You may be wondering what kind of people sell their own homes. Do they have some special trait, or skill, do they possess a natural salesmen-like quality, or are they just regular people who are sick and tired of giving their hard earned money away. Let me take this opportunity to put your mind at ease. Selling your own property privately does not require any special trait or natural ability, in fact millions of people around the World have done it, and millions more continue to do today. The person who decides to sell privately as a For Sale By Owner (or FSBO) is just a regular person like you or me. What sets them apart is that these homeowners who may, or may not, have any previous experience in selling a property, all take the time to learn the “trade secrets” of how to do it correctly. They look for a practical resource of information, one that has been carefully designed to guide homeowners through the process of preparing a house for market, and once they find it, they make it work for them. One such resource is this article. Lets discuss some of the myths about selling privately that have gained popularity over the years.

Myths Of Selling Privately

Many people believe that they cannot sell their own house without the help of a Real Estate agent. Some believe that it’s even illegal to do so. This is not true, and I will take a moment to break it down, and prove this to you in an example. Please forgive that my example is somewhat simplistic, but it will nevertheless serve to make my point.

In the sale of a house there are likely 6 participants, the Vendor (the homeowner), the Purchaser, the Vendor’s lawyer, the Purchaser’s lawyer, and then there is the Vendor’s Real Estate agent, and the Purchaser’s Real Estate agent. By simple process of elimination, we shall see which of the above participants are needed to transact a sale. We will try removing each set of participants from the transaction, and ask ourselves the question “Can the sale still be done?”. If it cannot, then we need those participants and they cannot be removed. If it can proceed, then we can remove the participants from the transaction, and still have it proceed. Let’s begin removing participants from the transaction.

If you remove the Vendor or Purchaser from the transaction then obviously the sale cannot proceed, so these two participants must obviously stay. What about the lawyers? If we remove the lawyers from this transaction then there is no one to investigate the existing property title, and there is no one to legally convey the title of the property being sold to its new owner (the Purchaser) after the sale. In addition to this, without the attorneys there is no one to legally oversee the exchange of monies so that the Vendor gets paid once title is turned over to the Purchaser. It’s pretty obvious that the lawyers should remain in the transaction so we cannot take them out and still proceed. That leaves one group – the Realtors. Can we remove the Realtors from this transaction and still proceed? Since millions of homes are sold each and every year without the use or participation of Real Estate agents, then the answer is a resounding “Yes!”. The Realtors can be removed from the transaction, and it can still proceed without cause, making it all too clear who is needed, and who is not.

Now that we have clearly established who is needed to transact the sale of a property, we should deal with some popular misconceptions that seem to have gained credibility over the years. Many of these falsehoods are nothing more than rumor and hearsay which has been around long enough to be mistakenly taken as fact. For example, some people believe that a Real Estate agent has some mystical power that helps them get more money for a house than if it were sold privately by its owner.

People who promote this idea often argue that the Buyer knows that there is no commission being paid by the Vendor to a Realtor, and so this savings must go to them in the way of a discount. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ask yourself this simple question, “When did it become usual, or even reasonable, to give Buyers everything that they want, and worse, how is this apparent entitlement to an automatic discount enforced?” In other words, under what authority is this discount enforced? The simple fact is that no one can force any Vendor to sell for anything less than they are willing to sell for!3 By the same line of logic, if it’s true that a Buyer is automatically entitled to a discount because the Vendor is not paying a commission, then is it also true that the Vendor should be paid a bonus, over and above his property’s fair market value, for improving and keeping the property in good condition over the years? Of course not! It’s ridiculous because market value is market value, period. There is no denying that it can be helpful to have sales representation to argue your case for a better sale price, but the fact is that a Buyer doesn’t much care who is selling the house or arguing the case for an end sale price, they just want to buy the best house they can for the least amount of money.

On the other side of the table, a Vendor doesn’t much care who is buying the house either, they just want to get the most money for their property. The truth is that in any market Vendors will not get one nickel more for their properties than they are worth to Buyers who are willing to purchase them; and those Buyers will not pay one nickel less than what those Vendors are willing to accept for those properties. This is the very definition of market value;

The fair market value of a property is that price that is agreed upon by a knowledgeable and willing Vendor and a knowledgeable and willing Purchaser in a free market, with each being unencumbered by undue pressure to buy or sell, and with each acting in his/her own best interest.

The bottom line is that nothing has changed in over 500 years, the value of goods in a marketplace are still simply a matter of supply and demand, and creating a demand for your property is simply a matter of good marketing, and that’s what these articles are all about! They have been designed to teach you the time-tested techniques of how to market your property so that it fetches the greatest value, in the least amount of time. These articles are filled with practical advice and tips on how to sell your house privately “By Owner” and get quick results with more money in your pocket! No gimmicks, no magic – just good marketing! You will learn how to prepare and promote your house for a profitable sale, how to negotiate with a prospective Buyer, and all without having to use a real estate agent!