Having the owner on site and unsupervised is good stuff. I make the seller sign an agency disclosure form and explain that I represent the buyer. Thats all the form says, sign it, I show it. Don't ask me questions, call your agent.

Sometimes the seller does it even WHEN supervised. lol

Great points, Vermont. Although there is a plethora of reasons why buyers/sellers NEED a real estate professional on their side, there are are an equal number of reasons why an intelligent person could consider going the FSBO route.

I only leave fliers outside the home on almost all my listings. Inside, though, I only put them in a few.

In OK, the only time we see call the seller to set an appointment is when it is an entry only or limited service listing. BTW they usually drive me crazy.

The FSBO is rarely going to have the luxury of being available all the time to show the home. He certainly can't put a combo lockbox on the door and tell perfect strangers the code. When I use combo codes, the agent has to call me for it, and, I try my best to look up their information (hemming and hawing on the phone to stall) to check for verification (we who are local pretty much know each other in some way or another). The electronic lockboxes: a) you HAVE to have an electronic key, and b) it emails me within 5 seconds with the agent's information. I like that b/c then I immediately contact my client on his phone that an agent's showing his house. A full-fledged FSBO can't give that service. By the way, I received such an email yesterday and it turns out a different agent showed the house - rules have it we cannot "share" electronic keys - should I turn 'em in to the MLS authorities?

I know some newbies don't "screen" their buyer-clients for personal information nor ask for a simple pre-qual letter. They're so hungry for a client, they don't want to insult anyone by asking for personal information. At least being pre-screened provides a valuable service - another thing an FSBO can't do. Sure, that buyer will walk up to their door and provide them with a pre-qual letter to gain access (and some you can get online), but, that owner doesn't know the buyer's real intent; which is why open houses usually aren't successful. I enjoy doing opens but one has no idea if they are qualified to buy the house or not (at least we're possibly getting potential buyers for some house that's out there). Alot aren't going to really know the difference between pre-qual or pre-approval.

The idea of lockboxes for ease of entry is to help get the home shown fast and sold fast.

I haven't had to deal with limited service yet (might as well be FSBO).

A relative number of agents here use a showing service which is annoying and silly in some ways. They ask what time you'd like to show. If the property is vacant, they give you a timeframe which is dumb b/c I just go on my own schedule (which is NOW, not an hour from now). If the owner isn't available, they've got to leave a message for the owner and then call me back that the owner's not available; when they hear from them, they'll call me back. What's the difference with me calling the owner, and, possibly leaving a message? At least then I can negotiate a timeframe without a go-between getting in the way- back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

As far as the seller "giving away" his secrets, why selling, how low he'll go...there are smart people and there are dumb people. Regardless of the fact that he's starting to babble to you, you could remind him that you are not his agent...babbling again...remind him again, "If there's something you'd like for me and the buyer to know, could you please relay it through your agent because I am not your agent?" Some sellers are hard to control with their mouths, but, you could do you're darndest to stop the babbling so you look good in front of the r.e.board when you're telling your side of the story Why? Because you KNOW he's represented by an agent and you're taking unfair advantage of the babbling moron.

I care too damned much - that's MY problem.

"Vermont", did you do FSBO before or after obtaining a r.e. license? I've one or two civilians who have done it. Even my neighbor a few doors down just put up his FSBO sign. I wish him all the luck in the world (wouldn't doubt he's underwater with his mortgage), but right now it's hard enough to find a buyer via r.e. agents and this guy's going to take it upon himself? Who has more connections in all the world to obtain a buyer for his home - real estate agents!

If FSBO caught on so much that we were to become extinct, I think you'd see alot of laws change and I bet one would be that all r.e. transactions MUST go through a lawyer. Our governments (Fed.&State) are too busy trying to protect us from ourselves and others all the time (the reason for more taxes too) to not let at least someone profit from the stupidity of self-representation. Not that all FSBO'ers are stupid, but the majority probably don't realize or understand the can of worms they may be opening when they sell their property. "Maui real estate" herself said it, "there are an equal number of reasons why an intelligent person could consider going the FSBO route." The key word here is "intelligent". Think about it - when you talk with buyers and sellers, especially virgin ones - how much real estate intelligence do you see in them?

Sorry it's so long - it's Friday evening and I don't have to sit here and refresh my danged screen every 30 seconds until Monday morning!

When I was in graduate school in Massachusetts, I bought a little bungalow through an Agent. (It was cheaper than renting). Three years later I sold it myself to another Student from Wisconsin (like me).

I bought my 2nd Mass house through an Agent, and then listed it 12 years later as an "Open" with all Agencies in the Town I lived in . . . . but I still sold it myself.

I bought my 1st Vermont House privately (as a vacation home); and came up here for over 10 years until we decided to vacation full-time, and then I bought this Farm through an Agent . . . . but a couple years later I sold the vacation property myself as FSBO. I used blank Mass Forms to buy and sell Vermont Real Estate . . . . what did I know ? The guy I bought from didn't have a clue, so I did all the paperwork; so too when I sold my Vermont vacation home to an MIT Professor . . . . he didn't have a clue either. They trusted me.

I only got a License after all of that activity when the Market Crash on Wall Street in October of 1987 left my hopes of a peaceful retirement in a shambles, and brought a quick and cruel halt to that year-round vacation idea.

So being a FSBO is good training. Buying a home is good training. Selling a home is good training. Buying/Building a home in a development and then failing to close on the current home in time to purchase the new home whose construction you've watched carefully for months on then lost your deposit/down payment . . . . now that's really good training! (Only happened once).

I really don't know how anyone can get a feel for this business, and what Buyers and Sellers go through: the emotional highs and lows; the heartbreaks; the false starts; the misplaced confidence; without ever having gotten involved in their own transactions first . . . . but they do!

I wouldn't have ever had the confidence to get a License and enter this business if I hadn't watched others try to put my own deals together and often fail. I respected Agents from the beginning . . . . but there were some transactions where I was able to pull it off without them, winging it. Lucky I guess.

Thanks for asking. I hadn't thought about it for quite a while. Some FSBOs know what they're doing, and some don't. Most are OJT, just trying to save a buck.

I was a FSBO once too, selling my family's property after my parents died. And I was like every other FSBO....I had it "listed" for $697,000. I was shocked we had NO OFFERS!!!!!!!!!!

When we got the appraisal, I was appalled...it came in at $375,000.

LOL.

I still think the appraiser was in cahoots with someone, because amazingly enough, right after I got the hard copy of the appraisal in my hands, someone (a real estate agent) called from my FSBO sign and offered us...$375,000.

Now, isn't THAT a coinky-dink.

And then...a year or so later I found out that the new owner subdivided my property off into about 3 or 4 sections...and sold each section for well over $200,000 each.

Hmmmmmmm.

Funny thing, real estate. I do believe I was overpriced, and I do believe that I could not have gotten the price that the new owner got for various reasons....but still. I will go to my grave swearing my property was worth a little more than we sold it for. That's a FSBO for ya.

BTW...I wish had the option of NOT selling...at ANY price.

Heavens - talk about sadness in real estate. Another tale...

Many years ago, a person I knew had a VERY large home (he had like 11 kids). It was on top of a hill on tons of acreage - it overlooked a major highway. The house had a middle wing and two side wings - this thing was HUGE, old transom windows in the doorways, made of solid stone - GORGEOUS HUGE home. I only saw the kitchen, dining room and bathroom. The dining room - seriously, had to be 40 feet long with a stone fireplace - exterior French doors - oh! Well...Some swindlers came along and wrote up a contract for him (no agent representation). They gave him like 25% of what it was worth with the pledge that when they develop it into townhouses or something that he'd get a share of each. They NEVER developed into such - I think it's a Country Club or something now. I felt so bad for the guy, but how foolish to not have representation of some type.