Inside Scoop Home Seller London Ontario

There are quite a few discount real estate brokerages and for sale by owner companies now promising to sell your home, some for as low as $450!

 

The proposition of saving thousands of dollars is enough to catch the attention of anyone. The idea of listing a home for anywhere from $450 for a sign on the lawn and a pretty website, to a couple of thousand dollars, if you want some of the additional services that a Realtor typically provides such as setting your price, getting your house ready to sell, to assisting you in closing is tempting. It awakens the entrepreneur inside some of us.

The burning question private sale companies use as their hook is why you would give profits from your home sale to a Realtor if you didn’t have to?

If you are trying to decide between giving that licensed & regulatory controlled Realtor thousands of your dollars or selling your home yourself because some do it yourself real estate company says its a snap, then take a moment to learn some cold hard facts.

There are quite a few reasons why 96.8% of homeowners in Canada choose to use a Realtor when they sell.  I’ll share some facts and some myths with you, but please don’t just take my word here, do your research and verify what I am telling you for yourself.

Myth number one: Realtors will charge you a standard 5-6% commission to sell your house.

Fact: Most for sale by owner companies base their selling pitch on the notion that real estate companies will charge you 5- 6% to list and sell your home.

Real Estate sales are one of the most competitive industries there is. The choice of services and fee packages offered by Realtors in your market is likely as varied as the number of them who list homes for sale.

The last word on commissions is set by you, the seller, and in my market, if you can’t agree on compensation with one Realtor, there are over 1900 more you can approach in London, Ontario, the area.

There is no such thing as a standard commission.

 

Myth number two: “Selling your house on your own isn’t as difficult as most Joe Schmo agents make it out to be” (a direct quote from the website of the non-licensed PropertyGuys.com)

Fact: Less than one in five homes listed privately actually sell. Whereas over 95% of homes listed with a Realtor sell. Listing a home is as easy as banging a sign into the lawn, but it is only a first step.

Statistics show more than half of the people who choose to list private eventually end up using a licensed realtor’s resources to complete the task. If you have the time to, pick out 10 homes with for sale by owner signs in your area and watch them over the next year; at the end of the year, you will see that more will have removed their sign or hired a Realtor or are still trying to sell private than will have traded with the private company.

 

Myth number three: Selling privately will always save you money over using a Realtor.

Fact: If you are listing privately in a seller’s market and or have time to wait it out, eventually, you should see offers coming your way. Every buyer that comes to you will also be looking at homes listed with Realtors, or else they believe there is a financial advantage to be had in buying a private listing.

Most buyers who hunt out private listings do so because they believe you are saving money in commissions and can discount their offers accordingly; they assume they are dealing with someone who is not a professional negotiator of real property, and chances are they know the area market better than most private sellers do.

Private sellers become quite familiar with and often weakened over time by this breed of buyer. The longer it lasts, the better the chance to take advantage. If you have listed privately in the past, you know what I am talking about. A good percentage of successful private purchases are from these buyers. Often, the difference between the original list and the final sale price is higher than the buyer’s commission costs believed they would be saving themselves.

Note: Yesterday, I just finished listing a house that was a For Sale By Owner, and this lovely couple tried it for 56 days! The sad part was they had to pay $495.00 upfront to get all this sign and marketing stuff!

Realtors don’t get paid until YOU sell your home.

And to top it off, they had 26 Realtors contact them about if the house did not sell, to list with them! ( That 26 was 14 more than the 12 people who did want to see their home! Hmmmmmmmm! Something wrong here!)

 

Myth number four: Any money you can save on Real Estate commissions = cash in your pocket.

Fact: If the last myth bust wasn’t convincing, then consider these facts: Advertising to the degree of most licensed  Realtors does not come cheap. Prepare to spend at least a bare minimum of $200 a week and resolve yourself to the fact that your advertising will be relegated to the classifieds along with the used bicycles and outdated computer equipment where few serious home buyers will ever look.

You could also do Kijiji, which is free. But what about Realtor.ca, which every house on MLS is listed, and 100% of all buyers go to to check out homes for sale, and Realtor websites, both their personal and their brokerage’s site.

Also, be prepared to market your home for a much more extended period than a Realtor would need to. Your most effective selling tool will be the sign on your lawn and the open houses you do, but keep in mind that of all properties sold through licensed Realtors, about one in every ten is the result of a sign call.

The other 9 out of ten come through buyers introduced to the property by their REALTOR® and professional marketing efforts.

All closings require legal documentation, the search of title, transfer of funds, closing existing mortgages, and assignment of new mortgages just for starters.

Proper documentation and legally acceptable contracts safeguard both the buyer and seller, and without a Realtor, you are the one who will be personally sued should complications arise, and litigation, lawyers charge by the hour. That documentation a REALTOR® typically handles for your sale will be left to you and your lawyer and comes at a price.

Realtors carry Errors & Omissions Insurance to protect sellers and buyers in the event of a mistake, misrepresentation or unforeseen discrepancies and deficiencies relating to the property. Individual homeowners do not. An error in the property’s square footage or some other detail or event often leads to being sued by the buyer.

When represented by a Realtor, they would be sued, and their insurance generally would cover any loss. A single mistake could end up costing you far more than a Real Estate Commission. A Realtor is a valued insurance policy when one needs it.

You can bet that I hear by those who will say this is fear-mongering, and they have never had a problem in all of their private sales. The ones who have had issues likely won’t give you the benefit of their experiences here.

Other advice & things you need to consider as you make your decision to list privately are:

Make yourself available for the next few months –  Many showings are booked at the last minute, and though often frustrating from my perspective as a Realtor, we have to accommodate this. It’s kind of like being a firefighter on call.
Many will see you are listed private and knock at your door, expecting to come in and view your house on the spot. With the number of listings available to see, you want to accommodate showing request or risk them crossing you off the list and moving on to the next home.

Good Realtors screen buyers before taking them through a home. You may have to compromise precautions as your agent, but here is some valuable safety advice for private home sellers:

·        During open houses, take people’s names and phone numbers at the door before allowing them into your home. Write down their license number and type and colour of the vehicle.

·       Put away all pocket-able items of value before showing your home IE: jewellery, watches, and cash.

·       Check to see that all doors and windows are locked after each showing. Thieves are known to use open houses to scout out valuables in a home, and possible entry points then return when the home is empty.

·       Never do an open house or showing alone. Have your partner, a friend or neighbour at home with you when strangers are coming to view the property.

·       Ask neighbours to keep an eye on your home while it is for sale and report any strangers on the property to you immediately. Otherwise, neighbours might assume strangers on the property are there to view the home with your knowledge.

·       Take names and phone numbers when people call to book a viewing. Don’t confirm a showing right away. Tell them you will call back to confirm. If they refuse to share name and number, politely tell them they cannot view the home unless they do and end the conversation before calling back to confirm their name and phone number on the internet to verify legitimacy.

·       Always go with your gut feelings. If something seems odd, don’t book the showing and if they are at your door, tell them it isn’t a good time.

·       Always stay with potential buyers as they view the home and walk behind, not in front of them, as you go through the house. Insist that they stay together as you show them through. If one person wanders off, tell them you would like them to stay together.

·       Restrict all your showings to daylight hours. If someone calls or comes to the door during the evening, get their information, check it out and call them back with appropriate times, they can view the home.

·       If you have pets, have someone take them for a walk or, at the very least, put them in the backyard during showings. The incidence of allergies with buyer clients seems to go up every year, and I have had many turns around and walk right back out if they sense there are dogs or cats in the home.

·       The same goes for smoking. If the home is smoked in, you eliminate a large portion of potential buyers before you start.

 

In the end, the convenience, exposure, negotiating skills, legal protections, personal safety and yes, ability to market your home to the highest degree to the most significant number of people are the reasons more than 90% of the public choose to hire a professional over experimenting with selling privately.

Whatever choice you make, do your homework first and don’t be taken in by anything offered by anyone you can’t first verify for yourself. As you can see, there is a price in trying to save money! If you are prepared to pay that price and know what the price is, so be it.

Read what one of my clients had to say

Dear Ty:

“Cathy and I just wanted to take some time and thank you for everything you have done for us.
I always thought buying a house would be the most stressful thing anyone could do. I now know that, indeed, selling is by far the most stressful.

As you know, we did try to sell on our own, when this failed we tried another real estate agent and had a bad experience. Due to this experience, we were very unsure about the whole thing and were very disheartened as we were so looking forward to our plans.

Ty, from the second we first met, Cathy and I were blown away by your experience and professionalism; your reputation truly speaks for itself. You sold our house for exactly what we wanted, and to top it off, you did it in 81/2 hours! Amazing!

As our family and friends heard about our success, they, of course, asked the question: ‘Who did you use?’ and I reply ‘Ty Lacroix”.
Cathy and I cannot express our gratitude enough; thanks again for everything; Cathy and I could not be happier!”

Jason and Cathy Bear