Playing with the idea of selling your home? Are you sure or unsure? Don't know where to start? Now more than ever with the housing market that is in your favor, you need to know why you want to sell and how you want to sell. Today's video, I want to help you figure out this question and many others, while also introducing you to the selling process. We're going to break all of that down right now. What's up, everybody? I am Ben, lead agent of The Barredo Group at Keller Williams Realty. I hope you're having a great day. Before we get into it, I want to let you know that I help a lot of people like you buy, sell, and invest in real estate, and I also use social media to educate and entertain on topics like homeownership, pet ownership, real estate, and highlighting my community of Knoxville.
If you enjoy content like this, please be sure to hit the thumbs up button and then hit the subscribe button and share this video with someone that you think might find value in it. It would mean the world to me. You've been toying around with the idea of selling your home. It's a tempting thought. The market has been in the seller's favor since 2012, making it easy to sell your home fast while getting maximum profit. That is why it is more important than ever to know for sure why you're selling your home and if it's truly what you want. The last thing that you want to do is test the market and have multiple offers flooding in within a couple of days or hours of hitting the MLS actively and then changing your mind.
Because if you do something like that and decide to sell later, the market remembers and the market will make you pay. Some questions that I would like to share with you to help you figure out what you want to do go as follows. Why are you selling? Do you want to downsize? Upgrade? Are you getting a new job? Do you need to relocate? Do your kids want to go to a certain school? Do you need to be in a certain school district, like I just said? Whatever the answer is, it's going to fall in one of two categories, either you have to sell or you don't. If you have to sell, then there's your answer. If you don't have to sell, then you need to ask some more questions. The biggest question that you should ask yourself is, what is important about making this happen? What is it going to do for you and your family?
How's it going to change your life? Maybe you should discuss this with everybody, especially because there's going to be a lot of sacrifices when selling your home. You have showings, which means you have to keep your house clean and showroom ready at all times because you never know when a buyer is going to stop by to preview the home. This also means that you will have to leave your house at any moment. If you have kids, pets, whatever, it's going to be a bigger headache. If you have to throw grand mom into the mix, oh my God. The next thing to consider is the financial side. How much money do you need realistically so that you can make this change happen in your life? Can you accept a lower offer? Do you have some money saved up? Does the value you put on your home match the market's value?
If not, are you capable of accepting offers at market value which is going to be less than what you want? Do you have plenty of support throughout the process? You're going to need people to watch your pets at the last minute. You're going to need places to go when your day is disrupted because a buyer and an agent want to come by and look at your house. Once you have these questions answered, you're well on your way. But the last thing you need to do is decide when pulling the trigger if you want to use the aid of a professional like me or do you want to wade the waters alone as a for sale by owner. We'll get into the pros and cons of being a for sale by owner next. Basically the facts are these.
If you are successful at selling your home on your own, you are going to become an elite member of a small group of successful for sale by owners, or FSBOs as we call them, in the industry. Because the stats go like this, FSBOs make up less than 7% of all homes sold in the US. The reason being is 87% of buyers are represented by an agent and agents just don't look for homes this way. It makes more sense for an agent and buyers to go to the MLS where we have the majority of the market and we have access to more homes. We can look at more homes quickly. We also know what we get with each deal. When it comes to a FSBO, we never know. Most FSBOs are hungry for every penny, so are they going to be reasonable? Are they going to negotiate?
Because they're under no obligation to act any way when it comes to professional and ethical manners. Also, FSBOs sell relatively less because they sell to people like investors, family members, and friends. On average, a for sale by owner gets 20% less than what a real estate agent would get. Another reason they get less is there's only certain type of buyers that shop for FSBOs outside of the circle of friends. Again, those are investors, buyers who can't qualify for a loan, and buyers that just want to go and pretend that they can buy your home and waste everybody's time. These types of people aren't going to be represented by an agent because we wouldn't give them the time of day. When it comes to selling your home, you should really consider using a professional.
Lastly, 98% and for sale by owners sell... They don't sell at all and they end up hiring a professional to sell their home anyway after wasting money and months on the market putting off this change in their life that they want to happen. Here are some reasons people hire agents. Consumers heavily rely on real estate agents because of the fact they have 87% of the buyers. 90% of sellers listed homes on the MLS. They place a high priority on these five benefits. Number one, marketing potential. We have a broader audience. We can reach thousands of people. We price homes competitively, ensuring top dollar. We can sell the home within a specific timeframe. We not only find a buyer for the home, we also help fix the home to sell better.
With all this information, you should be able to make an easy decision. If you make the right one, then your next step is choosing an agent, which is going to be the next video in the Seller Roadmap Series. That's it for today's video and remember to hit that subscribe button for more videos like this, and then hit that thumbs up button because it helps my video be found on the internet. If you're in the Knoxville area and you're thinking of buying or selling a home or investing in real estate, you can easily hit me up on the contact information provided in the description. Even if you're not in Knoxville, give me a call. I can connect you with a great agent in your area to provide excellent service and help you on your way to the American dream.
If you're an agent and you're interested in Keller Williams Realty or maybe you have a referral, send it to the email here or call me at the same number below. Thanks so much for watching, and remember, at Ben Barredo Real Estate, we create opportunity, one client, at a time.
Get a PDF of 10 Questions To Ask a Real Estate Agent to use if you plan to sell a home. Here's the link: 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK A REALTOR®