Why do I Need a Realtor?
True story.
I’m working with some friends of mine on the purchase of their first home and I’m very excited about their decision. Buying in this market affords them opportunties unheard of in the last few years. While we were getting them preapproved however, they came across a FSBO (for sale by owner, for those of you that haven’t learned Realtor-Speak yet) through their family. So they told me that they would go check it out and would want to be represented anyway in the event that they liked it.
Now I’m not a big fan of FSBOs. And it goes beyond just the fact that there’s the possibility of not getting paid or the absolute insult that we Realtors are not needed in such a momentous thing as selling a house! No. The problem I have with FSBOs is that there is no one counseling the seller about how much the home is really worth.
Therein lies the rub.
Back to the story - my friends sent me the address to the property they were considering, and I pulled up comps (comparable properties that have sold in the last six months within a mile radius) in the area that related to the home. As it turns out, what the seller was asking was completely off the charts. He was following the classic FSBO example stated very eloquently by Tom Hopkins:
3 GIGOs + 1 SWG = 1 OPT
In other words, 3 garbage in garbage outs plus 1 scientific wild guess equals 1 overpriced turkey.
The seller here had obviously called a few neighbors that had lied about how much their homes had sold for (or that they had sold at all), added his own scientific wild guess and come up with the overpriced turkey of a house! But wait, it doesn’t end here. As if the house wasn’t overpriced enough at 15% over market, he added another 10% to the price before the clients (my friends) left the home that evening.
A broker from my past and a very smart man once said, “Realtors are not there to make flyers for you. Anyone can make flyers! Realtors are there to educate you on the market and counsel you through the sale (purchase) of your home.”
You better believe it.
