You’ve just gotten a new job. That’s the good news. The bad news? You have to move to a new city. And before you make this move, you need to sell your home.
This might not be as challenging if you have plenty of equity in your residence. But what if your home has lost value since you purchased it? If it has, you might not have much equity in your home at all. You might even be underwater, meaning that you owe more on your mortgage loan than what your home is worth.
Maybe you owe $220,000 on your mortgage, but your home is worth just $180,000 in today’s market. The unfortunate truth is that you might have to sell your property for a loss.
There is hope, though. You can save a significant amount of money by selling your home by owner. When you don’t work with a Realtor to list your home, you’ll pay far less in commission, once your property does sell. This is important if you need to squeeze as much profit as possible from your home’s sale.
The For Sale by Owner Advantage
When you list your home with a real estate agent, that Realtor typically charges a fee of six percent of your home’s final sales price once it sells. That’s right: You pay the listing agent. No one else does.
But if you don’t work with a Realtor to sell your home? Then you don’t have to shell out six percent of your sales price when your property sells. This can be helpful when you are moving because of a job relocation. If you have low equity, you won’t have to give up as much of whatever profit you do make.
Of course, you won’t get away without giving away some of your profit. If the buyer of your home is working with a real estate agent, you will have to pay that buyer’s Realtor. Usually, you can pay this Realtor three percent of your home’s final sales price. That means that if you sell your home by owner, you’ll usually spend three percent less on commissions.
Don’t Skimp on the Help
If you are moving for a new job, you might have to sell your home quickly. When you sell by owner, you might be able to price your home more aggressively because you won’t be spending as much on Realtor commissions.
But don’t be tempted to skimp on your home’s marketing. You will need to work with a listing service that will post your home’s listing on the most important real estate Web sites, such as Realtor.com and Zillow. If you skip this step, you’ll be marketing your home to a far smaller pool of potential buyers. That’s not a good idea when you have to move quickly.
And once you do accept an offer for your home, don’t forget to hire a real estate attorney to help you with the documents that you and the buyer must sign to transfer ownership of what will soon be your former home. This real estate attorney will also sit in on the closing, during which all of the sale documents will be signed. Don’t skip the attorney. Your real estate attorney will be the only professional at the closing table looking out for your interests.
Moving for a new job can be stressful. If you want to save money when selling your home, call us. We can help you determine if selling your home without the help of a Realtor is a wise move for you.
If you can’t make it to our office for a face to face conversation then we’ll come to you. We service all of San Antonio, Selma, Cibolo, Schertz, and New Braunfels.
We Buy San Antonio Houses, As Is Condition.