2. The most common incurred problems that homeowners experience are attracting potential buyers, getting the home priced correctly, selling in the anticipated time, and understanding and performing the necessary paperwork.

3. Homeowners find it difficult to handle objections from buyers such as, "I want to think it over," "the price is too high," "we don't have enough cash for the down payment and closing costs," and "we've decided to rent for a while longer."

4. Making appointments to show the home are difficult for owners for a number of reasons. It takes time away from work on a frequent basis, it conflicts with their personal and social life, the inability to determine lookers from qualified prospects, and the safety factor from "unknown" prospects.

Are you available to show the property? One of the difficulties sellers have when trying to sell their own home is being available at all times. It poses problems in that it interrupts work, family, and social schedules.

When a buyer wants to look at a home, it must be available to them at that time. Most buyers are on a schedule which isn't flexible enough to look at the home when its convenient for the seller.

This concept is similar to having a store open for business. There may be times when there are no customers in the store. and at other times when several customers are in the store at one time.

Is safety a factor? It is a sad state of affairs that you must concern yourself with safety in your own home, but it is a reality.

There have been situations where criminals posed as potential buyers in order to "case" a home and find out what personal belongings would be worth stealing. By asking casual questions of the seller, they can find out when the seller will be gone and whether there is a security system.

More sinister criminals may actually assault sellers in the sanctity of their own home.

While a professional real estate agent is not totally exempt from such tactics, they are better prepared to handle them. Meeting a prospect at the real estate office where others can see the prospect will discourage them because they can be identified. Another common requirement some real estate agents make of prospects is to make a copy of their driver's license to keep on file.

Who really saves the commission, the seller or the buyer? If the seller does not use a real estate agent, they think they have saved the commission. But if the buyer doesn't use an agent, they also believe they have earned it. It's going to be hard for both the buyer and the seller to save the commission.

This means the buyer has to learn the process on their own; identify the neighborhoods, find the homes, negotiate and write the contract, secure the financing, arrange the inspections and coordinate the closing on their own.

The seller has just as many obstacles.

Attracting potential buyers. The real estate professional has a collective of promotional efforts to attract buyers. They include all of their different ads in the paper, all of the different For Sale signs, every open house they hold, past customers and clients, company contacts, agent contacts, institutional advertising, referral organizations, the Multiple Listing Service, and the Internet.

Homeowners without the benefit of a real estate professional are limited to placing a single ad in the paper, a single for sale sign, and the occasional open house.

Buyers will need help obtaining financing. It will be important to be able to advise buyers what different loan programs are available and where they can be found. A familiarity with the requirements and limitations of these different programs is necessary in order to help advise the buyers.

Having a financial software program or a financial calculator can make a variety of analyses that make decision making easy for buyers. The forms will show a person how much they qualify for, what the tax advantages and investment potential are, and provide a comparison of different loans.

Methods to purchase a home. Four out of five buyers, purchase their home through a professional real estate agent. In fact, less than one out of ten actually purchase directly from the owner.

Assuming your marketing exposure is as effective as the entire real estate community, your share of the market will only be 10% of the total.

Attracting potential buyers is the number one problem encountered by owners selling their own home.