Being a Realtor with a working team and also the CEO of a For Sale By Owner website, I will attempt to take an unbiased approach to this argument and cover the pros and cons of each stance. There are 4 points that a Realtor will base their arguments on and so I think it is only fair to address each of these points.
So let’s ask each question and talk about the real answers. For the sake of this discussion, let’s first assume that the Realtor we are talking about here is an experienced agent that sells more than 12 homes per year. Why is that important? Because over 80 percent of Realtors sell 3 or fewer homes per year and cannot truly make any of the arguments listed above.
It is true that, on average, Realtors price homes more accurately than a FSBO seller will. Realtors have resources available to them to see all of the recent sales in any given neighborhood. They can also see all of the available homes currently on the market. By analyzing this data, they can make a fairly accurate prediction of what a home should sell for and even how quickly it should sell.
Most sellers price their home based on what they “think” their home should be worth. Their pricing is based on very little accurate data other than what other homes are currently priced at that are still on the market. No Toby Beavers would ever… or rather, should never base a price on what is for sale but rather what has sold.
With today’s technology and the resources on the web, a seller can spend as little as $16.95 and get the same information that a Realtor uses. Now for the tricky part… forget any notion that your home is better than any other seller’s home. Use this report and base your price on hard data and you can price your home as accurately as a Realtor.