As I drive down the street I see numerous homeowners attempting to sell their homes by owner. Several companies are now offering flat fee listings and marketing packages to assist FSBO. Sellers are attracted to the low fees and compare them to the fees of a Realtor. There are advantages to the “for sale by owner” companies but only if you have the expertise and time to perform literally hundreds of tasks to complete the real estate process. I believe the benefits of listing with a Realtor far outweigh the benefits of using a FSBO company.
FSBO Listing
Let us compare the upfront cost associated with both options. To sign a listing contract with a Realtor it will cost you nothing. The only way a Realtor earns a commission is if and when the home sells. When signing a contract with a FSBO company the seller must pay the company a predetermined fee which is not refunded regardless of whether your home is sold. Remember that this predetermined fee typically doesn’t last until the home is sold so you may need to pay fees several times depending on how long it takes your home to sell…
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The national For Sale By Owner website “FSBO Channels” is to be auctioned on eBay according to BlogSpotBrands who developed and launched this popular site for their client one year ago. On August 8, 2006, FSBO Channels launched a website offering Tampa Bay area sellers’ free internet advertising promoting the sale of their homes to internet savvy buyers.
The overwhelming popularity of the “free advertising” business model, matched with the growing number of sellers choosing “For Sale By Owner”, has propelled FSBO Channels to now offer its free service to home sellers nationwide. eBay was chosen to promote the auction of FSBO Channels because of its worldwide audience, and its appeal with domain name brokers and investors in the US and abroad.
“The domain name market is truly international in scope with many domain name investors and brokers coming from the UK, and other European countries”,
said Bert L. Bill, COO.
“The strength of the Euro and the weakness of the dollar have strengthened the interest from domain brokers and investors outside the USA”,
he added
Many are referring to domain names as being the real estate of the 21st. Century and they couldn’t be more accurate. The value of traditional real estate is said to be determined by three things, location, location, and location. The value of domain names is also location, location, and location in search engine results. No business can succeed on the internet without being one of the top search engine returns and FSBO Channels has achieved that much desired positioning bringing tremendous value to this premier internet busines…
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If you’ve decided to sell your home but don’t want to pay a real estate professional the money to facilitate the sale, you will most likely end up doing a FSBO. Selling your home as a For Sale By Owner involves a lot of work, and step one is to dive into the research phase. Your obvious first step is getting an idea of what your home value is. There are several ways to find your home value, many of which can be done for little or no cost.
You can visit many different online sites that will give you a home value based on old property records and comparable in your market. Though these sites can be WAY off the mark, it’s a good base point to start. You can also use a site that will give you a free home value report in exchange for giving your information to a local real estate agent. Although this means an agent would be contacting you, you can use them to your advantage and glean as much information from them about selling your home without actually committing to listing with the agent…
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Considering that many FSBO sellers eventually list their property with a Realtor, lets take a quick look at the reasons they picked the FSBO route in the first place and why they’re often converted to a Real Estate brokered listing in the long run.
Top reasons home owner’s choose the FSBO path
- Selling a house seems easy
- Keep a larger share of the proceeds
- Not willing to “give” money towards real estate commissions
- Belief that agents don’t add value
- Friend tells you how easy it is to sell on your own
- They have a unique property/unique location, which the seller believes will bring in the buyer
Top 6 tools the FSBO seller will use to expose their property
- Local advertising: Beach Reporter, Daily Breeze, LA Times
- Online advertising: Craigslist
- Open Houses
- 2.5% commission offered to Buyer’s Agents
- FSBO signs around the neighborhood
- Word of mouth
Full version
Each year many homeowners decide to maximize the profit on their home sales by selling it “For Sale By Owner”. At first glance, this is the most tempting option to most homeowners especially in the current real estate market with its rapid appreciation rate. Why pay substantial broker fees when they can pocket several thousand dollars themselves? While this attitude is completely understandable it doesn’t realistically reflect the services a professional realtor truly does offer.
Last year, according to the National Association of Realtors “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers”, 13 percent of all home sellers chose the For Sale By Owner route. More telling than these numbers, is the fact that one third of all FSBOs sold their homes to someone they knew prior to the transaction which means that the actual figure of For Sale By Owner transactions to strangers is realistically at eight percent. This is a significant downward trend from 18 percent eight years ago…
Even more telling was that only half of last year’s FSBOs, according to the article, plan to go it alone again. Why? Many FSBOs are not aware of the increasing complexities of the transaction process, especially in California, with more complex disclosures and legal requirements required than ever before. In addition, they were often unprepared for the required time to market and show their property, the competitiveness of the real estate industry, and awareness of the various fees required for outside consultants, inspectors, appraisers, title companies, escrow and loan officers…
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