Congratulations! You’ve decided to sell your home; one of the biggest decisions you’ll make in life. Based on referrals, you interview three realtors and learn that each will charge a hefty commission to market and sell your home.
Feeling irritated by the commission rates? You’re not alone. According to ComFree’s December 2011 poll of Canadians, 58 per cent of respondents would rather make a purchase from someone who is not working on commission. If you can’t justify paying $15,000 in realtor commissions, you have other options. You can sell your own home privately. To do this, buy a For Sale sign from the dollar store and hang it on your lawn. Generally speaking, however, if you don’t market your home through newspaper ads, Kijiji and online brokerage sites, no one will know it’s on the market. The largest risks with this approach are that you may not be equipped with the right information to know how to price, market, and wade through the legalities of selling your home.
Use reduced commission listing services, such as ComFree, which allows you to market your property through its website and brokerage sites like MLS and Realtor.ca. It also provides resources to educate buyers and sellers on their local real estate market and a step-by-step real estate transaction framework. The fees for these services are less than $1,000 — a fraction of what an average home seller would pay in commission.
