The futile way of selling FSBO

The very reason we exist is a result of For Sale By Owners (FSBO). It was early 1984 when our founder walked away from buying a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) after he realized the legal cost involved and time away from work necessary to meet with a lawyer during business hours. He wondered how many other buyers walk away from buying a FSBO if Realtor assisted homes are easier to get. A little research at the central library consisted of calling 100 FSBOs from the newspaper ads of 3-5 months before, showed that very few sellers were successful (at that time only 12% of FSBOs were able to sell without any Realtor help - most recent national survey shows that only 9% are successful). Either way these numbers are dismally low. It was then that he realized that there has to be a better way for real estate to be sold and our Concept was born as the "missing link" for FSBOs to achieve the Realtor advantages without the hefty commissions.

This year alone we have tracked FSBOs in Wauwatosa (one of the healthiest in sales in the metro area). So far only one home out of 14 has sold this way. All others have turned to Realtors and 2 w/Homeowners Concept - one of which has sold, the other is pending.

Ordinarily, FSBO is the cheapest way to sell most of the time BUT that is only if you sell (although there have been cases where FSBOs have spent far more than our fee, mainly on attorney costs). Factoring in the extremely low probability of selling as a FSBO the cost of selling is substantially higher. It is the time one loses trying as a FSBO (usually 8-9 weeks) that damages the home's chance of getting sold at its highest price plus the money a FSBO spends on marketing. It is the buyers' reluctance to enter negotiations with the seller directly and spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars in legal fees plus maneuver through the transaction on their own that dooms the FSBOs. One of the fallacies sellers have is that a buyer will use "their" lawyer to do the buyer contract, counters, amendments, etc. That is extremely rare and besides, attorneys list their homes with Realtors at the same rate as any other profession (they know better). Over the years we have had hundreds of sellers who were trying completely on their own, then turn to our company and within a number of days to a few weeks got an accepted offer as a result of having someone the buyers could turn to.

Every year, $100s of millions of dollars are wasted by sellers trying to sell as a FSBO before they turn their home over to a Realtor to eventually sell it. If sellers knew all the facts, they would never resort to sell a property as a FSBO not as long as companies like ours are around.