While waiting for the war stories from yesterday’s National Help-U-Sell Get A Listing Day to pour in, I did a little idle surfing and came across the following. This was on a Q&A website owned and operated by a Re/Max agent in the Minneapolis area. I don’t know who the Help-U-Sell Broker mentioned is, but he/she is doing one heck of a job representing us in the local market. Enjoy!
What are the costs associated with selling your home?
How much does an agent take? How much is an attorney? How much is a title company policy? What are the other costs associated with selling my home? Is there an average % people use to estimate all selling costs?
Courtney H
01 Feb 2010
I work for a real estate agency…I wouldn’t do it for sale by owner if I were you. I don’t know a lot of the costs, but I do know that most FSBO’s never sale and end up wasting a LOT of money trying and then end up hiring an agent anyway. If you do hire an agent, more then like the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent each get 3% of the cost of the home. But…they do all the marketing and negotiatin for you and that can get expensive. Good luck either way!
jvazjr07
01 Feb 2010
Of course agents here will tell you NOT to go FSBO, they need to pay bills and nothing is selling! FSBO only works in a HOT market. I am not willing to pay 6% of my equity (approx 30k which is nuts) to a realtor so I am going with a hybrid which is Help-U-Sell. Only thing I have to do is show the house and I save thousands.
I just interviewed 2 ‘traditional agents’ and 1 Help U sell broker. Help U Sell DOES NOT charge the fee up front. You can pay when it sells just like the traditional way. After chatting with them I am thoroughly convinced the only thing the traditional agent does the discount agent does not is SHOW THE HOME. The traditional agents tried to BS me by saying they have tons of buyers, the market is going up, they have unique marketing plans, blah blah blah . The Help U sell broker worked for Prudential and Remax in the past and he is no joke. Interview all your options and go with the one option that will be cost effective AND will market your home. Good luck.