Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

Are you thinking about selling your house as a For Sale by Owner (FSBO)? If so, know there's a whole lot more time and expertise needed in that process than you might think. While the idea of doing it all by yourself might seem tempting, it's important to recognize the challenges you may face if you take it on all by yourself. As a recent article from   Bankrate   explains : “Choosing the right price, crafting a compelling listing, marketing to potential buyers, coordinating showings, preparing paperwork: All of these are tasks that, in the absence of a real estate agent, you will have to do yourself.” Here’s a bit more information on just a few of those things and how you may miss out if you don’t use an agent. You May Not Price it Right Pricing  your house right is key to a successful sale.  Real estate  agents have experience navigating this housing market and understand the art of pricing a home to sell today. Unfortunately, homeowners who sell on their own often lack this

  July 6, 2023 For Sellers Housing Market Updates Selling Myths One of the biggest challenges in the housing market right now is how  few homes  there are for sale compared to the number of people who want to buy them. To help emphasize just how limited housing inventory still is, let’s take a look at the latest information on active listings, or homes for sale in a given month, as it compares to more normal levels. According to a recent report from  Realtor.com :   “On average, active inventory in June was  50.6% below pre-pandemic 2017–2019 levels .” The  graph  below helps illustrate this point. It uses historical data to provide a more concrete look at how much the numbers are still lagging behind the level of inventory typical of a more normal market ( see graph below ): It’s worth noting that 2020-2022 are not included in this graph. That’s because they were truly  abnormal years  for the housing market. To make the comparison fair, those have been omitted so they don’t distort t