{"id":25957,"date":"2024-12-05T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=25957"},"modified":"2024-12-09T16:10:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T00:10:58","slug":"can-you-be-your-own-real-estate-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/can-you-be-your-own-real-estate-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Act As Your Own Real Estate Agent \u2014 But Should You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re ready to list your house for sale and are crunching some numbers. The national average real estate commission is 5.8% of the home sale<\/a>, and half of that figure goes to the listing agent. You could save some cash if you sold your home without an agent \u2026 So, can you be your own real estate agent?<\/p>\n

Yes, you can be your own real estate agent by selling your home \u201cfor sale by owner\u201d<\/a> or by obtaining a real estate license. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), only 6% of homeowners<\/a> sold their homes without an agent in 2024.<\/p>\n

But just because you can do something doesn\u2019t mean that you should. Selling your own home comes with major responsibilities and significant risks \u2014 which is why most FSBO sellers earn less on their home sale than sellers who enlist a real estate agent.<\/p>\n

To explore the matter, we dug into transaction data and spoke with top real estate agent Anthony Marguleas<\/a>, who works with over 65% more single-family homes than the average Los Angeles agent. Here are nine reasons why you shouldn\u2019t try to be your own real estate agent:<\/p>\n

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\n \"homelight\n <\/div>\n \n

Need Help Pricing Your FSBO Listing?<\/h3>\n

Start with our Home Value Estimator for a near-instant price check. HomeLight’s tool uses recent sales records, market trends, and your home’s last sales price to provide a preliminary estimate of value in under two minutes.<\/p>\n \n

\n Get Estimate <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/div><\/p>\n

1. You\u2019re statistically likely to sell your home for less<\/h2>\n

Yes, you can be your own real estate agent and sell your home. But it\u2019s a major risk \u2014 statistically, FSBO sellers sell their homes for less money than sellers who partner with a real estate agent.<\/p>\n

NAR reports that the typical FSBO home sold for $380,000<\/a> compared with $435,000 for agent-assisted home sales.<\/p>\n

These stats reflect all real estate agent-assisted sales; when you zoom in on the difference a top real estate agent makes, the sale price gap widens. HomeLight\u2019s data reveals that the top 5% of agents sell homes for as much as 10% more<\/a> than the average agent. \u201cA good agent gets more,\u201d Marguleas agrees.<\/p>\n

Not only would you be doing all that work for virtually no savings, but you could be leaving money on the table if you sell your house yourself instead of using a top agent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Your house is one of your most significant assets \u2014 why wouldn\u2019t you want an experienced professional representing you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can be your own real estate agent, but that doesn’t mean that you should. We’ll detail nine reasons why you shouldn’t attempt to sell your house solo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":51307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[321,238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-attract-buyers","category-working-with-agents"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYou Can Be Your Own Real Estate Agent \u2014 But Should You?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can be your own real estate agent, but that doesn't mean that you should. 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