“For Sale by Owner” is the term used to call when you choose to sell your property on your own instead of hiring a real estate agent to do the selling for you. Hence, the property sale is called an FSBO property. Aside from the advantages such a sale brings, you must be aware that there comes some downside point to it as well. These disadvantages can both be applied for sellers and buyers.

If you are the seller, the main drawback would be the task turning out in the end as something daunting for you. You will be the one to handle all the tasks from researching, pricing, advertising, applicant screening, the management of open houses, property presentation and all the rest there is. Second drawback would be your emotional attachment to the property that could lead to the possibility of you overpricing it or even exaggeratedly showing off your home. Since you are really not into real estate, you may find it hard to speak the language just to be able to please the buyers. In short, you may lack the sufficient knowledge that one should possess to be able to handle a property sale.

For you to attract buyers, it is important that you know where to place the right ads at the right place. There is too much information that you can find over the Internet to help you out with the online marketing strategies. Hence, all this task of doing everything would surely consume a huge amount of your time. What you may want to know with hiring the professional service of a real estate broker or agent is that through them, your property is sure to get a lot of exposure and ads to have greater chances of being sold.

If you are thinking that you may be able to cut down some costs if you will handle everything on your own, then you may want to think again. Without the help of a real estate broker, your expenses may just go terribly high. A lot of real estate brokers already have these costs as part of their charges and what’s better is that you get it as a package. But of course, the biggest positive thing about having an agent to handle the sale is your assurance of peace of mind.

Now, in the perspective of the buyer, each is somehow attracted to a For Sale By Owner property due to the fact that they will not pay any commission rate for the agent. However, there are still issues that may arise. First is that you are not sure of the real state of ownership. Second is that you may be unsure of the price if it is set above the market value since who you are talking to is not an agent. Other issues may include the lack of detail presentation which only a real estate agent can do and provide.

The purpose of a real estate agent or broker is to handle the process of buy and sell in the most ideal way possible. They are to come up with the proper advice and suggestions and offer various aspects of the property sale in the most neutral and unbiased way possible.

By: Rose B