For most of us, $10,000 is a lot of money. Yet that is the average amount of commission we give a real estate agent for selling our home.

Is it money well spent? Just how hard is it to sell your own property and pocket the extra money yourself?

Of course, real estate agents will tell you that they do —market to the right audience to achieve a sale at the best possible price —and is worth every penny of what they charge. And in some instances they would be right. Unusual properties in out-of-the-way areas are usually better left to agents to sell.

But if the property you want to sell is a standard suburban house, it is certainly worth giving FSBO (for sale by owner) a go, providing you have the time.

Selling such a property is definitely not rocket science. “Consumers are conditioned to believe that buying and selling real estate is difficult,” says consumer advocate Neil Jenman. “For years we have been told we need agents. But in most cases this is simply not true.” Jenman argues that basically agents are order takers who place advertisements for your property, wait for buyers to make offers and when they sell, pocket a handsome fee. These are things anyone can do, he says.

The growth of the Internet means there is now a lot more help if you decide to FSBO, as well as websites for listing your property.

A good example of a DIY help site is www.sneekpeek.com.au. SNEEKPEEK provides a buyer-matching service and allows home sellers to list their property with SNEEKPEEK anywhere in Australia for free.

If you need further convincing that FSB0 might be for you, read Terry Ryder’s book Real Estate without Agents*. “There is little an agent can do that a home owner cannot. And there is little an agent provides that a home owner actually needs,” Ryder concludes.

Read our popular recent post ‘There’s A Huge Real Estate Market You Can’t See!‘

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