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“Trust your gut — and interview agents,” Robinson says. “There are just so many moving parts to a home sale, and you may feel like you can just put your house on the market. But you may not be prepared for the amount of strangers that have to come into the house.”
“When one seller who had previously listed without an agent hired one of the agents on my team, they ended up getting around $40,000 more than they were asking on their home,” Alden says. Previously to that, they’d been inundated and unsure of what to do. With multiple offers to review, “it became a whole other playing field. After hiring an agent, they ended up getting much more money for their sale.”
Her takeaway for sellers? Know this: “FSBOs always aim to save on commission, but they never do — because, without the right experience, they grossly overprice or underprice their houses.”
Alternatives to selling by owner in Illinois
If you decide you don’t want the hassle or pressure of FSBO, you’ve got other solid options.
Enlist the help of a top-rated real estate agent
Ultimately, the services and price gains you can get with an experienced real estate agent may put more money in your pocket than FSBO. A proven agent is also better equipped to help you achieve your selling and moving timelines.
Robinson has made working with former FSBOs one of her many specialties, and she says she’s seen it all.
In fact, her first-ever sale was a converted FSBO — “Baptism by fire,” she jokes. “By the time I got there, the seller was so weary. I had to sit down with him and explain why the contracts weren’t going through.”
Ultimately, the issue was that the property was overpriced and would need to be reduced by $40,000 to sell. It wasn’t an easy process. “He was adamant about getting every penny out of the deal as possible.” Unfortunately, when a property is overpriced, sellers may end up losing more in the long run. “Eventually, I got through to him.”
The takeaway? “We got it done — and he got the right amount of money.”
Alden shares a similar assessment of the major problems FSBO home sellers contend with in Barrington.
“Hire a real estate agent,” Alden says. “Because here’s the thing: Anyone who hires an agent is going to get their commission back three times over just by dodging all those mistakes.”
Alden again names not pricing the home correctly as “the costliest mistake you can make,” followed by the creepiness and inefficiency of having no agent to “make sure the property is secured and that the people coming in are actually vetted Realtors and buyers.”
Interested in such expertise? HomeLight’s Agent Match platform can connect you to top-performing agents in your Illinois market. Our free tool analyzes over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs. It takes only two minutes to receive your matches.
Request a cash offer to buy your Illinois home
If you’d like to skip the sale prep altogether — plus avoid paying agent commissions — you can opt to sell your home as-is to an all-cash buyer instead.
For a low-stress experience, consider requesting a cash offer from HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform. Tell us a few details about your home, and in as few as 24 hours, we’ll send a no-obligation all-cash offer your way. If you decide to accept the offer, Simple Sale sellers have the ability to close in as little as 7 days.
Without leaving the Simple Sale platform, you’ll also be able to compare your cash offer to an estimation of what your home would sell for on the open market so you can make an informed decision.
Ready to sell your Illinois home?
Unless you already have a buyer lined up, selling a house by owner in Illinois requires a significant investment of time and effort. You’ll need to pull your own comps, capture excellent pictures, create a listing, market the house online, field inquiries, host showings, negotiate, and close the deal. And that’s after preparing the house itself.
You also have to consider that FSBO listings tend to sell for less than agent-assisted sales. An experienced agent who knows the area can make recommendations for targeted upgrades to help you maximize your sale price and get a premium offer. This can help to offset or, in some cases, more than make up for the cost of commission — while saving you time and headaches.
If you choose to go FSBO, you should have a good idea now of what to expect from the process. Otherwise, our internal transaction data at HomeLight shows that the top 5% of real estate agents sell homes for as much as 10% more than average, and we’d be happy to introduce you to some of the best agents in your Illinois market.
Writer Hayley Abernathy contributed to this story.
Editor’s note: This blog post is for educational purposes only. HomeLight recommends that you look into the real estate regulations for your area and consult a trusted advisor.
Header Image Source: (Danylo Istominov / Unsplash)
