Homes For Sell By Owner – FSBOs and Buyer Brokers

You’re selling your home as a FSBO (for sale by owner) and you get annoyed
when real estate brokers call you, right? That’s a reasonable response when
you’re doing all the work to market your property to save thousands of dollars
in broker commissions. However, when a “buyer broker” calls, you might want
to listen.

Why Listen

To understand why I say that, we need to understand the functions of
“listing brokers” and “buyer brokers.” Real estate brokers can and do
serve both functions, though some specialize.

Some brokers who call you are interested in listing your home. They want to
market your home for you. The amount of commission charged for this service
varies, but where I live, most brokers list homes for a commission of 6 percent
of the sales price. When the home sells, if another brokerage firm has brought
the buyer to the deal, the listing broker pays the selling broker half or 3
percent.

When you’re successfully operating as a FSBO, you’re getting folks to
come and look at your house, or condo, or whatever, and you don’t need a
listing agent. However, what if you’ve been doing this for a while and none of
the lookers has been converted to a buyer? What then?

Well, if a broker calls you and says he or she is working with buyers and
they’d like to be able to show your home, maybe you should consider it. They
probably only expect about half the typical listing commission. That still
allows you to save serious money. Perhaps you can even negotiate down a bit from
half. This is especially true if your home is appropriately priced above the
average price for a home in your area. In my area where 3 percent to a selling
broker is frequently acceptable, I’ve seen brokers accept 2.5 or even 2
percent. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

As a bonus in that situation, you get someone who is knowledgeable about the
process with an interest in getting the deal to settlement. True, they don’t
represent you. They represent the buyer, but the buyer wants your home and the
broker wants a payday. In short, the buyer broker has incentive to put an oar in
when problems arise.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not for one second suggesting that you pay
more than is necessary to sell your home. At first, take names and phone numbers
of “buyer brokers” who call you. Then, if you find you need to, call back
the ones who impressed you.

There is a middle ground between going it alone and listing with a broker. If
you find you need to, this middle ground can be worth exploring through buyer
brokers.

Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org
- providing FSBO homes for sale by owner. Visit our "sell my home"
page at http://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm
to list and sell your home for free for one month. Visit http://www.fsboamerica.org/buyer.cfm
to see homes for sale by owner.