Why Hire a Realtor

The number of For Sale by Owner listings (FSBO) have began to see a decrease in today's local real estate market!  FSBOs accounted for 9% of the total home sales in 2010.  In today's challenging marketplace, many home buyers are taking their time and exercising caution when investing in home ownership.

A whopping 70% of FSBO home sellers say they would never attempt to sell a home on their own again. In 2010, the typical FSBO home sold for $140,000 compared to $199,300 for Realtor assisted home sales.

In addition to today's challenging marketplace, home owners who try to sell their homes on their own face the increasing complexity of the transaction process with more disclosures and legal requirements than ever before.  Home owners often underestimate the amount of time required to market and show their property, home owners often overestimate the value of their property and must also deal with security concerns about strangers having access to their home.

Other issues many home owners are challenged with include managing the home appraisal process, home inspections, understanding all necessary paperwork and buyer qualifications.  All of these required aspects of home buying have become even more complicated in a tougher credit market, adding to the already intricate transaction process.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the biggest issue of all that many home owners now face when listing their property on the real estate market is pricing a home correctly to sell! Selling a home is a full-time job. Unrepresented home sellers often do not understand the complexity, range and timing of tasks they will have to perform. In a competitive real estate market, home sellers need every advantage they can get. There are real estate sites that cater to unrepresented home sellers; however their total listings are in the tens of thousands in contrast with nearly 4 million homes showcased on REALTOR.com.  Therefore, most home buyers do not visit these smaller websites and do not see a FSBO home.

On the open market, today's home sellers have to compete with short sales and foreclosures as well as other home owners who may be trying to sell their homes.

What Realtor Do For You

1. Realtors are real estate professionals who are experts in marketing and negotiation, as well as understanding local market conditions.
2. Realtors can help a home seller set a realistic price and ensure that the proper paperwork and various disclosures and inspections are handled correctly.  Realtors also know best how to prepare a home and maximize value, provide broader exposure to the market and are more likely to generate multiple bids than sellers on their own.
3. Realtors are experts in attracting qualified buyers.  A real estate professional can show a home more objectively than can a home seller who may be emotionally attached to the home and who might become unnerved by prospective buyers' critical comments.
4. Most of today's home buyers are online – nine out of 10 recent home buyers used the Internet in their home search – and unrepresented home sellers have no access to major online marketing avenues such as REALTOR.com and other Web sites with large pools of listings to which home buyers are attracted.
5. Realtors add value to the real estate transaction; Realtors can expose homes to more home buyers and save home owners time and money throughout the home selling process.
6. Realtors sell hundreds, if not thousands, of homes over the course of their careers, compared to the average person who may only move a handful of times during their lifetime.  Realtors have the experience homeowners need to sell their home.
7. Realtors check the financial capability of potential home buyers before allowing them onto a seller's property.

The qualified and experienced Realtors at Ben Lang Properties maintain a history of getting their homeowners ABOVE asking price on their homes for sale within a week of the original listing date.