Overland Park, Prairie Village, Lenexa, Olathe Blog

Real estate agents are ALWAYS going to tell me they are better than selling "By Owner"

• ••TRUE

There is a reason. Only 5% of for sale by owners will actually sell their home without an agent representing them or the buyer.

The facts are:

•·        90% of Buyers are working with a Realtor.

•·        Realtors are reluctant to show FSBO's to their Buyers for fear that they will not get paid for their work or fear it will complicate the transaction.

•·        Few buyers look at FSBO websites, BUT... over 90% of Buyers search for homes on agent or brokerage sites.

•·        Few buyers still drive around to look at homes. Most find a home they want to see on the internet and ask a realtor to take them to see it.

•·       Buyers often make lowball offers to the FSBO sellers "because the seller is saving  money on realtor fees"

Selling your home as a For-Sale-By-Owner means THE MOST SERIOUS, PRE-QUALIFIED BUYERS

WON'T EVEN SEE YOUR HOME!

This means you'll get

 fewer offers,

for less money,

 from less qualified buyers.

Can you afford to take this risk?

At Reece & Nichols we understand you want to get your home sold in a reasonable amount of time and will only hire a professional. We take listings in the Shawnee Mission area in Kansas and Sunset Hill, Waldo, and Brookside areas because that is the community that we live in and that allows us to be a neighborhood expert and close enough to provide full service to your listing. Our business is successful because we have an excellent platform to get your home sold. The fact is: you NEED to have your house properly listed with a realtor in order to get full exposure and top dollar.

Our strategy is unmatched.  We sell homes fast!

~Your listing is syndicated through the ReeceandNichols.com, MLS and other top websites.

~Full-service team is dedicated to selling your home 7 days a week.

~Get more viewings than other Realtors.

~Save you money and time by giving you a discount if you use us to assist you on the buy of your next home (even if your move is out of state).

 SELL YOUR HOME FOR TOP-DOLLAR

~ Reece & Nichols has more than 50% of the listings in the Kansas City corridor and we outsell the next 14 of our competitors combined.

 Things Every For Sale By Owner Should Consider...

Although it is DIFFICULT to put an exact number on all the fsbos in the market at any given time, we can project that approximately 10% of all homes being offered in the re-sale market are FSBO's. Of the small percentrage of FSBO's that successfully sell their house , a good portion will actually be sold to Neighbors, friends, and/OR family members of the seller and this mostly happens in Rural Areas.

There are independent self help individuals who believe they can sell their house on their own. Often they weigh the advantages against the disadvantages and decide they can do it themselves and save a lot of money.

FSBO sellers should have the opportunity to consider all of the potential pitfalls. This in no way is meant to suggest that every FSBO listing will encounter these negative experiences or that this is a conclusive list of all possible negative experiences. I Will attempt to stimulate the seller's thought process so they can consider all factors and make the best decision for themselves.

DETERMINE THE CORRECT ASKING PRICE

It is difficult to know the current market conditions for each neighborhood in a community without actively participating in the residential Real Estate market. There are many factors that determine what price a home should be listed for. For this reason, the FSBO should solicit the expert opinion of at least 3 qualified REALTORS® who do business in the FSBO's neighborhood. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT look for a REALTOR® from outside of your market area. Remember, all Real Estate is local and your agent should be too! 

If you, as a FSBO seller, are straight forward with the agents, the agents should not have a problem offering you their opinion, because they know that most FSBO sellers end up frustrated with the process and will ultimately hire a REALTOR® to do the job they started. These agents assume you will choose one of the agents you have already interviewed.

Each REALTOR® should prepare a "Comparative Market Analysis", or CMA. This will allow you to analyze other properties and compare them to your property. The properties in the CMA should be the closest in proximity and style to your house. If at all possible, they will be a model match from the same block. However, this is in a perfect world and adjustments will need to be made for the amount of updating, square footage, lot size, room count/use, amenities, condition, location and anything else that may be relevant.

The CMA will look at and compare the FSBO property against homes that are currently on the market, or ACTIVE listings. These are the properties that you will be competing directly with.

Many of the ACTIVE prices are inflated - I will often refer to them as the sellers ‘fantasy' price. The CMA will also look very hard at the homes that have recently SOLD, that are the most similar to your house. The SOLD comparables will allow you to see what the market will bear.

A thorough CMA will also look at listings that have recently EXPIRED from the market as well as those that are currently in escrow - these are known as PENDING. The EXPIRED listings expired for one reason and one reason only - price. Every property has a price it will sell for today and the expired sellers were not willing to sell at that price.

MARKET YOUR HOME FOR SALE

With home computers, inexpensive desktop publishing software and the internet available, there are many free and low cost websites to market a FSBO property that will generate some attention. However, it will not put your property on the single most popular website for home searches - Realtor.Com. Statistics show that 88% of all home buyers start their search here or on a brokerage or agent website. That is a huge!

Only REALTOR® members of the MLS can have their listings on this influential and powerful website. All of the FSBO websites combined can't make an impact on the number of visitors that REALTOR.Com receives.

Aside from all of the resources available to REALTORS®, there are two very important distinctions that a REALTOR brings to the transaction: First,  the fact that all real estate is local. When a Shawnee Mission REALTOR® markets a Shawnee Mission listing for sale, one of the foremost powerful resources is other Johnson County REALTORS®. Local REALTORS® tend to know other local REALTORS as they often find themselves in transactions with one another.

The Second advantage to using a local REALTOR® is that buyers are using realtors to help them find their dream home, because a local REALTOR® knows the market well - and typically does not charge the buyer for their services. So, it only makes sense for a buyer to work with a REALTOR. Collectively, REALTORS® have access to the great majority of quality sellers and buyers in the market at any given time.

The typical FSBO seller starts off by putting a sign in their yard, takes some digital pictures, prints some flyers and posts the listing to a handful of websites and then gets ready for their first open house - which is often disappointing.

In Johnson County, there are a number of legal requirements that you must comply with in order to have a legal transaction. The worst case scenario is not that the contract unravels, but that the buyer takes possession and then sues the seller for any number of issues. It could be for whether something was done wrong or just not properly disclosed. It could very well be that you are  not trying to be devious, but because you do not know what you are doing. When it came to protecting yourselves by using a legally binding and enforceable document, I strongly recommend going through it with a realtor or lawyer.

LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT

One of the most difficult and frustrating aspect of selling a home without a REALTOR® will surface if and when an offer actually comes in - especially if it comes from an individual who is unrepresented.
Often the parties go to a local title company to buy a form packet. The problem is that more often than not, they are Not local  documents. They are typically designed for general purposes and are not specific to local area needs.

In addition to not having legally binding forms available, you typically will not be up to date on disclosure requirements or loan programs. A FSBO seller probably does not know about Radon Gas, Lead Paint, Natural Hazards or any of the other disclosures that must be adhered to in the Kansas and Missouri real estate markets.

Many times a FSBO seller will rely on a local attorney who specializes in real estate. However, this is expensive and not every attorney is available on the weekends, which happens to be when most offers to purchase happen in this area. To complicate matters, often contracts have an "expiration date". So what should you do?

Let's assume the contract is prepared. How much earnest money should be collected? Who will hold it? What happens if the buyer decides to back out? What happens if the buyer cannot complete the transaction? These are all things that need to be considered in advance.

Then there are the inspection requirements. Do you know which party traditionally pays for what? Do you know a highly recommended inspector? What type of Title report/policy do you need? Which Title company will you use and why?

DID THE BUYER SAY ‘CONTINGENCY'?

As a For Sale By Owner seller, you are looking for as smooth and simple of a transaction as possible. Perhaps, in the back of your mind, you are fantasizing that you will have a buyer show up with a brief case full of cash and offer you your full asking price and hope you can be out in a week - two tops. Hopefully, you know that is just a fantasy. If it is any comfort, every REALTOR and home seller share it with you. Now for reality...

When an offer does come in for an acceptable price, there is  much more that has to be considered. Nearly every purchase has Approximately three contingencies, if not more. Let's look at the most common contingencies to a purchase first.

Since most purchases involve some sort of financing, the lender will always require an appraisal. So, the first and almost automatic contingency is that the property has to appraise at the accepted asking price.

In today's market, it is almost unheard of to offer more than the appraised value. In a hot sellers market, it was not uncommon for very popular neighborhoods to demand a premium which anxious buyers coughed up with no problem.

In other cases, a particular home may have had some very unique features that were near impossible to put a dollar value on, so if the buyer wanted a particular unique home, then hey would pay in cash the amount above the appraised value, to satisfy the sellers demands.

In today's ‘buyers' market it is virtually unheard of for houses in our market to sell for more that the appraised value. So, with this contingency in place, the seller must determine what they will do if the appraisal does not come in high enough to support the agreed upon purchase price. Will you lower the price? Will you take your home off the market and stay put until the market reaches your price (which it will do eventually)? Or, do you believe the buyer will be obligated and willing to give you more money than what your home is worth?

The next issue you will have to address is what may be a series of professional inspections. Undoubtedly, the buyer will have a professional 3rd party inspector check out the overall condition of the home. It seems like even the very best maintained, new homes will generate the identity of some sort of maintenance issue - somewhere on the property. It may be electrical, it may be plumbing, it may even be something as simple as a door knob that turns the wrong way, but rest assured, there will be something.

So, how will you handle this situation? The contingency is for the protection of the buyer - it allows them the opportunity to back out of the transaction if the report does not meet their approval. So, to satisfy the buyer, are you willing to make additional repairs? What happens if the buyer wants to renegotiate the price? What will you do if the buyer wants a professional inspection of the roof and HVAC system and they want you to pay for it?

There are of course any number of issues that a buyer may present that will become part of the deal. Without a REALTOR® to help you, you will be on your own to weigh the consequences of these contingencies and negotiating them with the buyer. Low-ball offers are common in FSBO listings since the buyer knows that the seller is going to save thousands, so they want a piece of that too. SO MUCH FOR SAVINGS! 

Daniel Bennison

Daniel Bennison & Laura Byram-

Team Concept: One of us is always available.

Laura and Daniel have over 10 years of combined real estate experience. They teamed up to provide excellent real estate services to home buyers and sellers in Shawnee Mission and surrounding areas.

Daniel Bennison graduated from University of Missouri - Kansas City, where he majored in Business Administration. Since then, Daniel has established a successful career as a real estate agent where he specializes in working with home buyers and has the ABR designation (Accredited Buyer's Representative). Daniel's charisma and his knack at finding great deals are qualities that many buyers look for in a great real estate agent.

Laura Byram attended Westminster College where she majored in Business and Accounting. Laura specializes in selling homes in Johnson County. She thrives on good customer service and determination and she works hard to market and sell her client's homes.

The Bennison-Byram Team's services stand out because of their experience, integrity, and excellent customer service.

They live in Prairie Village with their Chocolate Lab and Weimaraner, Sampson and Daisy, and two cats, Dutchess and Sally. Their hobbies include reading, gardening, biking, traveling, and going to local parks with their dogs.