Effective FSBOing

[FutureSDguy]

Jim Klinge in his Bubble Report (http://bubbleinfo.squarespace.com/journal/) hits it on the spot with this:

The do-it-yourselfers decide to FSBO, only to find out that in this market all you get is a lot of agents calling.

That was my experience too. It was aggrivating (three weeks later, I give up, list, and had it sold in 3 days.)

So how does one effectively market a FSBO? Or is it still the bastard child of the industry?

[Anonymous]

rla
FSBOs will never outperform the marketing machine of the combined resources (advertising, manpower etc) of the MLS. It is obvious that 1000 salespeople will more likely produce more potential buyers than one fsbo representing himself. They key to maximizing salesprice is exposure to more potential buyers. Much like an auction the more bidders you have competing the more likely the price will rise. Secondly, who is the typical fsbo shopper? Typically it is the sophisticated shopper looking for the best deal on price rather than selection. By that I mean if a buyer is wanting to look for the home that best fits their needs and or desires most (85%) will work with a broker to see as much inventory as possible before deciding which property best suits their needs. The supply of fsbos is not adequate to give a buyer enough choice. I studied my market area for 4 years and tracked the price per sq. ft. on all fsbos sold compared to those sold through our company. The average fsbo sold for 9% less than properties we marketed. The fsbo thought they were saving the commission but ended up paying 50-60% more because of the price discount. It is logical I believe that if you can have 20 potential buyers look at your home vs. only 2 the odds are that you will more likely receive a higher price with the higher number of potential buyers. Exposure is the key.

[4plexowner]

My experience with FSBOs is that the seller thinks he should pocket the money saved on realtors and the buyer thinks he should pocket the same savings – ie, there is an impasse between buyer and seller so the deal is less likely to close.

My realtor says that most times when she has been involved with FSBO sellers she ends up doing the paperwork which a seller’s agent usually does.

As a seller I would never do a FSBO because of the liability involved. It helps me sleep at night knowing that my agent shares my liability as a seller and is therefore motivated to protect me from doing something stupid / illegal / questionable.

Bottom line for me: it isn’t worth the liability to sell as a FSBO.

[powayseller]

I saved $12,000 in commission by listing with Pam McCormick at the Poway Help-U-Sell office. Realtor Adam Rappoport (aka SD Realtor) charges 1% too.

I think most people here don’t have a problem with realtors, but are opposed to the high fees. Realtor fees are high because there is a glut of them, so they have to spend way too much time competing for the few clients out there. They expect the 1 or 2 clients they do get, to pay for the time they spend chasing after clients that get away, LOL.

Realtors should charge an hourly rate or by the service, and that would put an end to people taking advantage of realtors with all kinds of free questions and driving around for months looking at hundreds of houses just to end up buying a house from a different agent. People who take advantage of the free time of realtors raise the price for everybody else, but the system permits it. You can string a realtor along for an entire year, going to Open Houses, being driven around to look at homes, and then decide to not buy or to buy from another agent. That realtor put 10-50 hours into servicing you, and gets nothing from you, but he’s going to stick it to Joe Six-pack for a 5% listing fee. Realtor fees can come down if Jane Six-pack stops stringing along the realtors, dumping her realtor after all the work he’s done for her, and about 2/3 of the realtors get out of the business and do something more productive. Heck, why do we need 1 realtor for every 75 people anyway?

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