97% of today’s homebuyers use a real estate agent to help them locate and purchase a home. (You probably did the exact same thing when you bought your current home, didn’t you?)
Here’s a question for you:
Why do the overwhelming majority of buyers use a real estate agent? It’s simple. Homebuyers use agents to help them, guide them, and make them feel secure during the stressful home buying process. Most people want to make sure everything goes smoothly when trying to make the largest financial transaction they’ll ever be involved in.
Real estate agents have access to 99% of the homes currently on the market. And, since buyers can work with a real estate agent for FREE, why on earth would they not use one?
Buyers that look at homes being sold ‘By Owner’ usually can’t work with a real estate agent for several reasons, which we’ll get into in just a moment. So if over 97% of today’s homebuyers are working with an agent, who are the people out there looking at homes being sold by owner?
There are usually three types of people:
Buyers who can’t get approved for a mortgage.
These people were likely turned down for a mortgage because of bad credit, lack of sufficient income, too much debt, or some other reason. Instead of going home, giving up, and settling for living in their apartment, they usually go try their luck with a for sale by owner.
Real estate agents only spend time with buyers who have already been qualified by a mortgage lender. Rejected buyers who fall into this category are usually looking for a great deal from you to help them get into the house since you’re the owner. They’ll ask you to help them finance the home by participating in some type of owner financing, rent-to-own, loan assumption, or some other creative method that rarely works out.
These types of people aren’t usually very creditworthy, which is why they were rejected by the bank in the first place.
Agents don’t even put these types of people in their cars to go look at homes because they couldn’t purchase a television on credit, let alone a house.
Investors
These people LOVE to prey on For Sale By Owners. They drive all over town, looking for owners who are frustrated with the selling process or in distress so they can take advantage of them and get them to sell at a huge discount.
These types of people will usually make you an offer that’s $20,000 or more below your asking price. They will NEVER pay market value for a home, so you can forget it. The only thing they care about is making a profit. The less they pay you, the more profit they make.
People with absolutely no motivation to buy
Real estate agents usually only work with homebuyers who are looking to buy a home in the next 90 days or less. They don’t waste time showing property to people who aren’t ready, still need to get their credit together, or don’t plan to buy a home until next year.
These types of people are just window shopping. They want to see what’s out there so that maybe one day they’ll get lucky and be able to buy a home. Other people who fall into this category include buyers who want a $400,000 house but can only afford a $100,000 home. The home they’re willing to buy doesn’t exist, but they’ll keep wasting their time, and yours too if you’ll come down off the price.
People in this category usually have never even spoken with a lender to get approved, and that’s because they’re not ready. They just want to drive around and look at different homes, and they definitely don’t plan to buy any of them. And since agents won’t waste their time showing them anything, they drive around and look at for sale by owners.
If you’ve had your home on the market as a For Sale By Owner for more than a couple of weeks, you likely have already come into contact with these types of buyers. Actually, let’s not call them buyers. They won’t be buying anything, anytime soon.
So in conclusion…if 97% of today’s REAL homebuyers are working with an agent, and since agents refuse to show homes being sold by the owner, what type of buyer does that leave you?
Making the decision to attempt to sell your home By Owner is totally up to you.
As a real estate agent, I would never sell my own home By Owner, and that’s likely because I’ve seen firsthand how many things can go wrong. There are just too many risks involved.
But the choice is yours. If at any time, you decide you could benefit from the services of a client-focused real estate team, dedicated to selling your home for top dollar, please give us a call. You have nothing to lose.
We would love to sit down with you, help you explore your options, and see how you could get your home sold for top dollar, with a great team on your side.
Do You REALLY Want to Pay Us 3% to Bring You a Buyer?