The risks of selling your home on your own

At first glance, selling your house on your own, without a broker, may seem like saving money and having greater flexibility.

There are indeed certain advantages to selling your home without a broker: you avoid paying a commission and you are in charge of marketing your property, for example.

Doing business with a real estate broker, however, allows you to avoid the inconveniences and risks to which you expose yourself by selling your home on your own.

The risks of sellling your home on your own

Time, management… and stress

Taking charge of the sale of your home means thinking about all the details, planning every step, preparing the documentation, ensuring visibility, answering all inquiries, handling visits, negotiating the offer(s) to purchase and complete the transaction.

The sales process requires a lot of time and a lot of management, which can be a heavy workload, combined with your daily life and other obligations. For example, the seller must adapt to the availability of potential buyers for visits, without guaranteeing that the visitors are serious buyers.

The process brings stress that can lead to errors or major omissions.

Selling without a broker does not mean that you are entirely alone. You can benefit from the advice and support of certain professionals such as your notary, but the weight of the process still rests on your shoulders.

The lack of expertise

By selling your house on your own, you must take care of each of the steps yourself. A real estate sale requires, among other things, legal knowledge and an understanding of the real estate market.

If you are not well prepared, you expose yourself to the risk of:

• Not fully understanding all essential documents.
• Listing your property at too low or too high a price, making it harder to sell your home.
• Not obtaining the best conditions for the sale of your property due to a lack of experience in this type of negotiation.
• Encountering barriers or legal issues that could be costly or delay the process.

You must therefore prepare, inform yourself and seek as much information as possible in order to compensate for your lack of expertise.

Limited access to resources and tools

A big disadvantage of selling your home on your own is not taking advantage of the visibility offered by Centris or the work of a real estate broker to promote it. You will therefore have to do more marketing work by using the other options offered.

A real estate broker has essential skills and resources to successfully sell a property, in addition to being supervised by an entire team within his real estate agency.

• He evaluates your property to establish its fair price.
• He offers maximum visibility to your listing.
• He ensures visitors are serious buyers.
• And more.

The lack of security

A seller without a broker bears full responsibility for the transaction, which can cause him to lose a lot in the event of difficulties or legal proceedings.

By using a real estate broker, the seller is protected: being subject to the Real Estate Brokerage Act and other requirements, the broker bears the responsibility for the transaction. Moreover, the majority of real estate brokers offer a free legal assistance program to their clients, such as the Sutton Secur certificate offered by participating real estate brokers affiliated with Sutton – Québec.

The real estate brokerage act

Avoid the risks of selling your house on your own

The best way to avoid the drawbacks and risks presented above is to hire a real estate broker. He will be able to accompany you from start to finish, will offer you great visibility and will negotiate on your behalf in order to obtain the best conditions for you.

Selling your home without a broker certainly takes more effort, but is not unattainable. You must inform yourself, keep up to date on market developments and make sure you know all the steps of the process to succeed in your project.

However, you are putting all the best tools at your disposal by working with a real estate broker for one of the biggest transactions of your life.

If your property has been on sale for several months and you have chosen to sell it on your own, contact one of our brokers and ask them your questions. They will be happy to help you.

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