Love Thy FSBO
Many years ago, before I got into real estate, my wife and I decided to sell our first home without a Realtor. We had put a great deal of work into our property, rehabbing nearly every aspect of our house and finished off the basement. Unfortunately for us, the real estate market was pretty soft at the time. To makes things worse, the market value was also about what we owed on the home. Not really a great scenario for somebody looking to sell and certainly not much room for commission. Despite this, we had a job transfer and needed to move. So I took on the task of selling our home myself.
I decided I would list it for sale by owner (FSBO), but also offer 3% to a buyer’s agent if they brought a buyer. As it turned out I was rather disappointed by some of my interactions I had with agents.
The internet was still fairly young at this time and Google had not yet become the predominant force that it is today. Through another search engine I managed to sleuth down a list of all Realtors in the area. The list had all their contact information, including their emails. To me, this was a marketing jackpot (and actually still an integral part of how I do business today-online marketing.) My idea was to create a webpage for my home with all pertinent information and photos, then send a friendly email to the real estate agents with that link. Inside that email I offered commission to those who brought a qualified buyer.
As you may imagine it was a painstakingly slow process. I didn't have an email scraper program or access to software that could email everybody at once. I sent emails one at a time. It didn't take much to realize that exposure was one of the hardest things to come by as a FSBO and I needed something innovative to have buyer agents see my home. Short of placing my home on the MLS, I felt this was it.
Responses were mixed. Some were very supportive and loved my idea, promising to bring buyers over whose profiles matched our home. Others though, were extremely rude to me. I had a few replies that really stuck in my head after all these years.
The first claimed I had violated the “Spam law” and demanded I send him 25 dollars at once, or he would "report" me. (yea really)
The second told me how ignorant I was (all FSBOs she said) and that she would never consider working with somebody who wasn't represented by a Realtor. She concluded by telling me she was a (get this) “Profesional agenet.” Apparently, one who was unaware of how to use spell check. My wife and I still laugh about this one to this day.
Finally the third told me that 3% wasn't enough and they would only consider bringing a buyer by for 4.5%.
Looking at this from an entrepreneur’s point of view, I was dumb-founded. Here I was, a home owner, offering them thousands of dollars if they brought me a buyer. Their responses were to extort me, demand even more money, or tell me how stupid I was. Not a great way to build a brand, that’s for sure.
I did take a quick moment to email them back (along with their broker) to point out that the majority of FSBOs end up listing with a Realtor after trying on their own. I had read all the pitfalls of selling myself and understood the risk. I also made it clear that if and when I did use a Realtor, I would never use their brokerage. Ever.
It’s funny how life experiences will shape the way you look at things later. I could never imagine being that obnoxious, just in general, it’s not who I am. However I appreciate what FSBOs are trying to do and I know it’s an uphill battle, especially if you are not on the Greater Las Vegas MLS. I talk to these people every day and they have a variety of reasons why they are trying to sell themselves. Many I take on as listings later, and some I do not. Ultimately though, I respect what they are trying to do and simply offer my help along the way, regardless if the list with me or not.
So did I end up selling my home? Actually I did not. Like many of those who try and sell their home on their own, my price was off. I actually was aware of this, but didn't have any room to move at all, especially in a weak market. I ended up keeping the home as a rental and sold it years later when the estate market turned.