Does it still make sense to use a broker?
If I had to put my Natick fixer-upper on the sales block, I would bring on a broker to do it.
OK, I have no special love for Realtors. In fact, while most brokers I have dealt with have been upstanding individuals, as a reporter I have found it to be a difficult industry to get a straight answer out of.
It's as if every broker has gone gone through happy talk training and won't touch any issue or subject related to home sales and prices that might be perceived as even remotely negative.
That said, trying to sell your own home in this market can be a demanding, part-time job.
And if you and your significant other are already working 50-to-60 hours a week - and maybe even chasing little ones around as well - who has the time to do this?
That brings me to HomeGain, which is releasing a survey tomorrow that it contends quantifies the advantage home sellers gain when they team up with a Realtor.
Now, let's be real here, the California-based HomeGain, which bills itself as "a leading provider of online marketing solutions that connect real estate agents and brokers with home buyers and sellers," works closely with the industry. It's not as if HomeGain doesn't have a pretty clear agenda.
Still, I am also not ready to just throw out the survey, which canvassed a thousand homeowners across the country.
The core of the report is this: If you hired a Realtor, you were much more likely to have found a buyer than if you had flown solo.
Of the thousand homeowners questioned, 83 percent had used a Realtor when they sold. Of these, 59 percent had found a buyer and sold their home.
The remaining 17 percent went the for-sale-by-owner route, with a roughly 40 percent success rate.
That sounds like more work and a significantly lower guarantee of success. Yes, you won't have a broker waiting to pick up his or her commission, but you are going to earn every penny.
Feel free to brand this as real estate industry propaganda. Yet, let's also argue the basic point here as well.
Have fun and fire away!
