Sheri’s Blog

Remember that Williamsburg house my husband and I bought which I discussed in my last BLOG? When it came time to sell (before I became a Realtor working the Huntsville/Madison Alabama area), my husband and I had tried selling “by owner.” In order to save Realtor fees, I embarked on a campaign to learn everything I could about having a successful home sale. “Have a marketing plan,” “Make sure you price your home right,” books recommended. My exhaustive marketing campaign included newspaper ads, emails, hanging flyers, and Open Houses. We even welcomed agents, hoping they would bring qualified buyers. In the end we were unsuccessful, but not for lack of trying. We did receive one offer. Ironically, their Realtor talked them out of it! What I took away from my experience were the difficulties that FSBO’s face.

What I Learned: 6 Reasons Why FSBOs are Often Overlooked

1. 8 out of 10 buyers use agents. That means that only 20% of buyers will consider previewing your home.
2. Since sellers pay Realtor fees, buyers have little incentive to purchase an FSBO home.
3. Buyers rely heavily on an agent’s expertise to help familiarize them with different neighborhoods, provide them with recent sales history, and negotiate a good deal.
4. Buyers feel uncomfortable looking through a home with the owner hovering close by. Buyers need the opportunity to scrutinize the home, weigh pros and cons, freely wonder about and explore (remember this is probably the single largest investment that they will ever make). They need space to see if the house feels right — and having the homeowner present feels awkward.
5. Lack of Internet exposure — most FSBO’s do not advertise on the Internet. Without internet exposure, your house is invisible to many buyers.
6. There is no central data base, like the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for FSBO’s to seek out other FSBO listings.

The Power of the MLS

The FSBO is extremely limited in their advertising, no matter how extensive their advertising campaign. Their intention is to sell their home, and only their home. The FSBO will generate somewhere between 5-10 calls the first week or two. After that, calls will slow to a trickle, as those purchasers that have already seen the ad, move on.

Realtors, on the other hands, use the MLS to sell not only their listings, but others as well. Think about it, if a purchaser is not interested in the agent’s personal listing, the agent has the ability to take them to other similarly priced homes listed in the MLS. It’s a wonderful system, as we all work together to sell each others listings!

We also all benefit from each others advertising efforts. Imagine that you have hundreds of agents using all different forms of advertising to showcase their listings. Each agent will pick up several buyers in a particular price range. Selling a house is a numbers game. The more showings you have, the more likely the sale. So the chances of your house selling when listed in the MLS increase exponentially!