Q. We are selling our home by owner. The time to sell is getting critical for us. We think it is worth what we are asking for it, but it is not selling. What is your opinion on this?
A. First of all, no buyer cares what you think your home is worth, nor do they care how much you owe on it. You have to understand that the home is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay based on the recent sales, current competition & market conditions. And, in most cases, the lender will require an appraisal, which brings us back to recent sales. Appraisers use recent sales of similar properties in determining the value of the home. If your Home appraises lower than the sales price, and you are not willing to sell at the appraised price, then the buyer will not get the loan and your deal is dead. Did you say “then I’ll wait for another buyer?” Well that’s fine except chances are the next appraisal will probably come in the same as the last appraisal, maybe even lower, depending on the market and you’ve just lost all that market time. If you want to sell your home by owner, that’s fine, but you need to figure in the (large amount) of extra time it is going to take to sell your home, because you are reaching such a limited buyer group. Real estate companies reach a much larger pool of prospective buyers.
Also, why in this sometimes crazy World, would you let strangers walk through your Home? Plus, you don’t even know if they have been prequalified to purchase a home. Realtors know the buyers they are bringing through your Home and these Buyers have been prequalified. Remember, these buyers want to be represented by a Realtor who will protect their interests!
When selling by owner, consider this old saying by economist John Ruskin:
“It's unwise to pay too much. But it's worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much, you lose a little money, that is all.
When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing
you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.”
