Comments on: Should you do For Sale by Owner (FSBO)?

By: Erik

Erik — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:00:49 +0000

I’ve tried FSBO and recommend it to everybody you should just do a little search to know the trend of the market.

By: ARDELL

ARDELL — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:21:53 +0000

I absolutely agree Craig. Though I don’t think attorneys go to home inspections Twice last year I all but begged a consumer to get an attorney involved and even offered to pay the attorney myself. They were more afraid of attorneys than they were of me. Their concern being that the attorney would over complicate things.

One I had to put with an attorney near the end. It was an estate sale and one of the heirs was cutting out the rest and also not necessarily competent from a mental standpoint. She was homeless and owned a burned out house left to her and her brothers years ago. Problem was one of the brothers was dead and had many children with many women.

She was very angry when I got an estate attorney involved, but I try to sleep at night knowing that this homeless woman, who was roaming the streets, walked off at the end with her fair share of $250,000.

By: craig

craig — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:29:37 +0000

I am an attorney who started my own practice in July of that year, focusing in part on FSBO transactions. Since then, I’ve helped several people sell their homes FSBO. All of my clients have been able to sell their homes within a few weeks without the assistance of an agent. Most of the potential pitfalls associated with FSBO, such as those mentioned by Ardell, can be addressed by retaining an attorney to assist with the transaction — and the attorney will cost a lot less than an agent.

By: Honolulu Realtor

Honolulu Realtor — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 19:20:17 +0000

On this Blog I have posted an article against the use of discount brokers. I think it has some relevance to this issue of FSBOs.

By: Galen

Galen — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 02:52:04 +0000

I know a couple of folks who sat with their home on the FSBO market for years in the late 80s. They still live there. I assume that times have changed.

By: Fran Bailey

Fran Bailey — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 23:22:46 +0000

I have the same story. I sold my home FSBO before I became a REALTOR. I agree, it takes time, patience, and real estate transaction experience. See my full response posting at http://www.chicagometroarearealestate.com/?p=23

By: ARDELL

ARDELL — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 21:16:53 +0000

I know a lovely “old” gent, professer at Udub, and his wife, who for sale by owner their investment properties. I sold one of them (I had a buyer client) and I did an unusual thing.

He, the seller, represented himself during the negotiations. I represented the buyer. When we had “a meeting of the minds” as to price and terms, which were quite different in this case, I became a Dual Agent for the Escrow phase only. I discussed why I needed to do that, with both the buyer and the seller, and they agreed it was best for all.

So the buyer did pay the buyer agent fee and a slight flat fee for representing him during escrow. I think we added a portion of that to the sale price and that was agreed to by all parties. This was a four-plex in Ballard.

So For Sale By Owners can indeed be successful. But if there is no agent, the buyer is often whipped around by an aggressive seller, if the buyer doesn’t have their own representation in the negotiations. Or conversely, the seller has no control over knowing if the buyer can actually get a loan, other than that piece of paper most think means something.

Ardell