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These are some essential considerations that require evaluating before deciding to market your home and saving the fee of selling through an agent.

Most Real Estate agents will advise you against placing your home For Sale By Owner, because it will take much longer to do it without their help.

Despite this advice, consider the course of events that occurred when you purchased your home. Most agents show the property to the buyer, give them forms to complete, and then have the buyers wait while they complete the transaction and take the commission of 5 to 6 or more percent.

Although the Real Estate Agent does have to invest some time and energy into the job, a homeowner using some effort can easily succeed at making a quick FSBO sale.

The first step is to decide: is it a buyers or sellers market? The presence of more buyers and fewer sellers result in a buyers market, and houses sell faster. Sellers markets, however, may require the seller to make two or three extra mortgage payments during the time that it takes to locate a buyer, and the faster process of using an Agent might be a more desirable alternative.

Consider other homes for sale in the immediate area. For what length of time have they been listed? If homes are not selling quickly, it may be wiser not to move until after a buyer is found, which gives you longer to locate a buyer, but less time move out of your home.

Second - Be Prepared! There’s nothing more frustrating than being asked a bunch of questions you can’t answer. Ask a Broker for an “over-the-net” home evaluation (these are usually free), so you’ll have proof of the homes value. Hire a Real Estate Attorney to find out what paperwork you will need, the Attorney can also do the closing. To find out what forms you will need, go to the State Real Estate Commission.

Identify an Escrow company that will reliably hold the good faith deposit and consult with a Title Company. Buyers are responsible for locating a Mortgage Broker, Escrow Company, and selecting a closing attorney, but if they are not familiar with these processes, offering your assistance will result in their appreciation, as well as an increased likelihood of closing the sale.

Save money by advertising only on the major Real Estate Ad days, and if there are any open houses going on in your neighborhood, have yours at the same time.

If you have done all of these things and still are not encountering potential buyers, you may need to contract with a Discounted or Medium Service Broker, or possibly with a low cost Real Estate Broker (these resources may provide their services through the Internet). By using these agents, a seller might be able to advertise with a Multiple Listing Service. The extra cost required for contributing a picture of the house is well worth the investment. A written advertisement is completely inadequate to effectively list your home.

As a last resort - You might also consider working with a Buyers Agent. These Agents work for a buyer, and normally split the commission with the Sellers Agent. Since you are sellers agent in this case, you may get some help, and a quicker sale for 2.5 to 3 percent of the selling price.

Again, weigh getting help with having the house on the market for a longer period of time. A 3% commission on a 300,000 house is still $9,000 to a Buyers Agent, but compared to the 6% that Real Estate agents charge, that’s an extra $9,000 that stays in your pocket.

Evelyn Grazini has written a variety of For Sale By Owner (FSBO) advice to help you sell your home fast! - Find resources, articles and a free report on “What to Repair and What to Remodel to Obtain TOP DOLLAR when you sell! www.fsbotactics.com/asale.htm

- Evelyn Grazini