Nowadays, houses sell quicker than they ever have in the past and homeowners are beginning to notice of this trend. In residential areas surrounding the GTA, houses will go up for sale on a Thursday, have an open house sometime over the weekend, and the sold sign will be on the front lawn by the time Monday rolls around. With house prices at an all-time high, a house selling for close to $1,000,000 in a residential neighbourhood in Toronto suburbs is not uncommon. Homeowners are happy when their house sells quickly, so both the agent and the seller are very pleased.
To add to this great feeling, it is now very common for bidding wars to happen on any home outside of Toronto as well as the suburbs. Bidding wars are more common now because of the decrease in the supply of homes for sale. With less houses on the market, a buyer is in competition with other buyers when placing an offer on any fair priced home. This is the reason why it is so common nowadays to hear about houses selling over asking price. With so few houses to choose from, competition is stiff and it drives the house prices up even higher.
Homeowners have started to realize these trends and are more willing than ever to take matters into their own hands. Knowing how quickly houses are selling, homeowners are beginning to question whether or not a real estate agent’s commission is a fair amount. To make matters simple, let’s assume an $800,000 home sells in two weeks in Markham. At 6% commission plus HST, the agent’s commission would be $54,240. While the seller may be happy selling their house in one week, $54,000 is a lot of money for two week’s work. Realizing how quickly houses sell with little to no effort, the homeowner begins to wonder “What if I try to sell my home on my own?”
This question is what gave birth to the concept of For Sale By Owner. While it may take longer to sell your own home (it’s still not always the case that an agent could sell it quicker), the money that you will save will more than justify the extra effort spent. Selling your own home gives you all kinds of freedom that you don’t have when you use an agent. You can schedule viewings when it’s convenient for you and you can actually be there to show your home to the prospective buyers (nobody knows your home better than you do).
You can take advantage of For Sale By Owner platforms for a small cost compared to an agent’s commission, and there are even some platforms which are completely free to use! It would be beneficial to do some research to find out how to list on MLS®, seeing as this is the easiest and most cost effective way to significantly increase the exposure of your listing.
In many instances, the seller may feel like their agent does not have their best interests in mind. Agents will sometimes work with both sides of the deal to speeds things up so that they can get paid quicker. Even if it’s for a lower selling price, the fact that the house sold quicker will compensate for the lower commission.
With the Internet becoming so popular in everyone’s life, people are becoming more and more comfortable doing everything and anything online. 10 years ago it was rather rare for people to buy or sell furniture clothes online and now it is very common for people to sell cars and houses online. This trust with online transactions is making it more common for home buyers and sellers to look to the Internet to help their cause. Something as simple as finding out how to list on mls can save you thousands of dollars that you would have to pay in real estate fees. The market is so hot right now in Canada; houses are selling like hot cakes and in turn, you would expect to see more and more sellers turning to For Sale By Owner platforms.
