FSBO Sellers Beware

When selling your home for sale by owner or otherwise referred to as a FSBO, you will be inundated with calls from real estate agents. When they call they will be polite and tell you what you want to hear but the bottom line is, they want to list your house so they can make a commission. Beware of the 2 biggest come ons for listings, either I have a buyer and let's do a 2 day listing or real estate agents will run advertisements claiming they have buyers in your area. Let's explore these 2 devious ploys in more detail.

Usually it goes like this. You will get a call from a real estate agent asking if you are cooperating with realtors, meaning if they have a buyer you will pay some sort of a commission, usually around 3%. At this stage if you say "yes", often times they will claim to have a mystical, mysterious buyer for your home. As a FSBO this seems promising at first but in most cases it is not. They will talk at length without being too specific about the buyer but before they will show your home they will want to secure a 2 day to 7 day listing to protect their commission. When you invite them over they will size you up and see if your are willing to do at least a 2 day listing on paper which will only be valid if their purchaser does a deal with you. The whole idea of this exercise is for them to build rapport with you and get you to sign something. The really sneaky part is that in most cases this purchaser does not exist. Real estate brokers may say they have someone from out of town or even bring over their brother over in law in disguise. So, after the 2 day listing expires you will get the, "sorry Mr. FSBO I tried everything I could but I could not get my purchaser to commit." Then, "while we have come this far I really think that if we change the 2 day listing to a full 90 MLS we could get you more money, faster than you could do it yourself selling privately. The market is so hot right now I'm sure I could sell it very soon. You must be tired of holding open houses and paying for advertising?" Real estate agents claim to have your best interests at heart?

The second biggest come on is when realtors advertise, "we have cash buyers in your area"! Again this seems ideal to a for sale by owner, to bad in most instances the buyer does not exist. Just call the broker and ask them to bring these purchasers by and if they like it we can do a deal. They won't, not until they have visited you first and secured a short listing on paper. Then as above you will probably never see this mysterious purchaser. It's all just a ploy to list your home.

Novice and expert real estate agents both use these tactics. The new ones are not a threat as their skin is so thin you can say "boo" and watch them run away. It is the "expert" real estate agent that makes his living through FSBO'S is the one to watch out for. He has been through this hundreds of times and knows every angle. He knows what you are going to say and do in each situation. I knew a guy once that made a lot of money and all he did was call on FSBO's. He would list 3 or 4 of them a week. After he listed them he was not very concerned about marketing the property because he knew that once on the MLS system another agent would bring a buyer buy sooner or later.

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