I just wrote an offer for my buyers on a townhouse that was For Sale By Owner (FSBO). The deal didn't come together because the sellers significantly overpriced the house (duh, no surprise there!) They came up with a price based on the amount of money they owed on the house and how much profit they needed, when they should have based it on the current market and recent comparable closed sales. They might learn eventually...but only after wasting everyone's months of time, money & effort.
I dread FSBO's because
I dread FSBO's because
- The sellers don't really know what they are doing. They read Selling Your Home for Dummies once and think they are experts....when in reality they are just winging it. So what ends up happening is the buyer's agents has to do double duty to hold the deal together. They gotta do twice the work for 1/2 the pay!
- FSBO's are notorious for slashing commissions. They don't realize if they don't compensate agents what they are worth, guess what, those agents are not going to show their property! Inventory of buyers plummets. The listing gets "blackballed"
- Selling a house is a full time job. FSBO sellers have their own jobs 40-60 hours a week. That is 40-60 hours they can not sufficiently service all the paperwork, inquiries, showings, open houses, disclosures, etc required to sell a property.
