7 Things That Could Happen if You Buy or Sell a Home Without an Agent

Selling or buying your home is a process that when done wrong could result to a financial loss, broken relationship, unbearable stress, illness or a lawsuit, so it is best that you get the help of a professional real estate agent. A good professional agent has the experience, knowledge, personality and smarts to make your home selling or home buying a smooth-sailing endeavor.  As in other life’s pursuits, there could be glitches and hassles along the way, but a realtor will have more than enough to find a solution to the problem.

Here are 7 things that could happen if you buy or sell your home without the help of an agent.

1. Overpricing or Underpricing

If you’re a seller, you could overprice your home and get no offers from buyers. When you
decide to decrease the price, buyers would wonder why you reduced the price, thinking there could
be some defects in the property.
You could also underprice which would cause you losses or other problems if the biggest offer
does not match the real value of your home. Underpricing works to your advantage only if it
sparks a buying competition that could give you an unexpectedly favorable home price.

Realtors use updated actual home sales data in your neighborhood to come up with a price that
would attract offers for your home and at the same time would give you the best possible gain. If
you’re a buyer, a realtor would know the offer price that would be accepted by the seller and
that would match actual market prices for similar homes in your target neighborhood.

2. Buyer Remorse

You would avoid this wretched feeling if you have a realtor that would make sure you get the
home that really match your expressed preferences. A good realtor would be able to see things in the home that are not
immediately apparent to you as a buyer and would know if the home is a great buy.

3. Failure to comply with disclosure laws

If you’re a seller, you could violate certain disclosure laws of the state, county or city.
There are items about the condition of the house that at first might seem insignificant to
mention in the sales contract but later becomes a violation. It’s also possible that you miss
writing into the contract something like an heirloom furniture that’s not included in the sale.

4. Contract is not legal

Your sales or purchase contract is structured in such a way that it includes things that
should not be included or misses things that should have been included, or simply statements that
make the contract not legally binding.

5. Prospective buyers are not pre-qualified, scammers or simply dangerous

You could be showing your home to people who are not able to buy a home, and just looking and
wasting your precious time. You could also meet scammers that would rent out your house to
prospective tenants who are willing to pay online. The worst is you get in contact with a
mentally unstable person that could harm you physically during showing.
Realtors pre-qualify their buyers before showing. Past experiences have made them firm and
smart on getting pre-qualification or pre-approval. This ensures the prospective buyer’s identity
is verified and that the buyer has the capability to buy your home.

6. Your house is not getting sold

Marketing and selling a home require online and offline networks and access to online and offline services that only realtors have. Realtors are registered members of multiple listing services and national real estate websites where they can list homes. They or their brokers also maintain niche websites where they can advertise properties. Offline, they have past referrals from past clients and they have their own professional or community networks.

7. You missed buying the home that perfectly matched your preferences

Somebody beat you to the home that you desired. You didn’t know about it and nobody told you about it.  Good realtors have their own systems so they’re immediately alerted if a certain property is released back to the market. They have contacts and networks. When it’s time to offer, they know how to help you arrive at the best offer — an offer that has the best chance of getting accepted and at the same time an offer you are very comfortable with.

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