Can you sell your house without a Realtor®?

| Selling

The general answer to this question is yes, you can sell your home without a REALTOR®. If you’re like us, your intrepid spirit is the secret to your success. So, the whole “for sale by owner” thing (aka FSBO), might seem doable. But is selling your home on your own really a good idea?

Let’s take a realistic look at why you’re more likely to come out ahead when selling your home with a REALTOR®.

Oops! No REALTOR®, No MLS Listing

Only licensed REALTORs® can list a property on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the exclusive, members-only system used to share info with other real estate professionals. Without an MLS listing, buyers’ agents won’t see your listing AND you also won’t appear on realtor.ca, the buyer-facing version of the MLS.

There is a work-around, called a “mere listing” service where you pay a flat fee for a broker to list your property on MLS. But if avoiding paying commission is your incentive for FSBO, this work around still costs you AND you get far less value compared to working with a full-service REALTOR® who includes marketing, negotiations, paperwork, home prep, and a lot more.

No REALTOR®, No Networking

It’s hard to compete against sellers with an agent in their corner. These agents make quicker sales using their network of buyers’ agents anxious to find something in your neighbourhood and in your price range for their clients.

Working with a REALTOR® has many benefits. Keep reading these posts next to learn more about working with a professional to sell your home: 

Oof! Listing Price Blues

It’s hard to put emotion aside and strategically price your home when selling a house privately in Ontario. You don’t just need knowledge of the general GTA market. Instead, it’s the specifics regarding your neighbourhood, your home type, and condition/desirability of your home that counts.

For example, you need to know what your renos are worth, NOT based on how much you invested but what buyers are willing to pay for them today. You might also overestimate the appeal of finishes you love that buyers might not, or the fact the that the space you ate up creating a luxurious walk-in closet cum dressing room would have been far more appealing as a small bedroom to buyers with a growing family or single entrepreneur who needs a home office.

You also might undervalue your home because you fail to realize a neighbour’s home sold below average or asking for specific reasons such as a leaky roof, or motivation such as divorce. Either way, you lose with the wrong pricing strategy.

When it comes to listing your home for sale, there are A LOT of moving parts. From home prep to staging, marketing, pricing, and beyond. Keep reading these posts next to learn more about the home selling process: 

Oh Oh! Eating the Marketing Costs

Since you’ve missed out on the MLS listing and networking process, you’ll need to reinforce your marketing to avoid your home wallowing on the market. That for sale by owner sign on your lawn isn’t going to cut it, especially in a saturated market!

At the base end of marketing costs such as pro photography and a floor plan, you’re looking at between say $300 and $700. Theres’ also costs for your printed stuff like flyers, postcards, and feature sheets for open houses as well as digital marketing like website advertising, social media advertising, etc. which are between $1,000 to $2,500. (BTW, these costs are included in our commission.)

Also, do you know the best marketing channels to entice the right buyers and make your investment worthwhile? REALTORs® like us do.

Home Prep: aka Even More Costs

You might think your designer home is ready to present to buyers, but is it? At the least you’ll need to invest around $300 for a deep, professional cleaning, depending on the size and condition of your home. What if the few buyers that trickle into your home, just walk right back out unimpressed and maybe even a little intimidated by what they see? Will you recognize the need to stage your home and how to make it offer-worthy?

You Pay the Buyer’s Agent

Wait what?? When you pay your REALTOR® 5% commission, half of that goes to the buyer’s agent. Going the FSBO route doesn’t mean you can skip paying that fee. So, if you sell for $1 million, $25,000 of that automatically goes to the real estate agent sitting across the table from you in the negotiation process. Awkward.

Do you have more commission questions? Read this post next to learn all about the average commission for a real estate agent in Ontario. 

Unbiased Negotiations

Even if you’re a savvy negotiator with business smarts, it’s hard not to get emotional when facing a hardened veteran REALTOR® with years of experience getting the best price and terms for their buyers. Unless you really know the market, you won’t have a leg to stand on or worse, not recognize a stellar offer when you see it.

The Paperwork

The paperwork for selling a house without a REALTOR® in Canada is intense to put it mildly. That means you’ll have to pay more for your lawyer to put all the paperwork together to avoid oversights that your real estate team would have caught for free.

Although it might feel like slightly biased advice coming from a team of REALTORs®, whether you’re hoping to save money or feel “you’ve got this,” at the end of the day, FSBO will cost you money.

Looking for the best Toronto real estate team to sell your home? Get in touch with The Christine Cowern Team today. Call us at 416.291.7372 or email hello@christinecowern.com!