Decisions, Decisions: Will you work with a Realtor or try selling on your own first? Selling on your own has some real costs, including the ad costs and time costs that cannot be recovered if you switch to working with an agent later.    Some say that the Realtor is a member of the world's second oldest profession. Since time began, sellers have found themselves too emotionally close to the deal to be their own best salespersons.  In truth, it was not long until people discovered that it was easier to sell somebody else's property than to sell one's own.  And so it has remained throughout history.  This is one of the natural facts that makes Realtors so successful.  Some might ask, with all the Internet sites for "By Owner" homes, who needs the MLS? If those "By Owner" web sites published their customer's success and failure rates, you would see clearly that they generally excel only at adding time and cost to the sale of a house. Despite the sellers’ markets in many locales and predictions the Internet would diminish the role of agents, a recent study found only 16 percent of homes were sold directly by owners in 1999. That is down from 18 percent in 1997. The survey revealed the median selling price of a home sold directly by an owner was $113,000, while the median sales price of a home sold using an agent was $129,900. The Realtor sold homes averaged about 16% higher in price. After a 7% commission, the seller still made almost 10% more money! The most telling thing revealed in this survey, however, is that of those homeowners who did successfully sell their home without a professional’s help, 50 percent vowed they would never do it again. They cited these complexities and hassles: - holding open houses - arranging for appraisals - handling home inspections - understanding and filing paperwork - helping buyers obtain financing - having time to do it all - title work and legal expenses. It is in your best interest to at least meet with one or two Realtors before you make up your mind about this. If you have had a bad experience with one Realtor, please don't judge all Realtors by that one experience. Meet a few more and you are likely to find a professional who you will feel comfortable with. If you already started selling on your own, it is still not too late to meet with a Realtor and consider how they may help you make an extra 10% on the sale of your house, even after paying the commission.  If this would work for you, wouldn't you want to know BEFORE you spend all your time and money doing it another way?  You never recover the advertising dollars spent working alone.   See www.DuganSells.com If you are not quite ready to interview a Realtor, but you do have a question, please use our "Contact Us" page to send it in for prompt reply! For more info, please sign up for our free BY OWNER Newsletter.  byowner@fsbo-toledo.com