Thinking of Selling Your Home FSBO in Virginia? Here are the Pros and Cons of a FSBO Listing in Virginia!

What is a FSBO Listing?

For those who might not quite know what a for sale by owner (FSBO) listing is, it is when the owner of a home decides to sell their house themselves rather than enlisting the help of a Realtor. If you were to sell your Virginia home for sale by owner, you would be handling the entire home selling process. This includes preparing your house to go on the market, pricing and marketing your home, handling showings, and ultimately overseeing finalizing the sale of your home.

Many times, if you are considering selling FSBO it is because you think that you will be saving money by not having to pay a Realtor. This does not always turn out to be the case and sometimes you may have had a larger profit if you’d hired an agent. To put things in perspective, according to the National Association of Realtors website, in 2020 the average FSBO home had a selling price of $260,000 versus $318,000 for homes sold with the assistance of a Realtor.

That’s why it is extremely important that you know what you are getting yourself into when selling your home FSBO. You also need to make sure you do your research to make sure that it will be worth it in the end. While selling your Virginia home yourself might seem like a simple task, the truth is it is not. But don’t be discouraged, we’re not saying it’s impossible, we’re just saying make sure you plan properly. That’s why we are going to tell you about the pros and cons of a for sale by owner home sale in Virginia below.

Pros of Selling For Sale By Owner (FSBO) in Virginia:

Pro #1: No Listing Agent Commission Fee

As we mentioned earlier, the number one reason why many people consider selling their Virginia home themselves is because they believe they will be able to make more on the sale of their home without paying agent commissions.

According to Redfin, the average real estate commission is 5%-6% of the home’s sale price. While this commission rate might seem high when you are talking about the sale of a home, it is not that simple. For example, typically the total commission is split between the buyer’s agent and seller’s agent. So, if you decide to sell your home yourself, you will probably still have to pay a commission to the buyer’s agent.

You may be thinking, “well, even if I have to pay the buyer’s agent commission, I will still save money since I won’t have to pay 2.5% to 3% to a seller’s agents.” While this statement is technically true, it is not that simple. You may be “saving” 2.5% to 3% in commissions but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will “make” more money on the sale of your house. There are several different factors that go into determining if you would in fact make money by choosing FSBO over an agent assisted sale. We will discuss some of those soon.   

Pro #2: You Have More Control When Selling Your House FSB

When you sell your home yourself you are in complete control over the entire sales process. Depending on who you are, this might be a good thing, but it could also be a bad think. For example, you are the one in charge of pricing your home. On top of that, you won’t have to worry about anyone pressuring you to take an offer if it isn’t up to your standards. This can be good in some cases or bad in others.

Pricing your home might not seem like such a hard task, when, it can be. According to the National Association of Realtors website, “getting the right price” is considered the most difficult task by “14% of FSBO Sellers”.Realtors also come with local knowledge and have access to comparables and market data that allow them to set a competitive price for your home. If you are interested in selling your home, it is important to keep this in mind.

Interested to see how much your Virginia home is worth? Check out the “What’s My Home Worth” section of our website to receive a FREE analysis of your home’s approximate value on the market today.

Pricing is just one of the areas you will have more control over when selling your home FSBO, in Virginia. You also get to control how you want to prepare your house for the market. You get to choose which repairs you make and what sort of decorations you want for your house.

Additionally, when selling FSBO you get to sell your home on your schedule and show your home to who you want. If you don’t want to show your home later in the afternoon or on certain days, you don’t have to. It is completely up to you!

Pro #3: You Can Use Your Insider Knowledge:

Realtors have years of experience and knowledge of your local markets and trends, but nobody knows more about your home than you. You can use what you know about your home to help when it comes time to prepare your home for showings and when talking to potential buyers.

Not only do you know your home better than anyone else, but you also know what your neighborhood and the surrounding community are like. This is extremely helpful if you are ever asked about this by a potential buyer. Whether it is your opinion on local schools, what traffic is like during certain times, or what fun things there are to do in the area, you will be able to easily explain all of these to a potential buyer.

Pro #4: You Can Give the Sale of Your Home Your Full Attention

Typically, a good Realtor will have a couple clients at the same time. While they do have the skills, expertise, and processes to make sure that all their clients are taken care of, you are the only one who can truly give your full attention to the sale of your Virginia home.

This is great if you have a lot of free time that you can devote to handling all aspects of your home sale. It’s important to mention that everything that goes into selling your home can be extremely time consuming. You must handle everything from preparing, marketing, and showing your home to interested parties. If you are considering a FSBO listing in Virginia, make sure that you know what your time is worth and how much time it will take to sell your home yourself.

See what tasks home sellers considered the most difficult when selling their home for sale by owner.

Cons of Selling For Sale By Owner (FSBO) in Virginia

Con #1: Lack of Experience, Knowledge, and Expertise

One of the biggest pitfalls of selling your Virginia home FSBO is that you most likely don’t have the same experience, knowledge, and expertise as a Realtor would have. Realtors are experienced in helping people sell or buy a home. They know how the process works from start to finish and are up to date on all legal aspects of the process.

Furthermore, when selling FSBO you are missing out on many key aspects Realtors bring to the table. This includes their expertise when it comes to pricing and marketing your home. On top of that agents are experienced at negotiating with buyer’s agents, inspectors, appraisers and in some cases even lenders. This is something that you most likely won’t have if you decide to take on selling your home all by yourself.

There is a reason that most people decide to use a Realtor when it comes time to buy or sell their Virginia house. While on the surface selling a home yourself might seem easy, it is actually a very challenging process that is typically better handled by people who do it, day in and day out.

Con #2: You Could Actually Get Less Money when Selling For Sale By Owner in Virginia:

As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, while you may think you could save money by selling your home yourself this is not always the case. For this to make more sense it is important to understand the difference between the amount you can save and the amount you can make when you sell a home.

For example, you can “save” money by not having to pay a seller’s commission when you don’t use a Realtor. However, if that Realtor would have been able to sell your home for a higher selling price, you could end up with less money in your pocket when everything is said and done.

Con #3: Lack of Marketing Channels

When it comes to selling your home, marketing and presentation are extremely important to yield the highest sale price. Real estate professions have the people, expertise, and resources to make sure your home is marketed the best way possible. This includes being able to list your home on the MLS, creating effective marketing strategies based on recent trends, and showing your home to the widest possible audience of qualified buyers.

The chart below shows where buyers found the home they purchased compared to FSBO methods used to market a home. With marketing playing an integral role in how successful a home sale is, these differences can end up making a large impact in the overall sales price of your home.

Where Most Buyers Found Their Homes

Top FSBO Seller Marketing Methods

Con #4: The Time and Energy Selling For Sale By Owner Takes

Whether you are selling your home or buying a new home, handling real estate transaction can be very stressful and time consuming. While Realtors have people, resources, and the experience in place to help them, you will not have this when you sell your home yourself.

The amount of work you are going to need to put in to get your home sold is going to be much more than what a real estate agent would need to do. On top of this, for sale by owner homes in Virginia tend to stay on the market longer than homes that are sold with the help of experienced Realtors.

Time is money. Therefore, even if you can bring in a larger profit by selling your home yourself, you need to account for all the time and energy you are going to put in to sell your home FSBO. Make sure you understand how much your time is worth before you make the decision of selling your home without an agent.

Overall, it is important to do your research and create a plan if you do want to sell your Virginia home for sale by owner. The last thing you want to do is get started selling your home by yourself and then realize that you are in over your head.

Should I Sell My House FSBO in Virginia?

With almost any decision you make, there are pros and cons to both sides. This is no different when you are deciding whether you should sell your house yourself or sell your house with the help of a Realtor in Virginia.

What you need to ask yourself is where you stand on the factors that will go into selling your home. Some of these include marketing, negotiating, selling, and closing a deal. If you think you are comfortable and ready to devote your time to handling these factors effectively, then maybe a FSBO listing is a good option for you. 

On the other hand, if you think that you might be in over your head and are unsure if you can handle all aspects of the home selling process, it is probably best for you to enlist the help of a real estate professional.

How The Right Move Realty Can Help:

If you have considered both the pros and cons of selling your home yourself and think that you should go the real estate agent route, or you are still not sure what to do, the folks at The Right Move can help. 

The Right Move Real Estate Inc. has a team of Realtors that can help you with the entire home selling process. They have years of experience helping sellers and buyers in Richmond and its surrounding counties, Northern Virginia, and Charlottesville.

When you partner with The Right Move as a seller, your marketing advantages are numerous, including full MLS listing and coverage in Richmond, Northern Virginia, and Charlottesville; showcased presence on major sites including Realtor.com! And personal service and monitoring of your listing progress. On top of the comprehensive marketing The Right Move brings to the table, they also have commission plans to save sellers lots of money.

If you’re ready to put a powerful company of experienced professionals to work for you or think they might be able to answer some questions you might have, fill out the form below or give them a call at 804-502-4653 Today!