The spring months bring spring fever and people get restless. Home buyers and sellers begin to make their moves. Today, with the premiere of television advertising spots titled, "Don't Try This at Home," the National Association of Realtors® encourages home sellers to protect what could be their largest investment by enlisting the help of a professional.
"Selling a home is like climbing Mount Everest," said Thomas M. Stevens, NAR president and senior vice president of NRT Inc., from Vienna, Va. "If you don't prepare correctly, you'll never achieve your goal. Getting a signed contract is like reaching the peak, but that's only half the journey. Many things can happen on the way back down the mountain. Savvy sellers know to hire a Realtor® to protect their interests and guide them through."
Home owners who try to sell their home without professional help must overcome a number of hurdles. As mentioned in the TV spots, the obstacles include making the appropriate disclosures, preparing the home for sale, pricing the home appropriately for a dynamic market and, most importantly, attracting qualified, motivated buyers. According to the 2005 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, only 17 percent of do-it-yourself home sellers used the Internet to market their home; that's at a time when Internet use in home searches has risen dramatically in 2005, 77 percent of all home buyers used the Internet to look for a home.
