It can certainly be tempting to sell your house on your without the aid of a real estate agent. You won’t, after all, have to pay that hefty agent commission, and you’ll wind up with more money in your pocket. You can also do things your way. But you’ll also be missing out on the likelihood of a higher sales price, as well as the many valuable services and guidance an agent can provide, and selling a house is just not as simple as it seems on the face of it. Read on to discover the 5 risks of not hiring an agent to help you sell your house in Long Island.
1. Pricing Incorrectly
Perhaps the top risk of not hiring an agent to sell your house in Long Island is that you’ll very likely wind up pricing incorrectly. It happens to many sellers who take the FSBO route.
Typically, FSBO sellers either price too high or too low, either of which can cost them money. Price too high, and buyers will shy away from your listing. Price too low, and buyers will automatically think something is wrong with your home. In both cases, your home will sit on the market unsold for a length of time, which makes it much harder to sell, with the result of your ultimately selling for less.
With the advent of online listing sites and pricing tools, it’s easy to think that the prices you can derive from these valuation tools are accurate. But that’s seldom the case because their algorithms use historical data. In reality, markets are constantly changing and the tools can’t keep up with current market conditions.
The best and most accurate way to determine how to price your home is to have an agent perform a comparative market analysis and factor in all the many variables that affect price. That way, you can know what very similar homes in the neighborhood have recently sold for. Then you can price accurately and in line with fair market value.
To discover more about how a Long Island agent can help you price for a sale, just call (631) 759-4408.
2. Lack of Wide Exposure
Also, if you don’t hire an agent to help you sell your house, your marketing exposure will be limited.
Agents have access to the multiple listing service (MLS), the most comprehensive database of listings. The MLS pushes listings out to many real estate websites, including the big ones, where a listing will appear within 24 hours of an agent’s uploading it to the MLS. This broad marketing exposure enables sellers to make a quicker sale.
But if you sell your house yourself, you won’t get similar exposure. There are services that will allow you to get your for-sale home on an MLS in a limited way, but many buyers won’t take it seriously. The result is that you may leave money on the table at sale time.
3. Making the Wrong Repairs
If you don’t hire an agent to help you sell your house in Long Island, you also run the risk of making the wrong repairs to your home in preparation for listing.
What typically happens is that sellers working on their own either do a poor job and don’t make enough necessary repairs, or they make major renovations and improvements that won’t yield a return on the investment. This usually happens because they just don’t have enough real estate knowledge and experience to know what repairs to make and which ones will help them sell.
A good agent, through extensive experience and market knowledge, can provide valuable guidance on this matter. The best course is to consult a Long Island at (631) 759-4408 before making repairs.
4. Poor-Quality Listing Photos
Today, most home buyers begin their search online. Some estimates say over 90% do so. And that means that profession-quality listing photos are a must.
You can’t expect to sell your house quickly and at a good price if you use amateurish, poor-quality photos taken on your iPhone. But agents typically work with professional real estate photographers to get top-quality photos and the absolute best angles in the best light. Your home has to look its best online to draw Internet searchers in and make them want to visit your home.
5. Legal Liability
And then there’s the exposure to legal liability and repercussions. This is a risk you’ll run if you don’t hire an agent to help you sell your house. If you sell on your own, you are responsible for everything you do.
An agent knows the legal ins and outs of the whole process, and much of the legal liability will fall to your agent. Using an agent simply provides a good measure of legal protection. For example, your agent can help you make sure you abide by your state’s disclosure laws. If, as an FSBO seller, you fail to disclose certain things, buyers can indeed bring a suit against you.
Hire a Long Island Agent to Avoid the Risks
Really, there is just too much risk for most people to sell a home on their own. So when you’re ready to sell your house in Long Island, be sure to contact us at (631) 759-4408.