Many factors drive choice of whether to use Realtor

Published: April 22, 2000

By Kim Palmer; Staff Writer   

Is selling by owner for you? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

- Do you have the time and the schedule flexibility for showings? Successful sellers need to be available to show the house when buyers want to look. If you've been transferred out of town, if you travel a lot or if you have an inflexible work schedule, you're going to have a more difficult time accommodating prospective buyers' schedules. Two-career couples may simply be too busy to tackle selling a house by owner.

"You have to . . . be available when people call," sometimes with very little notice, said Tim Nelson, who recently sold his Hugo hobby farm by owner. His parents, who are selling their home, chose to list with a Realtor. "They're in their 70s and a little more regimented. I don't know if [selling by owner] would have worked for them."

- Will you be comfortable showing your house? Cheryl Fredrickson of Apple Valley found that she was not. "Someone like me shouldn't do it [sell by owner] if you're scared to let people in," she said.

The For Sale by Owner Shoppe advises customers against showing a house when they're home alone, for safety reasons, which complicates the process for single people.

But comfort isn't just a safety issue. Sellers have to be willing to stand there while strangers poke through their closets and cupboards. Sometimes they have to listen to negative comments about their house. Nelson decided to use showings as an opportunity to get feedback about what changes would make the house more appealing to them. "We weren't offended. We fixed some cracks in the plaster and painted a couple of rooms we forgot about" as a result of prospective buyers' comments.

- Does your house pose any special marketing challenges? A seller with a well-maintained, moderately priced house in a high-demand area will have a much easier time selling by owner than one whose house is eccentric, expensive or in a remote location. Selling a home "in a high-traffic area is easier than [selling one] in the country on a road no one drives down," said Fran Davis, president of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors and an agent with Coldwell Banker Burnet. (She doesn't recommend selling by owner in any circumstance; houses for sale by owner don't get as wide a market exposure as those listed by agents, making it less likely that they'll attract the highest possible price, she said.)

Upper-bracket homes can be sold by owner, but they generally take longer to sell, said Greg Lawrence, owner of the For Sale by Owner Shoppe. "There's a lot of inventory over $400,000 that is just sitting." The shortage of inventory that has plagued buyers in lower price brackets doesn't exist to the same degree in upper-bracket homes, he said. "There's been some overbuilding, and only a certain number of people can afford those homes."

- Can you look at your house with a critical eye? Even a nearly new, well-maintained house usually needs some fixing up and decluttering to look its best to prospective buyers. The longer an owner has lived in the house, the harder it can be to recognize your home's flaws: that the wallpaper you picked out so carefully 20 years ago may now be an ugly eyesore to most buyers, or that the cracked panes of glass that you've forgotten about will stand out like a neon sign to someone who's seeing your house for the first time. Agents can help owners see their homes as buyers see them.

"You have to take a long, hard look at it," said Linda McNees, who recently accepted an offer on her St. Louis Park rambler. "You have to make sure your home is ready and clean. Get rid of the clutter, and touch up the paint. You can never go back with making an initial appearance."