For those of you who may be considering selling your house yourself, I would like to show you the Saga of the for-sale by owner. Just a few items for you to consider, giving you more tools to make educated decisions.

What are some seller’s reasons to pursue the For-sale by owner route?

• Some wish to save the commission.
• They are afraid of salespeople.
• Confident that they can sell without professional help.
• Some people are prompted by others to sell it themselves.
• Some people haven’t met a good agent.
• Some have the attitude: “if we can’t sell it, we’ll then turn it over to a realtor.”
• While others feel: “We have to net x amount of dollars out of the sale of the property.”
• They don’t think they can afford to pay the professional service fee.

But do you know that most owners actually end up netting less than what they would have by placing their property in the hands of a competent realtor, like myself?

Finding a buyer is only part of my job:

There is the listing, marketing, advertising, promoting your property, showing your property, negotiating the sale, arranging the financing, working with the appraisers, the inspections, contracts, and closing.

There is more to completing a sale today than just finding a buyer. There are numerous details with complexities in each step mentioned above. Furthermore, it is very time consuming and requires updated knowledge and competency. I keep myself educated by pursuing numerous real estate designations that few others possess, to ensure you receive the best service possible. Would you expect anything less of the agent who protects your most important asset.

Why selling by owner is difficult:

A ”for sale by owner” can have many difficulties in selling and maintaining the value of their property. First of all, you have only three ways to attract buyers: classified advertising, open house, and for sale signs. You must provide the address and then buyers can drive by without seeing the inside. Plus, you miss out on agents having access to your home to show it. As your agent, once I put it onto the market for you, I give your property the expanded exposure of all the agents and their buyers. One of the greatest problems you face is getting your home seen, my services make that problem go away.

Secondly, other for sale by owners weaken your position. “Bail us out, avoid commission, buy from owner and save” is what the buyers think of you. Even though your ads may not read like this, you are categorized with those owners that do. There’s only one primary thought that goes through a buyer’s mind about why they want to work directly with an owner.

Let us first consider what kind of buyers you do attract:

Investors: people who know what they’re doing from the no money down seminars. Looky-loos or the budget shopper: never commit and are always in the market. Bargain hunters: people with very little money or possible credit problems.

There’s only one primary reason and motivational thought for why a buyer wants to work with an owner directly and that’s a buyer’s belief that they can get a bargain price! First of all, what the buyer will do is subtract the full amount of the brokerage fee and then at least another 2 – 5 % for the remaining asking price because you never offer the for-sale by owner full price! Furthermore, direct contact can weaken your position. Your enthusiasm in showing your property can be misinterpreted as being anxious to sell.

Keep in mind that you have elected to represent yourself in a real estate transaction; so consequently you are looking for that rare buyer who is also going to represent themselves. Now why would a buyer be willing to represent themselves in a real estate transaction? For one reason: the hope of saving money.

Are you familiar with Contracts? Selling a home today can be a long twisting road with all the new laws, loop-holes, and disclosures that even you must make for your own full protection. Plus you must know the step-by-step procedures to go through to not make any mistakes that could actually end up costing you thousands of dollars to fix.

Perhaps you got the idea of trying ”for sale by owner” from somebody else boasting about how they saved the commission. Over 90% of owners eventually list their property. Most owners actually end up netting less than what they would have by placing their property in the hands of a competent realtor in the first place. So are you really going to save money in trying to sell it yourself? Do you really want to take on the liability of complex contracts without possessing the experience and knowledge I have?

Give me a call, and allow me to show you how I can help you sell your property competently, professionally, while netting a price that reflects the true value of your property.

Below is a sample of our Video Marketing for homes. This provides a familiar format to provide the key features and view of the home in the most compact enjoyable method possible. For more information on how this service could benefit your Home Sale Marketing please contact Dawn Hung or WR Films (214-405-3909).

Please click on the image to view the movie. You will need Apple Quicktime software to view it. The movie is ~4 MB in size.

Click here for High Bandwidth Version (~14 MB)

Your Realtor:

Dawn Hung
9430 Research Echelon IV
Suite #180
Austin, Texas 78759

Direct Phone: (512)825-7911
Fax: (512)418-9842
Email: dawn@dawnhung.com