Homes For Sell By Owner -
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th
You're selling your home as a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) and youget annoyed when real estate brokers call you, right? That's areasonable response when you're doing all the work to marketyour property to save thousands of dollars in brokercommissions. However, when a "buyer broker" calls, you mightwant to listen.
Why Listen
To understand why I say that, we need to understand thefunctions of "listing brokers" and "buyer brokers." Real estatebrokers can and do serve both functions, though some specialize.
Some brokers who call you are interested
in listing your home.They want to market your home for you. The amount of commissioncharged for this service varies, but where I live, most brokerslist homes for a commission of 6 percent of the sales price.When the home sells, if another brokerage firm has brought thebuyer to the deal, the listing broker pays the selling brokerhalf or 3 percent.
When you're successfully operating as a FSBO, you're gettingfolks to come and look at your house, or condo, or whatever, andyou don't need a listing agent. However, what if you've beendoing this for a while and none of the lookers has beenconverted to a buyer? What then?
Well, if a broker calls you and says he or she is working withbuyers and they'd like to be able to show your home, maybe youshould consider it. They probably only expect about half thetypical listing commission. That still allows you to saveserious money. Perhaps you can even negotiate down a bit fromhalf. This is especially true if your home is appropriatelypriced above the average price for a home in your area. In myarea where 3 percent to a selling broker is frequentlyacceptable, I've seen brokers accept 2.5 or even 2 percent. Itdoesn't hurt to ask.
As a bonus in that situation, you get someone who isknowledgeable about the process with an interest in getting thedeal to settlement. True, they don't represent you. Theyrepresent the buyer, but the buyer wants your home and thebroker wants a payday. In short, the buyer broker has incentiveto put an oar in when problems arise.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not for one second suggesting thatyou pay more than is necessary to sell your home. At first, takenames and phone numbers of "buyer brokers" who call you. Then,if you find you need to, call back the ones who impressed you.
There is a middle ground between going it alone and listing witha broker. If you find you need to, this middle ground can beworth exploring through buyer brokers.
About the author:Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org - providing FSBOhomes For Sale By Owner. Visit our "sell my home" page athttp://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to list and sell your homefor free for one month. Visithttp://www.fsboamerica.org/buyer.cfm to see homes for sale byowner.
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