Homeowners are surprised to learn that the majority of homes sold in 2020 weren’t discovered by a realtor, but were instead found online. In fact, 51 percent of home buyers reported finding their homes online in the last year, as opposed to the 28 percent of home buyers who located their properties with the help of a licensed realtor.
You might wonder where buyers find these homes if not through a licensed realtor, and the truth is there are many ways for potential buyers to find homes on the internet before even consulting with a realtor. With so much activity on social media sites and other networking platforms, selling a home without a realtor just got significantly easier.
These days, buyers have an array of choices at their fingertips thanks to sites like Zillow and Trulia. It’s easy to look at page after page of listings and wonder how your property will ever stand out from the bunch, especially without any kind of realtor pushing your home into the public eye.
Contrast the overwhelming 90 percent of sellers with traditional realtor representation, and only 7 percent of homes were sold FSBO (For Sale By Owner) in 2020. If you’ve sold a home independently in the past, you know the potential problems that an FSBO offer entails. Determining your own price, making repairs, finalizing purchase contracts—unless you’re a one-person team of professionals, selling by owner often presents more risk than it’s worth. It’s no surprise that so few sellers choose the FSBO route, even when they stand to save thousands in realtor commission fees.
What options are left for homeowners who want to sell a house without all the hassle of working with a realtor or coordinating an FSBO campaign?
Selling a home without a realtor is still possible in 2021, and search habits suggest that most home buyers actually prefer choosing their home without a realtor. Take advantage of this market trend afforded by the digital age and reach your new buyer today! Even without a realtor, there are several ways sellers like you can leverage the internet in their favor to make the most of their home sale.
Selling a Home without a Realtor in 2021: Online Options
Can I List on the MLS without a Realtor?
Perhaps the biggest benefit of working with a professional realtor is access to MLS sites. With the MLS, your home is automatically put in front of thousands of buyers, realtors, and brokers, across hundreds of real estate websites. This is an invaluable tool in the home selling process, and gaining access to the MLS without a realtor can be difficult.
But is it impossible? Quite the contrary; 18 percent of homeowners who sold FSBO in 2020 reported listing their house on an MLS site without a realtor.
With a flat fee MLS listing, sellers can benefit from the same competitive edge that sellers with a realtor receive. Flat flee MLS listings allow seller-access to the MLS through a licensed broker, without any additional services or professional realtor representation. Due to this “access-only” stipulation, the home is still considered FSBO, and no commissions are due at the time of sale.
Despite this, flat flee MLS listings still cost hundreds, and the registration process is often too convoluted for most homeowners to navigate on their own. Selling a home without a realtor is meant to be a fast process, and greater minds might suggest that sellers who want access to the MLS are better off listing with an agent in the first place.
Using Social Media to Sell Your Home without a Realtor
If paying for a flat fee MLS listing seems like too much work, there is a free and even more passive way to drum up immediate attention for your home! 14 percent of FSBO sellers used social media to market and sell their homes in 2020, without any access to the MLS whatsoever.
Most people have social media accounts, so consider these marketing efforts another aspect of your online presence. Keep it simple or get creative, it’s up to you; that’s the freedom of selling your home without a realtor. You get to decide the post time and frequency, which pictures you display, what to include in your property description, and more—all for free.
Even better? When you share your home on social media, you’ll gain immediate traction from friends and family members who can spread the word to other buyers. 23 percent of sellers claimed to receive help from friends, relatives, and neighbors when marketing their properties, and social media is a great way to generate buzz.
Selling Your Home Online the Easy Way
If you’re not a social media guru, don’t worry—there’s another way to sell your home online, and it doesn’t involve a realtor or confusing flat fee MLS listings.
Homeowners everywhere are discovering the best way to leverage the internet in their home sale, and that’s a cash offer from direct buyers like Texas Home Buyers Group! With a cash offer from Texas Home Buyers Group, you receive the best value for your home in as little as 1 week. You never pay any commissions or hidden fees, and we pay cash, so there’s no bank approval or financing necessary.
The entire process can be completed at home from your phone or computer in as little as 15 minutes. Just tell us a bit more about your house for a cash offer in 72 hours. After that, we can close as soon as next week—we work on your timeline.