Agent list his own home

I have sold 4 of my own homes throughout my career and have not had any problems associated with it. Be honest and fair and it all works out.

Check you E/O insurance coverage with your Broker .

I personally do not think that it is ever a good idea to sell one's own home. regardless of whether you are an agent or not. It suprises me that even as much as agents know about home selling, that when it comes to their own homes, all of that goes out they window, and they believe that their home should be priced higher for these reasons... Even as an agent we allow our own emotions get in the way of reality. Furthermore, I think it sends the wrong message to the public. Well if they can do it then so can I. But we all know that simply is not the case based on statistics. Use commission as a marketing tool...Realtors provide a service to you and you are paying them for that service so you don't have the added stress of doing your job for your clients and trying to sell your own home. It also doesn't seem fair to your clients if you are trying to sell your own home and theirs especially if it is in the same neighborhood. Are you going to be their best advocate? Something to consider.

As the others have said...There are advantages and disadvantages. When I sold my own home I also, like Vicky mentioned, picked up a few good buyers. The disadvantage was that I didn't have a chance to get away and think before I reacted. I did several things that I would not have encouraged a seller to do...but I was emotional and wanted to sell so I probably gave more than necessary to the buyer. Would I do it over again?.....Absolutely.

Listing your own home you put yourself in a difficult position. You need someone to look at your home from a different view point than you the owner. You might save on commission, but its not worth it most of the time.

I can only speak from my own experience... I did list it myself and held open houses and it took a year to sell. I picked up 3 deals from it and a recruit. I signed another agent up to represent any buyer who was interested and wasn't represented.
As it happened the buyer came from Canada and had their own agent so that worked out without a hitch.
I saved over $11,000 in commission and made just under $25,000 off the other deals.... was it worth it? I would say yes but I'm not sure I would do it again. It's much harder to stay neutral and objective when it's your own place.

As you see you have advantages and disadvantage. The main question is what does you Broker suggest you to do?

Gabrielle,

Great points by the previous agents. Also consider that if a buyer without representation wants to purchase your home you are putting yourself and potentially your office at risk for a lawsuit if you list your own property. This is why my office insists someone else in the office lists any property (for sale) for another agent with an interest in the property. Under the law a licensed real estate agent has a distinct advantage over a buyer if they list their own property.

I think Ron and Veronica hit on the biggest disadvantages..
1) That emotional attachment you have to your house.
2) The time and stress involved in the listing.

The advantage obviously is you don't pay the listing side of the sale. As Sky pointed out, you know your home better than anyone!

Even if someone calls you to show your listing you shoud refer out that buyer for a referral fee as to not have the conflict of interest of both sides of the table since then you really can't represent both parties and that would be impossible since you are the client.

Our brokerage actually doesn't allow an agent to list their own home.

Listing your own home is very stressful! If you are a full time practicing Realtor you have a conflict, because your fiduciary duty is to put your clients' needs before your own. If someone calls you to show your own home, and a client also needs you at the same time; it is your fiduciary duty to meet your client and postpone your own showing. It is very stressful. You don't want to loose either sale!

If you have a full time assistant, you could assign all the responsibilities of showing and negotiating the sale of your own home to the assistant. That may help you.

It is best to have some help with selling your own home because of the time it takes away from your other real estate business(which should take priority over your own personal sale), and emotional stress you have over your home.

Hope this helps.

Gebrielle, good question. The advantage to selling one's property is obvious and its done all the time. I can't think of a disadvantage.

I think the key to selling you own property is maintaining an emotional disconnect. One practice would be to no longer call it "home." It's just a property. Pull your comps, stay with your numbers, bounce any issued by your broker, negotiate in good faith and sell it!