Chad Clement and Associates

Ralph, this site - like most heavily traveled real estate websites - is broker based. You need to be an agent or broker to post properties here. While there are some "by owner" sites you can post to, you should consider that there is usually a fee and, more importantly, that buyers don't usually go there. Most buyers, which are your target audience, use brokerage related sites such as John L Scott or Windermere for searching, while others use the largest of the "non MLS" sites such as Homes.com, Zillow or Yahoo Real Estate. Consider where you'd spend your time searching for homes, and place your property there - even if that means hiring a broker. A quick note about that - when you hire a broker, you're hiring an advertising agency and your chief negotiator. Selling by owner has a success rate of only about 7%, which means a failure rate of about 93%. Even most agents, who are supposed to be professionals, close far less than 50% of the listings they take. My best advice is to try it on your own first, and once that doesn't work - and it won't - interview and hire only the best of the best. Then listen to, trust and act upon their input. Hire someone with no less than 5 years of experience, and who is consistently a top ten percent performer. Verify references and look at their currently listed properties - are they represented in real estate magazines & other print media that buyers like? Are they featured prominently at websites like this one, and are the photos excellent? Do they utilize nice looking virtual tours? In this declining market (values dropped about 5.5% nationally in 2010, or about $27,500 on the typical $500k house), going the wrong route and having a property sit for six months or a year, whether by owner or with the wrong agent, can be far more expensive than hiring a quality person on contingency who will market well and negotiate strongly for you.

Hi Ralph - You can't list your property on this site without being a real estate agent. There are some sites you can pay to list "for sale by owner" on, but most qualified buyers don't search for properties there. If you were going to look for homes, where would you go? What ever your answer is, it's probably where most other buyers would go, to. That is where I would list my home - even if that means hiring a broker. "By owner" has a success rate of about 7% nationally - or about a 93% failure rate, if you look at it that way. Even most agents, who are supposed to be pros, only close about 40% of the listings they take - many fare worse. A real estate broker is not a "salesman" - they are your advertising agency as well as your chief negotiator - and only a slim few are truly good at wearing both hats. Try it on your own, but it's very likely that you'll end up hiring a professional within a few months. Hire the wrong one and the property will likely sit, unsold, for six months to a year and "expire". Hire the right one, and it should be gone within 90 days or less. Incidentally - listing on "by owner" sites isn't free. They charge you to post to the site and, if they are associated with the local multiple listing service, may charge you $500 - $2500 to list it, plus there will be an additional 3% buyer's agent commission if it sells - so it's nowhere near free. If it doesn't sell, you're simply out the $500 - $2500 bucks. Hiring a quality broker, on contingency, means that they will spend their money & time trying to sell it for you - and there is never any cost to you if they are not successful. In a declining market (values dropped over 5% in 2010 alone), a property sitting unsold for six months or a year and then having to eventually hire a broker anyway is far more costly than paying someone excellent at it 5% to begin with.