In the Atlanta market, over 97% of all homebuyers use a real estate agent to help them locate and purchase a home. You probably did the same thing when you bought the home you currently own, didn’t you?
Why do the overwhelming majority of buyers use an agent? It’s simple. Home buyers use real estate agents to help them, guide them, and make them feel secure during the home buying process. Most people want to make sure everything goes smoothly when trying to make the largest financial transaction they’ll ever be involved in.
Real estate agents have access to 99% of the homes currently on the market. And, since buyers can work with a real estate agent for FREE, why on earth would they not use one?
Buyers that look at homes being sold ‘By Owner’ usually can’t work with a real estate agent. Here’s why:
Over 3,000 homes are bought and sold in the metro Atlanta area every single month. With that many people constantly in the market for a home, agents only spend time with buyers who have already been qualified by a mortgage lender.
So if over 97% of today’s homebuyers are working with an agent, who is out there looking at homes being sold by owner?
There are usually three types of people:
- Buyers who can’t get approved for a mortgage. These people were likely turned down because of bad credit, lack of sufficient income, too much debt, or some other reason. Instead of going home and giving up, they usually go try their luck with a for sale by owner.
People like this are usually looking for a great deal from you to help them get into the house, since you’re the owner. They’ll ask you to help them finance the home by participating in some type of owner financing, rent-to-own, loan assumption or other creative method that rarely works out.
These type of people aren’t usually very credit worthy, which is why they were rejected by the banks in the first place.
Real estate agents don’t even put these types of people in their cars because they couldn’t purchase a microwave oven on credit, let alone a house. That’s why they go talk to homes being sold by owner.
2. Investors. These people LOVE to prey on For Sale By Owners. They drive all over town, looking for owners who are frustrated with the selling process so they can take advantage of them and get them to sell at a huge discount.
Have you received any ridiculous verbal low-ball offers?
These type of people will usually make you an offer that’s $20,000 or more below your asking price. They will NEVER pay market value for a home, so you can forget it. The only thing they care about is making a profit. The less they can talk you into selling for, the more profit they make. They could care less about your reasons for selling.
3. People with absolutely no motivation. Most real estate agents will only work with a homebuyer who is looking to buy a home in the next 90 days or less. They don’t waste time showing property to people who aren’t ready, still need to get their credit together, or don’t plan to buy a home for 6 months or more.
These type of people are just window shopping. They want to see what’s out there so that maybe one day in the long foreseeable future, they’ll get lucky and be able to buy a home. Other people who may fall into this category include those buyers who want a $300,000 house, but can only afford a $100,000 home. The home they’re willing to buy doesn’t exist, but they’ll keep wasting their time, and yours too, if you’ll come down off the price.
Usually people in this category have never spoken with a lender to get approved, and that’s because they’re not ready. They just want to drive around and look at different homes, and they definitely don’t plan to buy any of them. And because agents won’t waste their time showing them anything, they drive around and look at for sale by owners.
If you’ve been on the market as a For Sale By Owner for more than a couple weeks, you likely have already come into contact with these type of buyers. Actually, let’s not call them buyers. They won’t be buying anything, anytime soon.
But let’s face it…if 97% of today’s REAL homebuyers are working with an agent, and since agents refuse to show homes being sold by owner, what type of buyer does that leave you?
When it’s all said and done, making the decision to attempt to sell your home By Owner is totally up to you.
Even as a real estate agent, I would never sell my own home By Owner, and that’s likely because I’ve seen firsthand how many things can go wrong. There’s just too many risks involved.
But the choice is yours. If at any time, you decide you could benefit from the services of a client-focused real estate team, dedicated to selling your home for top dollar, please give us a call. You have nothing to lose.
We would love to sit down with you, help you explore your options, and see how you could get your home sold for top dollar, even with a great real estate team on your side.