I bet anyone reading this post just loves money. Who doesn’t? Well, I know someone that just spent way more than they saved–by not utilizing a realtor.

A friend of a friend had us come out to look at their house in a prestigious neighborhood. They had recently bought it and weren’t sure if they wanted to renovate it to live in, renovate it to sell, or just sell it. The level of work needed helped us show them that selling it as-is was the smartest avenue for them.

We helped these people see what the best positioning of this property would be in the current market and were moving towards taking the listing and representing them on the sale of their house. This house needed quite a bit of renovation for a new owner to move in. Two days later they called to see if “we would take” our renovator and investor clients by there to see if they were interested without really “officially” listing the property.

We explained that we did in fact work with a handful of investor and renovator clients but that if we only took those clients over or told them about the property that the wider market was not exposed to their house. They understood but explained that they weren’t really wanting to list right away–they had some personal things going on and did not have the energy to list at this time. If we couldn’t get it sold with our pocket clients, they would likely move in the house and do the repairs as they went along.

We did make phone calls and take investors by the house but the deal wasn’t “just right” for any of them. After reporting to the owner the results she told us not to worry, they thought they had found a friend of a friend that wanted to buy it.

To make a long story short, I saw the notice of sale late last week. It was for $35,000 to $50,000 less than what I believed I could have sold it for if we had taken the listing. I don’t know how this disconnect happened for this person. Were they afraid that a Realtor might earn a commission on their sale? They certainly lost more than they saved by not paying a commission. On top of that, they had no advocate for their financial interests and since they don’t sell houses everyday–they were having to learn a complex skill set in real time where the consequences can be very expensive.

If you are afraid that Realtors make too much money but also don’t like the thought of leaving money on the table or losing money–give us a call to discuss your specific real estate situation. We won’t bite and you might just make a lot more money than going FSBO.