Sellers Prepared for Slower Market, But Unclear on Costs of Selling a Home

The majority of sellers in 2019 are prepared to deal with a slower housing market, know they need an agent, but are still unclear on costs associated with selling a home, a new report revealed.

The report by Clever.com found that 65 percent of those surveyed were aware that 2019 might signal a slowdown in the market, and were prepared to wait longer for a good price versus selling their home quickly.

More than 60 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t feel comfortable handling the paperwork for a real estate transaction and would hire a Realtor, and half said they wouldn’t feel comfortable negotiating with buyers on their own.

However, Millennials were twice as likely to say they didn’t feel they needed a real estate agent. In fact, the report said that they were 93 percent less likely to use a Realtor, and two times as likely to say a real estate agent was not important to the home selling process.

The use of Artificial Intelligence platforms may be catching on as well.

“Approximately 50 percent of respondents said they would be willing to sell their home using an AI platform that finds potential buyers, and 37 percent believe existing AI tech could outperform a human real estate agent,” said Clever Real Estate research analyst Thomas O’Shaughnessy.

The report said many home sellers also expressed some amount of surprise when told they’d be paying for the buyer’s agent commission as well — 45 percent, to be exact.

“Only 35 percent know that the standard, total commission fee is about 6 percent of their home’s final sale price,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Preparing a home for sale (27 percent), attracting buyers (20 percent), correctly pricing the home (18 percent), finding a good Realtor (13.5 percent), negotiating with buyers (10.7 percent), and the paperwork (9.7 percent) were among the things those surveyed said were the most challenging parts of selling a home.

To see the full report, click here.