For Sale by Owner - Thoughts?

[Jeffrey Auckland]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to make this post because my parents are planning on selling their home in Snohomish and are moving to Idaho. They are planning on selling the house by themselves but I think they should hire an agent because they are very out of tune with market and the whole process in general. My ultimate question here is: what are the reasons I should use to convince them to hire an agent? or maybe not...

A little background on the property:

The house is located in the community of Machias, between Snohomish and Lake Stevens. My farther built the house in 88', located on 2.5 acres and boarders an elementary school. Its a 3 bed 2.5 bath and there is 3 car garage outbuilding (not permitted). The house is structurally very sound, just outdated in some parts. My parents have no clue what buyers are looking for and have already painted portions of the house horrendous colors. Ultimately a buyer would probably put another 10-15k+ into it. Whoever the buyer is, they would be buying the house because of the property/land. 

As we all know, the market is very hot and people are migrating to the suburbs. Does this make is easier to sell by owner when the market is a sellers market? And if they were to sell it by themselves, is there a good strategy when pricing?