Unrepresented = Under Priced

Today I had the pleasure of sharing the microphone on the WCBM Radio show, All About Real Estate. We had a terrific show with many call-ins, and we covered a lot of subjects. One of our listeners talked about sellers who want to "save" money and sell their homes without a professional. He brought up an interesting point - that even after deducting the agents' commissions, unrepresented sellers UNDERsell their homes by an average of $13,000 compared to what people get when they work with a Realtor®.

Price is what people think of first, but it's not the only issue, of course. Sellers who try to go it alone are usually unprepared for the complexity of the paperwork that is part of today's house sale. Worse, they don't know where the traps are that a knowledgeable agent could help them avoid. We hear stories all the time about a sale that fell through leaving the do it yourself seller with a contract that didn't get to settlement, after they've moved on and are suddenly paying two mortgages.

As I said on the radio, anyone can sell a house. Put a "For Sale" sign out front and you'll probably get offers. What a Realtor does is not just help you sell the house; your Realtor makes sure you get from sale to settlement. That's when the real work is done.