4 Ways to Sell Your Home and What to Expect

From for sale by owner to auctions to off-market deals to the traditional sale, we've done it all. Here's what we learned and what each option actually costs you.

There's more than one way to sell a home, and we've done all of them. Not just helped clients through them. We've personally lived through each one, made the mistakes, learned the lessons, and come out the other side knowing exactly what each option actually costs you. So here's the truth about four different ways to sell your home and what you need to know before choosing one.

1. For sale by owner. This is where you skip the Realtor and handle everything yourself. You put the home on the market, you negotiate, you get yourself to closing. We sold our very first home this way. We thought we'd save money. It wasn't a nightmare, but when we got to the closing table, we didn't really understand what was going on. There were too many moving parts, and we almost didn't sell because the deal wasn't what we thought we had signed. We just didn't understand the contract well enough. The advantage is that you control everything. The disadvantage is it usually costs you money, it costs you a lot of time, and it raises your chances of ending up in a legal dispute. Here's what we tell people: selling for sale by owner is a great idea if you want to become a Realtor, because you get to learn on yourself instead of learning on a client. You make the mistakes with your own money instead of with someone else's.

2. Auction. This is exactly what it sounds like. People bid on your house and someone walks away with it. We actually bought our second home at an auction. The biggest advantage is that it's done in one day. The buyer can't back out, there's no inspection process, and when it's over, it's over. The disadvantage is that it doesn't give buyers a lot of time to make a decision. You need really well-qualified buyers because they're taking on significant risk, usually putting down 1% of the purchase price, or 10%, or $10,000. It also reduces your buyer pool, which means you might sell for more if buyers get excited and competitive, but you could also sell for less. The price is unpredictable. But if you want it done in a day, an auction can get you there.

“It's not that one is right or wrong. You just need to understand what you're actually giving up when you choose one of those options.”

3. Off-market sale with a Realtor. This is where you hire a Realtor who says they have a network of agents and can get it sold without putting the home on the MLS. It's a valid tool. When we did this, we had two kids under two, one of them just months old. We just could not deal with showings. We had one showing, the buyer bought the house, and it was done. But here's what you need to know. When a home sells off-market, it's not fully exposed to the market. You rarely end up getting true market value. Even appraisers know that off-market sales aren't exactly comps because you never know what could have happened if the house had gone on the open market. We knew at the time we could have gotten more, but the convenience was worth it in that season of life. It's also easier on the Realtor involved since there's less marketing, fewer photos, and less follow-up to manage. But that convenience can cost you money in the end.

4. Traditional sale with a Realtor. This is the full process. Your home goes on the market, it gets full exposure, full marketing, full negotiation. It costs more time and can be inconvenient, but it's how you know you've gotten the most money possible for your home. When you put a home on the market and let it compete, you find out what the market is truly willing to pay. That's something you simply can't get with any of the other options.

We wouldn't change the way we did any of those sales. In that for sale by owner deal, we learned so much that our clients were better off for it later. Auctions are exciting and we loved the experience. Selling off-market made sense when life with newborns made showings impossible. And the traditional sale is where we've consistently netted the most money and gotten homes looking their sharpest.

None of these is right or wrong. You just need to understand what you're actually giving up when you choose one over another. If you're thinking about selling your home in Nashville and you're not sure which path makes sense for your situation, we'd love to walk you through it. Call or text us at (615) 315-9223, email us at homes@fykesgroup.com, or visit fykesrealtygroup.com.