NAR – For Sale By Owner – “SCARE TACTICS”
Don’t sell your home FSBO – you will be robbed, raped or God forbid – worse. The NAR has been promoting this scaremongering for years. Here is a direct quote from an article in the “Realtor” ezine (note that the author refers to himself as an “experienced realtor”) titled “NAR(r) Broker Will Swear It – Real Pro ‘ Agents Share It – FSBO “Truth” – and I quote – “Sometimes the ‘Truth’ hurts. However, being scammed, raped or even worse hurts a lot more. Ask any police officer if home sellers should throw their doors wide open to strangers.” Are you serious? So that’s why we pay a 6% sales commission to sell a house? Security/Background Checks? Now it all makes sense – I finally get the gimme a break! There may have been a time when real estate agents actually “screened” clients before bringing them home – that being said, I firmly believe it was done to determine how much they could afford and resist or not wasting valuable real estate agent time I guarantee I can schedule an appointment, through a real estate agent to view a home within the next hour, they will take my first name: POINT!
Our friend, the “experienced realtor” must be from the “old” school. The new NAR scare tactic (recognizing that realtors don’t “screen” their clients) now claims that FSBO homes sell for up to 15% less than realtor-assisted existing home sales. They have developed a clever little “media” based formula that proves this and sure enough, the realtors that make up their association believe the hype and diligently and naively spread it to prospective FSBO homeowners. The problem with their calculations is that they use a flawed formula to support their argument: they use a MEDIAN price instead of an AVERAGE price. The median is a “middle number” in a series of numbers; the average is the sum of all the numbers divided by the total number. Have you ever looked at the “middle” mark on a test and felt something for yourself?
The real “TRUTH”, as this author so eloquently puts it, is that real estate agents are absolutely scared at the prospect of FSBOs cutting off their income stream. The fact that the Internet eliminates them as a real estate sourcing tool manifests this fear to the point that they have to relive “old wives’ tales.” measly 6% – neither do I. That said, I would love to see the face of the real estate agent who is asked to confirm that all potential clients have undergone a background check before viewing your property. Realtors “used to” ask for ID, they don’t even do that anymore.
Also according to this author – “Dozens of real estate agents are kidnapped, robbed, raped and murdered every year” – My God, they should be getting hazard pay. I cannot think of ANY other profession that is subject to such crime and potential danger on the job. Did you say “dozens”? Another question: why would someone “kidnap” a real estate agent? Excuse my tongue-in-cheek response to this article – I find it strange that this tactic is still being used or, worse yet, “reborn”. On a more serious note, my mother is a 35 year old real estate agent, she has NEVER had a “bad” experience with a client. However, she had her house robbed two days after a real estate agent in town showed her house to two gentlemen in a white van (can you say “red flag”)? When the police investigated, the real estate agent didn’t even have her names, now that’s well filtered.
The reality of selling your own home comes down to this, and only this. If you can put together a decent marketing plan, price your home properly, and be semi-nice without being pushy, you can sell your own home and save significant dollars. You need to be careful who you’re letting into your home, of course. Is there risk? Yes, there is always risk. Is there reward – of course – significant. The trick is to mitigate risk by being careful and using your instincts and, as always, be careful who you let into your front door.
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