Are you a FSBO Baltimore Seller? Are you interested in selling your home without the help of a real estate agent? If your answer is yes, we would love to help you make that a reality. However, there are pitfalls that a FSBO Baltimore seller can fall into, and we want to help you to avoid them. So, today we will review the top 7 reasons why FSBO Baltimore sellers fail.
#1 – Limited Marketing Exposure
Most FSBO’s in Baltimore use Zillow to exclusively market their homes. Unfortunately, this means that over 25,000 real estate agents may never see your home. And consequently, a large percentage of their clients will never be aware of your home existence.
Advice: Find a realtor that will list your home on the MLS for a flat fee. Listing your home on the MLS maximizes your marketing reach. And many of the real estate aggregate websites including Zillow.com will post your listing for free. Click here to learn more about our MLS Listing Only Pricing Plans.
#2 – Scams
Tricksters, and scam artists love FSBO’s. They intentional lurk on Zillow looking for a FSBO to scam. Whether you want to believe it or not, FSBO’s have the tendency to be inexperienced and ignorant about the home buying process. At times FSBO’s in Baltimore are faced with fraudulent documents, including appraisals, inspections, earnest money deposits, fake deposits, foreign bank accounts and more.
Advice: Hire a realtor or a real estate attorney to look at any potential offer, and all accompanying documents.
#3 – Serious Offer, How Do I Tell?
Identifying a serious offer is invaluable. I mean, who wants to spend months working with a buyer only to find out the buyer can’t close the transaction. Therefore, it is advantageous to know what is considered a serious offer, versus someone that is all talk. This means that a proper contract of sale must be signed. Then a determination must be made about the financial fitness of each potential buyer based on his or her submitted documents. You’ll also need to manage an escrow account for the earnest money deposit. However, please be very careful, plenty of people have been sued righteously for misappropriating the EMD.
Advice: Make sure that you collect the earnest money deposit. If you’re unsure about what to do with it, call a real estate broker or a real estate attorney. Title companies can hold the earnest money deposit as well. Just make sure that you get a receipt from your title company showing that the money has been deposited into an escrow account.
#4 – Liability and Damages
FSBO Baltimore sellers are liable for any damages that may arise from the transaction. You can be held liable for any error or omission that occurs on the contract of sale, disclosures, or addendums. However, when you hire a real estate agent they become liable for damages that could arise from the transaction. Realtors and brokers are also protected by a state guaranty fund, as well as, errors and omissions insurance. But, if you are a FSBO Baltimore seller and are not bonded and insured, then you are leaving yourself open to a lot of liability. This is especially true, if you do not have any real estate sales experience.
#5 – Time, Time and More Time
FSBO’s tend to under estimate the amount of time that it takes to sell a home. If the house isn’t on a lockbox, then the homeowner will be required to be onsite for all showings. However, if the home is on a lockbox, then you are essentially giving free access to your home to all who are interested. And believe me scam artists are very aware of the FSBO’s who have a lockbox on their home. If you give them access to your lockbox, you are leaving yourself open to criminals.
You’ll also need time to review contracts, communicate with inspectors, appraisers, title agents and lenders. Therefore be aware that selling a home is a full time job. If you don’t have the time, hire an agent, or find a friend.
Advice: Have a neighbor or someone you trust show the home for you in the event you cannot. If you decide to put the home on lockbox, carefully document who has access. And, if possible try to only give access to real estate agents who are generally a lot more trustworthy with a lockbox code, than investors.
#6 – Overprice Home
Due to lack research or using Zillow home price estimates a FSBO Baltimore Seller can easily overprice their home. This can be very detrimental to a FSBO because precious time is loss on the market. When a property is overpriced it becomes damn near impossible to find a buyer. And if a buyer is willing to put in an offer, it will be a lot lower than expected. Because unlike some FSBO’s, homebuyers and investors do their homework.
Advice: Conduct proper market research or give us a call and we can do it for you. Check out our market research pricing plans.
#7 – Underprice Home
A recipe for failure ensues, if a FSBO can’t properly research the property value and the local market. Most FSBO’s in Baltimore want to sell their homes independently to avoid real estate commission fees. However, if they are not trained, they can potentially lose thousands of dollars by underpricing the home and unintentionally leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
Advice: Perform proper market research or give us a call and we will do it for you ($99). Check out our market research pricing plans.
As you can see there are many pitfalls that FSBO Baltimore sellers can fall into, and we want to inform you about what they are. Now that you know better, we expect you to do better. But, if you can’t do better, give us a call. We offer flat fee listing only services for FSBO’s who still want to sell their home without any help. And for those FSBO Baltimore sellers who are just fed up we offer full real estate services, too. We are here to help, give us a call today.