FSBO (For Sale By Owner )Woes: Why Its So Hard to Sell Your Own Home
For some people selling their house can be as simple as putting the for sale sign in the driveway. These people are rare and are usually experienced real estate players or people who are just transferring their home to a different owner, such as a child or relative.
Most people choose not to sell their home by themselves and instead turn to a real estate agent. There are very good reasons for sellers to do this.
Difficulty Listing Your Home
FSBO's(For Sale By Owner) sellers find it hard to list their property and generate responses. This is because they cannot list the house in the MLS (multiple listing service) or any home search engines. Only licensed real estate agents can list in these. As a result there is not much response generated in the house.
People who are looking to buy a house hire buyer agents to help them and if the seller is a FSBO then these buyer agents do not typically show their clients around the home. This is mostly because the seller has no listing agreement and so the buyer agent may not be entitled to a commission. This again limits the pool of potential buyers.
Overpriced
Another problem with FSBO homes is that they are almost always over priced, as the seller has no concept of market value. Due to this oversight interest in the property may not be great.
FSBO sellers may also experience problems when showing possible buyers around, as normally people feel intimidated when being shown round by the owner. Also problems may arise after the sale if the FSBO seller has overlooked some legal technicality that may lead the seller open to a costly after transaction lawsuit.
