more – which helps create a buyer-seller trust. 
• Typically the buyer & seller don’t have direct communication when they both use realtors, so this allows the buyer to get to know you and potentially trust you more than a typical seller. 

Cons of Selling Your Home Yourself

1. You May Not be Taken Seriously

• Although your home might be a great property, many buyers don’t want to deal with the hassle of a FSBO sale. 
• Many buyers also fear purchasing FSBO homes because there is a lack of credibility in your statements, since you don’t have a professional realtor backing up your claims. 
• Realtors for buyers also tend to stay away from showing their clients homes that are FSBO because they don’t want the sale to have mistakes that will make them look bad. 

2. Inexperienced and Prone to Mistakes

• When you work with a realtor, much of what you pay for is their professional knowledge of the legalities of selling a home. 
• Realtors have an extensive knowledge of homes and understand the process, and unless you are a realtor yourself, you likely lack some of this knowledge and can make mistakes easily. 

3. Out of Pocket Marketing

• Real estate agents have a lot of money set aside that they spend on marketing their listings. 
• When you decide to sell FSBO, you will have to market the listing yourself, which can cost a lot more than you would expect. 
• You also will have to host your own open house in order to get more eyes on your property, which can be daunting talking to realtors and buyers all by yourself. 

4. Emotions

• Real estate transactions are a big deal, and are usually an emotional transaction for both you – as the seller – and the buyer, because it is a lot of money at stake. 
• Selling your home can bring about a lot of emotions because of attachment, and not being willing to bend on certain negotiations because you may think your home is worth more that it really is. 

Overall, if you decide to sell your home yourself, but keep coming across obstacles and getting overwhelmed, you can always hire a realtor to help you with the process. 

If you are worried about the commission factor, you can always try to negotiate with the realtor to get a better price.