Why Selling Homes For Sale by Owner in Albuquerque, NM is a Waste of Time

If you’re considering selling your Albuquerque home, you might be tempted to go for the “For-Sale-By-Owner” or FSBO option. Objectively, not paying a commission to an agent seems like a money-saver. But, as many real estate experts have pointed out, homes for sale by owner in Albuquerque, NM and across the nation are destined to fail without the help of a licensed professional.

Check out some reasons below why selling homes for sale by owner in Albuquerque, NM is a bad idea. If nothing else, it’s food for thought.

1. Scams are possible

Part of the duties of a licensed Realtor is to protect their clients from scams. In the complexities of a real estate transaction, there is tons that could go wrong. Avoiding scams is much harder when you aren’t sure what to look out for.

You might think that you’re less likely to be scammed as a seller than you would be as an unrepresented buyer — but, that is not the case. When selling homes for sale by owner in Albuquerque, NM, you’re susceptible to scams like fraudulent inspection or appraisal documentation, fraudulent payments, or purchases through fake third-parties like a fradulent attorney or representative.

2. Realtors carry insurance against mistakes

Unless you’re an expert on Albuquerque real estate, it would be easy to make a mistake on your listing for homes for sale by owner in Albuquerque, NM. Maybe you list veneer floors as hardwood by mistake or unintentionally exaggerate the square footage of the home for sale. These mistakes are covered by errors and omissions (E&O) insurance carried by Realtors but, when a home is sold as a FSBO, any errors like this fall on the liability of the seller.

3. More people see homes that are listed with a Realtor

A report from the NAR shows that in 2017, only seven percent of closed real estate transactions were FSBO. That means that the majority (93 perecent!) of real estate business takes place within the structure of a buyer-broker relationship. Your home is obivously more likely to sell if more buyers are seeing it and it’s clear that this happens more succesfully when a real estate team is regularaly showing your home.

In addition to increasing the likelihood of the sale of your home when using a Realtor, choosing not to sell as a FSBO increases the likelihood of getting top dollar. The same, previously-referenced NAR report shows that the typical FSBO home sold for $200,000 compared to an average of $265,500 for agent-assisted home sales.

3. Some real estate firms offer far more than you could do alone

Now, we’ll agree that some Realtors do the bare minimum. At some firms, you’ll find listing agents that simply list your home in the MLS, put up a sign and cross their fingers for a sale.

However, some Realtors go far beyond what you are able to do as a homeowner. For example, when someone lists their home for sale with Karsten & Associates, our team fully stages the home (at no additional charge), markets the home across the web and hosts open houses regularly to make sure your home looks it’s best for as many potential buyers as we can find. Karsten & Associates even contracts a professional photographer to take interior and occasionally drone photos of your home as a part of our standard listing service!

4. You may never survive the paperwork on your own

Even the most expert administrators can be easily bogged down by the amount of paperwork required to complete a real estate transaction. Some important documents include the original sale contract, professional appraisal, maintenance records, mortgage statement, HOA documents, warranty documents, repair records, capital improvement documentation, mandatory disclosure documentation, and the list goes on and on.

Realtors complete many transactions just like yours every single month. They are completely equipped to handle all of the paperwork and documentation issues you may come across. Even if you consider yourself to be extremely paperwork-savvy, you’ll want to do more research into specifics of real estate transactions.

5. You could end up wasting precious marketing dollars

Selling homes for sale by owner in Albuquerque, NM is especially difficult because of the size of our metropolitan area. Simply putting out a sign may only expose you to a few buyers – if any at all! You may choose to place ads in the newspaper or pay for web ads but they will likely be less effective than advertsing by a full-scale real estate team.

Realtors are experts at marketing homes and teams like ours actually have staff dedicated exclusively to marketing efforts. We have been in this market for over 30 years and know what type of marketing works and what doesn’t. For no extra charge, our marketing staff launches a comprehensive digital campaign to ensure your home is seen by as many likely buyers across the nation as possible.

Karsten & Associates, incredibly fast, answered all questions immediately, no if’s or maybe’s, or leaving you wondering! Selling my house was scary until someone suggested Liz Karsten, oh my gosh, listed at night next morning Liz called and said your house sold!!!!! I was in shock, think I still am. Closed in 3 weeks, done!!!! Incredible, Liz is the absolute best in Albuquerque! I barely had time to pack! Done, over, gone.
Grace, Google Review

If you are considering selling a home for sale by owner in Albuquerque, NM, we encourage you to give us a call. We’d love to tell you more about how our free staging services, comprehensive marketing and stellar buyer’s broker team help sell Albuquerque homes faster and for top dollar.