FSBO Mythbusters

MYTH: Agents Sell Homes Faster Than FSBO Sellers

Not true! The 2009 Profile of Buyers and Sellers has been published by the National Association of REALTORS.^® Their own data busts another myth in the real estate market: FSBO homes take longer to sell than do homes sold by realtors. Here are the facts. First, Among homes sold by real estate agents, the median time to sell a home was 6 weeks in 2006 and 12 weeks to sell in 2009.** Second, among FSBO home sales (among homeowners that did not know their buyer before the sale) the median time to sell their own home was 4 weeks in 2006 and only 6 weeks in 2009! That's twice as fast as an agent sale!

MYTH: An Agent Will Get a Better Price for Your Home

FSBO sellers commonly price their home above where most agents would price it. And by agents' own statistics "In nearly half of FSBO sales…the home was sold at the asking price." Furthermore "…agent-assisted sellers sold their home for a median of 96% of their asking price compared with 97% of the asking price received by FSBO sellers who did not know their buyers." * FSBO sellers often price homes above where most agents would price them, and still get the asking price more often!

MYTH: Agents Are Reasonably Paid for the Value They Deliver

OK. So we've already exploded the myths about agents. On average, you won't get a better price with an agent, and you won't sell your home faster. And how is the agent compensated for this? Take a home that sells for $250,000. Assume the agents (seller's agent and buyer's agent) spend 40 hours (combined) selling this home. At 6% commission, the commission would be $15,000. That's equivalent to paying $375 per hour!

MYTH: It Pays to Have an Agent Negotiate the Details

Can't afford to offer incentives or think that buyers will expect or try to negotiate for incentives? "FSBO sellers who know the buyer of their home were least likely to offer incentives (21%)." *

MYTH: FSBO Sellers Rush Into Bad Deals

People often think that FSBO sellers are "desperate" or must sell in a hurry. But this is not the case. In fact, "for sale by owner sellers were more likely to indicate that there was little urgency in the sale of their home (39%), particularly in those cases where the seller did not know the buyer (42%) compared with agent-assisted sellers (32%)." *