Real Estate 101 Series | Why Choose an Agent over FSBO & iBuyers?

When it comes to selling your home, there are many factors to consider - listing timeline, sales price, essential renovations, staging and photographing the space, and more before the house ever goes on the market. Although hiring a realtor is the traditional choice, more people are starting to choose the FSBO– For Sale By Owner–route. Additionally, one of the fastest growing trends in the home selling industry is that sellers are choosing to sell to an “iBuyer” to get their homes sold faster. So, what is the best choice? We’ve pulled in one of our experienced realtors, Stacey Richardson, to share insight into the market–what buyers are looking for, and what options are the best, most efficient fit for sellers. Stacey shares about her job as an agent, and how it plays a large role in the overall selling experience, which includes aspects like days on the market and fluctuation of the purchase price.

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What is an iBuyer?

iBuyer companies are relatively new to the real estate industry, as OpenDoor launched as the first iBuyer in 2013. According to Realtor.com, “Simply put, iBuyers are companies that have the financial means to buy homes in cash. To formulate an offer, iBuyers typically rely on similar properties in your local real estate market, or ‘comps,’ much as a real estate agent would in order to formulate a listing price on a home (or an offer).”

If it’s really that easy, then why wouldn’t everyone use an iBuyer to get their houses sold? 

As in most cases, there is a trade-off for convenience here. A MarketWatch investigation of multiple transactions involving iBuyers showed the following: “their offers would net their customers, on average, 11% less than owners who choose to sell their homes on the open market, when fees and other costs are considered, translating to tens of thousands of dollars lost.” Everything comes down to what factors are the most important to you. If you are hoping to receive the full purchase price on your home or specialized care while your home is on the market, that is much less likely to happen if you go down the iBuyer route.

What does it look like to sell my home without the help of an agent?

Another option to get that “sold” sign in your front yard is to sell your home “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO). We’ve pulled together the main appeals of FSBO selling, as well as what this process lacks. While in some cases, FSBO is the right choice for sellers, there are a number of ways that one may find the For Sale By Owner route lacking. We’ve gathered the most common negatives below: 

1. No pricing strategy

   While you may find comparable home sales–via sites such as Zillow, Trulia, etc.–to determine a price, realtors have access to MLS published information that will give

   more specifics–whether it’s square footage, condition, or an awareness of any limiting factors that affect price or days on market.

   Agents also have their finger on the pulse of supply and demand in the area. Websites like Zillow and Trulia seem to bring more visibility of comparables and price,

   but agents bring needed context to market analysis in order to find a purchase price that will maximize profit and minimize days on market.

2. Typically more difficult and costly for those who are not experienced / have never sold their home FSBO before 

   One of the largest factors at play when sellers decide to choose FSBO over hiring an agent is that it seems more cost efficient to avoid paying as much in agent

   commissions. However, the trade-off here is that you now take on all of the responsibility and resources that the realtor would be bringing to the table.

   While you’d be forgoing agent commissions at the closing table, you’d most likely be paying more $$, time and effort in the long run to get your home sold, especially if you are a first-time seller or do not have prior real estate experience.

3. No access to the marketing channels and networks that agents have

   While someone can list their home on an online site, they can’t access the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service), which is what all realtors use as their primary source of accurate information. Agents use their local MLS to post listings, and those MLS boards then subscribe to listhubs that send listings to hundreds of other online

   sites. Additionally, other agents are more likely to show and sell a home listed in the MLS because they feel protected in their interactions with the seller.  

4. Finally, listing a home generally isn’t the most complicated aspect of the selling process. 

   Realtors can weigh in with an unbiased opinion on what’s appealing to buyers or what changes need to be made in how your home is staged, giving it the highest chances of appealing to buyers and getting sold. Additionally, once you have an offer on your home, there is also a contract process that includes legal paperwork, negotiating offers and sales terms, mortgage knowledge if your buyer is getting financing for the home, navigating repairs after an inspection, and communication with a closing attorney–

   all things that your realtor has experience and expertise in that will protect a seller through the process.   

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What makes choosing an agent the best option for me?

“Choosing an agent means having an advocate. It means that you have someone solely committed to your best interests, whether it’s family needs, financial needs, or peace of mind that an expert is guiding you.  It means you have someone working to protect you as you make your biggest investment--your home.” – Stacey Richardson

According to a study completed by Better Homes and Gardens, nearly 50 percent of respondents said their real estate agent helped identify problems they didn’t initially see in the homes they visited. As noted before, it all comes down to what you’re looking for in your home selling experience.

With a good agent, you can get the end result you’re hoping for. With a great agent, the same is true AND you reap the benefits that iBuyers and FSBO selling bring and much, much more. A great agent can analyze the market for an accurate estimate of the DOM (days on market), get to know your home and your story to best prepare it for market, give you full visibility into every aspect of the process, provide experienced, unbiased insight into your best options, and strategize to get you the best price on your home–all while making things easy and stress-free for you.

At the end of the day, the job of the agent is a people-focused job, and a great agent takes great care of his/her people.

That is precisely the type of care that we promise here at Broad & Main Real Estate Group because we believe that real estate, at its very core, is always relational, never just transactional. Contact Stacey and our team if you have any more questions about how to best market your home!  

“Always relational, never just transactional.”

Our mission is to bring expertise and care to every Broad & Main venture because we believe that real estate at its core is all about relationship. We look forward to building one with you, so contact us today! 

Call us: 706.705.2661

Email us: broadandmainrealestate@gmail.com