Are you thinking about selling your home for sale by owner right now? Well, stay tuned because these statistics are going to absolutely shock you on the percentages according to the National Association of Realtors.
Are you still considering selling your home for sale by owner? Well, stay tuned to this video. I think you’re going to be surprised at the statistics that NAR, the National Association of Realtors has come back with as far as for sale by owners, even in the hot housing market that we were in. Now, according to the National Association of Realtors, 7% of people sold their home for sale by owner in 2021. I was shocked at that percentage myself. And actually that was the lowest percentage since 1981 if you can believe that.
Now, let’s back up 15 years earlier to the housing boom in ’06. Actually, there was only 12% of people that sold their house for sale by owner as well. Now, even with all the bidding wars, and all the prices going up and up in the last few years, all the craziness, the Wild West, I call it, 90% of people still sought the services of a licensed real estate agent to help them sell their home.
Now, what are the top reasons for people seeking guidance when they’re selling their home? Well, the number one reason is pricing. And especially in this market right now, pricing is more important than ever. You have to be on point or your home is not going to sell, and that’s where a licensed real estate agent can come in and pull you the data you need to get your home sold, and get it sold quicker in this market that we’re in currently.
Now, the next reason is marketing to potential buyers. Now you as a for sale by owner have plenty of avenues out there with websites such as Zillow, and there’s some for sale by owner websites. And those sites are great because they do get the homes out there to people. But I’m sure a lot of you watching this can vouch on this that the calls you get, 98% of them are agents trying to sell your home for you and very seldom do you get an actual person that is going to buy your home. Now, some of you out there, it’s a great route and you have your ways of doing it. I’m just saying that for most people, that’s going to be the result that they’re going to get by posting their home on all those public sites.
The next reason why they seek a licensed real estate agent is the negotiations. Now you can be good at putting it on the internet, writing it up, taking your pictures, but how good are you at negotiations? I’ve even been in some negotiations with some pretty savvy people out there who don’t even do real estate for a living. You have to be on your game and have good negotiating skills if you’re going to do it yourself.
Now, the last reason that I’m going to cover that seller’s reach out to a licensed real estate agent, is they’re looking for a trustworthy professional out there. And in this industry or any industry, you’re always going to have those bad eggs out there, you have to watch out what’s going on and just having another set of eyes through the transaction, and maybe having the background of the companies of who you’re dealing with, like lenders and title companies and things like that, really does make a big deal in the real estate process.
Now here’s an interesting statistic according to the National Association of Realtors. In 2021, the average median price that was sold for sale by owner was $260,000. And that same year, the average median sales price by a licensed real estate agent was $318,000. So right away, your mask on, your head going, “Well, that’s the commission and fees and see the for sale by owner still came out ahead.” Wrong.
Let’s look at the statistic here, if you can read my writing. Let’s get it in here. So the for sale by owner 265, actually I messed that up, but we’ll use it anyway. 265,000 and the licensed agent was 318,000. Well anyway, let’s assume that as a for sale by owner, you have, the light’s getting away, 5,000 are fees in your transaction. You’re netting 260 which is basically the average, but we’re going to give them a $5,000 hedge here just to help them out.
Now on this scenario, you have 25,000 fees, give or take, which is commissions, title, company, closing fees, and everything, tax credits and so forth. And your net in 293,000, on this example, the 293,000 and the 260,000, there’s 33,000 profit on the for sale by owner. And again, that’s me using 265 and not 260. As you can see, they still came out ahead by using a licensed real estate agent.
Anyway, those of you out there, in the mindset that you can do it yourself, you probably can and you know what? I’m with you. I’m a real estate investor as well. And when I got into the business years ago, I thought the same thing. I just wanted to sell things myself and there were a few homes out there that I did. But now in today’s world, it is a lot more difficult because you have to have a digital marketing background, and especially in this market that we’re in so you can still cash in on things.
Because you have to find a way to strategically target people and not just throw something on Zillow, or any of those other sites, or Craigslist because a majority of you out there, I know you’re saying that you did that and it just did not work.
So anyway, for those of you that can do it yourself, that’s great. I’m all for you. I’m not telling you that you need any services, but for a lot of you out there, if you’re thinking of selling your home for sale by owner, make sure you take in everything that I just covered and wow, those statistics, I’m blown away myself with the percentages and so forth on there.
