We discussed in the previous post about the time it takes to be your own realtor, but what about the added stress for being responsible for every aspect of transaction. I think of this question much like “Do you need to hire an attorney?” No. You can represent yourself in court. It just might be a little bit stressful when it’s not your profession and the final outcome is dependent on your skill level to represent yourself.

The second part of this two-fer is the cooperation aspect. Let’s be clear that professionals should do their job that they are hired to do no matter what. However, the other party, the title company, the lender–it’s not any of their jobs to teach you how to represent yourself in a real estate transaction. This may sound harsh, but you may find resistance in cooperation when you are taking up other people’s time asking questions that an agent would typically already know or have handled for you.

So, my final answer is no, you don’t need to hire an agent but should you.