FSBO, or “for sale by owner,” is the term for someone selling his/her home without an agent. Obviously I’m biased here, but I think it’s a terrible idea, both from real life circumstances and my choice of career. And I do feel like this is a good universal rule, not just in NYC, but here in the city it is NON-NEGOTIABLE! Selling by yourself is silly and I won’t give you advice. It’s literally the only time I won’t help you.
Here are some reasons self-listing is a foolish choice, besides the fact that you hopefully value your time enough to not want to waste it:
1. Your apartment isn’t worth as much.
It just isn’t. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll get someone who isn’t working with a broker (even though 80% of successful NYC transactions are co-broked) who wants to pay you your asking price. Congratulations! Maybe you beat the system and netted more $$! But that is so highly unlikely. It would be the blind leading the blind and somehow it just happening to work out, which isn’t a strategy.
If you get your ask, it’s likely you could have gotten MORE if you’d worked with a good agent. We have the staging/prep-work/photos/marketing down to a T. It’s what we do. And we wouldn’t be doing it professionally if these things didn’t make a difference. There wouldn’t be data to support that staging has an insane ROI. We wouldn’t have Compass Concierge as an initiative.
And if you have someone represented by an agent coming to your listing, they are only going to go through the deal if . They also know they probably have to do a lot of extra work because . So if someone with a client is coming to you, they probably think you priced your home too low, which would make sense since you do not have the same valuation tools or knowledge that we have. Again, not a strategy, just a guess.
2. You’re more likely to lose the deal, even if you accept an offer.
Getting an accepted offer is great, but it’s the first in a loooooooooooonnggggg series of steps before closing. There are attorneys and mortgage brokers to wrangle, another side with issues/personalities to manage, NY taxes to pay, etc. It’s a brutal industry (which is why I love it), and not realizing that will cost you. It’s not straightforward. It’s important. Use an expert.
3. You could be sued in the future.
You are responsible for all the information you provide during the sale process, and if you say something that turns out to be untrue, you can be liable. One of the reasons I pay Compass such a sizable chunk of my commissions is that they handle my insurance for errors and omissions (although I also pay an annual fee for that, soooo….). Even if you go through the process somewhat smoothly, that’s not the end of the line. Again, protect yourself by working with an expert.
4. You will likely have to hire an agent in the end, but your listing won’t be brand new anymore and you will have wasted a lot of time.
This happened to my parents when we left Cleveland. My graduate-degree-holding, brilliant, organized, way more responsible at my age parents tried to list their home without an agent. They fully acknowledge that it was the wrong move and they ended up having to use an agent anyway, but a ton of time had been wasted. Even in a less complicated market than NYC, a Harvard-educated (drop) attorney was unable to correctly price and sell his house. Do not try it.
xo
Anna
