Selling By Owner? Cooperate with Agents in New York

I was contacted by someone out of the blue asking me to show them a home for sale in Eastchester. They found it on Zillow, which isn’t uncommon. I looked up the address on the MLS and it came back with “no properties found.” Checking Zillow revealed that the home was for sale by owner. So I called the owner and set up an appointment as if I were calling any other home listed for sale. No sheepish query if they were cooperating with brokers or explanation of my intentions. “When can I show it.”

Thursday. So I showed it Thursday. The outcome is irrelevant to my point (no interest from the buyer if you are keeping score), but these people are smart to cooperate with brokers. I don’t think I was the only one to contact them, so maybe someone else primed the pump. The more eyeballs on the house, the more likely it will sell. And people working with agents are the more serious (and qualified) buyers.

Will the people save money selling themselves? I highly doubt it. The sale of real estate has too many moving parts to be reduced to a bottom line increased by the addition of a broker fee. I recall, for instance, a home seller whose ineptitude killed half a dozen deals for over $700,000 who finally sold after a year for $600,000. But he saved on the commission. Forget that he lost tens of thousands of dollars in the process! 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.