The FSBO Test
June 29th, 2006 by Grant in: Real Estate
About two months ago some friends three doors up put their house on the market. They had plans to build a new home, so they weren’t in too much of a hurry to sell their house. In fact, it would but them in quite a predicament if they did sell their house in record time…
In steps Mr. Murphy.
In no less than 7 days they had an offer on their house that they couldn’t refuse, and off they went trying to find an apartment for the next 6 months.
I thought they were asking a bit much for the house, but since they weren’t in a big hurry, they could afford to start high. Evidently their realtor has some great marketing skills, and she made some fast cash on the deal.
So my friends move into their tiny apartment, and no less than two weeks after they move, our friends two doors up put their house on the market: The FSBO market.
They’ve got their house listed at ForSaleByOwner.com, and again, I think they’ve got it priced in the upper range of the neighborhood, but they’re in the same position my first set of friends were in. They don’t need to move, they don’t have anywhere to move to, they’d just like to move sometime in the future.
It’s been well over two weeks since they put their FSBO sign in the yard, and I haven’t seen anyone come by for a look.
This is the ultimate test. A battle of the internet advertising vs. the local realtor.
Currently FSBO is losing by several lengths…
I’ll keep you posted…
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July 18th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Thats not exactly one should sell a house FSBO.
I sold 2 homes FSBO with great success. I paid an agent $300 to list the home in the local MLS listing. I provided all the pictures and verbage so the agent made $300 for 15mins worth of work.
I repainted and changed the flooring. I also gave the buyers agent 0.5% more than what they usually get. I also offered to pay the buyers closing costs if they didn’t use an agent.
had full-price offers on both in 7 days.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
I agree emptyspaces, people still have to work and put some effort in to selling their homes themselves.
These online FSBO sites are nice and all, but there are so many of them and all they want is your money. They allow you to post pictures, descriptions, etc, but they don’t make any effort to get the word out.
I like your idea of paying an individual realtor to post your MLS listing…
-Grant
July 19th, 2006 at 10:03 am
As an update, my neighbors FSBO is still on the market… 20 days and counting.
I will say this though, I don\’t think they are making much of an effort to market their house other than putting a sign in the yard and dropping flyers in an advertising tube.
Remember, though, they don\’t have to move, so they\’re in no hurry.
August 11th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
[…] Well, it’s been over a month since the FSBO test started, and very little has changed, other than the fact that the realtor has the competition all wrapped up in this little experiment. […]
September 6th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
[…] My friends’ house is still on the FSBO market, over two months since the FSBO test started. […]