In an old post, I began a story to explain why I am so passionate about helping people sell their home on their own. Back in 2005, I attempted to sell my home using a full-service real estate agent - the #1 agent in the Nashville area who guaranteed that my home would sell in 90 days or less. I signed some papers, he stuck a sign in my yard, then he left. Since I had only owned the house for a couple of years, I really didn't have the equity built up to pay a 6% commission through a traditional agent, so I had to jack the price of the house up by an amount that I would feel comfortable selling so I wouldn't have to shell out any money at closing. The agent didn't raise a red flag at all to the listing price even though he had pulled some comp data that showed that houses in the area were selling for less than my listing price. So my house sat for a month with NO SHOWINGS. The agent never called to see how things were going...I had to call them.
At this point I had a choice to make, I could stay on the path of the traditional agent, wait on him to get back with me to figure out a strategy, knowing that any change in the "strategy" would most likely involve lowering the price. So I chose to BE DIFFERENT and sell my home on my own. Back in 2005, most people still relied on agents to bring them listings from the MLS, even though the internet was still ramping up to be the primary place for people searching for homes. But there were still some other avenues back then, one of which was the Sunday newspaper.
Because I didn't have to pay a full real estate commission, I could afford to drop the price to where it needed to be. I ran an ad in the local newspaper and received an offer within a few days for exactly what I was asking. This was my first successful 100% For Sale by Owner sale. Since then, I have also listed my home using a Flat Fee MLS listing, which is probably the best way to get your home the most exposure across the web.
My hope is that you will start to understand why we are so passionate about what we do at NoMoreAgent.com and why we get so excited when customers share success stories. To list now for sale by owner or with our Flat Fee MLS service, click here. You can also find out more by checking out our detailed FAQs.
Dare to Be Different, do a little research and legwork, and you can sell your own home too saving you THOUSANDS in real estate commissions!