Realtor Vs FSBO - An Unbiased Comparison

[Rajput Blog]

I'm sure you've heard many arguments whether or not a Realtor is better at selling your home than you are. Every Realtor, without fail, will tell you that they can sell your home faster and for more money than you can. They will even have statistics to prove their point. On the flip-side, almost every "For Sale By Owner" site on the web will tell you the opposite. So who do you believe when both parties are self-serving?

Being a Realtor with a working team and also the CEO of a For Sale By Owner website, I will attempt to take an unbiased approach to this argument and cover the pros and cons of each stance. There are 4 points that a Realtor will base their arguments on and so I FSBO Realtor think it is only fair to address each of these points.

4 Points Or "Arguments" A Realtor Will Make

1. A Realtor can price your home more accurately.

2. A Realtor can negotiate the deal better than you can.

3. A Realtor can sell your home for more money.

4. A Realtor can sell your home faster.

So let's ask each question and talk about the real answers. For the sake of this discussion, let's first assume that the Realtor we are talking about here is an experienced agent that sells more than 12 homes per year. Why is that important? Because over 80 percent of Realtors sell 3 or fewer homes per year and cannot truly make any of the arguments listed above. How can they? The agents that only sell 3 homes per year have to relearn the business on almost every deal. This is true across the industry. There are too many "part-timers" for these arguments to be a blanket statement for every Realtor.

CAN A REALTOR PRICE YOUR HOME MORE ACCURATELY THAN YOU CAN?

Up until a few years ago, the answer was most definitely "Yes" but that has recently changed. Let's compare.

Realtor

It is true that, on average, Realtors price homes more accurately than a FSBO seller will. Realtors have resources available to them to see all of the recent sales in any given neighborhood. They can also see all of the available homes currently on the market. By analyzing this data, they can make a fairly accurate prediction of what a home should sell for and even how quickly it should sell.

Seller - For Sale By Owner

Most sellers price their home based on what they "think" their home should be worth. Their pricing is based on very little accurate data other than what other homes are currently priced at that are still on the market. No Realtor would ever... or rather, should never base a price on what is for sale but rather what has sold. With today's technology and the resources on the web, a seller can spend as little as $16.95 and get the same information that a Realtor uses. Now for the tricky part... forget any notion that your home is better than any other seller's home. Use this report and base your price on hard data and you can price your home as accurately as a Realtor.