The best thing you can bring to a tough seller's market is an open mind.

As a seller today, think of your competition, if you decide to go it alone, there are thousands of licensed Realtors in your area and they are all gunning for the same buyers to buy their listings.

Agents will stop at nothing to offer incentives that have actual traction to get homes sold. Those incentives include rewarding the selling agent tickets to Hawaii, cash bonuses, or even (in one case) a Porsche.

This just illustrates how hard it can actually be to sell your home today. The end of the year is especially tough for sellers because of the holidays.

In the market for a long haul - or avoiding the market crawl?

If you are trying to sell in this market, the key is to focus on the business model that best fits your needs and motivation. Your motivation may include a specific timeline or a required return on your property from a finance standpoint. I will provide you with a side-by-side comparison of all of the Real Estate Sales business models.

• For Sale By Owner, (FSBO): This is the true do-it-yourself to selling your home. Expect to spend a significant amount of your time holding open houses. Get geared up for Realtors and a practically endless number of cold calls from them trying to win your listing. You might even print up some flyers and put out some advertising. The Downside: You'll be competing for home buyers against savvy agents who have the backing of billion-dollar companies and their marketing muscle. You'll also be largely excluded from Realtors showing your home because it is not on the market as far as the MLS is concerned. The Real Estate industry by and large sees you as a risky proposition since you have no licensing or insurance to guard the transaction if something goes wrong.
• Pay (discount) Commission: Since the agents of these companies are members of the MLS (multiple listing service) you can expect that they will list your home there. Don't expect any (or much) marketing besides that. The upside here is that you might actually be on the ball field with the rest of the real estate industry. You might have access to an agent to conduct the transaction for you because writing contracts is no fun. Expect to do most of the advertising yourself, and that your home will be on the market a very long time. You should also not be surprised if your home suffers several price reductions at the hands of an unmerciful market. Don't be surprised also if and when people don't schedule to see your home, and if they say away in droves. Your house is on the market , but no one knows it, and your home is practically invisible. It is also in competition for many other perhaps similar homes that do have the benefit of marketing.
• Full Service. The most common misconception with this business model is that you are paying one agent a commission of your home sales price. In fact it is typical that half of that commission is paid to the selling agent, while the other half is paid to the agent representing the buyer. The actual Realtor typically sees only a portion of the commission. Things like market share, technology, training, and support go into an agent's decision when choosing their broker. Your agent really acts like an employee for you in this case. In general, these agents work only on commission and that means that when the market is slow, so is their income, and a paycheck is never a guarantee.
• Variable Service, This usually an extension of the full service model. The strategy here is that the agent's commission could change based on variables are in play in the specific transaction. If for instance the listing agent also provides the buyer, then they may provide a lower commission to the seller. Another typical scenario is that a separate buyers agent provides the buyer and represents the buyer exclusively. In this case the buyer's agent is entitled to the commission set by the listing broker before the transaction and agreed by both parties. If the market says sluggish, a common trend is to provide a set of incentives to the buyer, and/or the buyer's agent. Sometimes these incentives can be quite dramatic in value or scope, and all of this depends of course, on the motivation of the seller.

You have to pick the business model that works in your best interest. However, it is my experience that when the market gets tough, that it takes service to sell your home. Always ask for what benchmarks your agent can offer during the time your home is on the market. Ask for results that will give you a good idea of the exposure your home is seeing within the market.

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