For Sale By Owner com Founder used an agent

Today I learned something no so surprising. CEO of ForSalebyOwner.com, Colby Sambrotto sold his home using a Realtor! said the article title.

He’d used his FSBO site for 6 months, then listed the property and sold it in weeks, …. for thousands more than he’d been asking no less. Why is this NOT surprising to me ? I’ve been in the business 30 yrs as a 2nd generation multi-state broker and even I know the value of NOT representing property yourself – yes, I too have listed more than 1 property with other offices. Why ? I practice what I preach, thats why.

Face to face buyer/seller I see many opportunities for immediate loss of strategy.

The buyers may think:

Well, you’re not paying an agent so I’d like to save that cost ( you get nothing extra for all your work ).
They ask a question, seller answers, they move in and have a problem and say ” well you said such and such and now I have this problem. ( extra pain, no financial gain )
Or buyer is old, seller is young – buyer thinks, we’ll offer much less since we should be better off due to our age.
Or seller is old, buyer is young – buyer thinks, we’re young and craftier then seller, we’ll make sure we get the better deal.
Or seller is _____ and buyer is ______, the list goes on what personality and etc things can get in the way.
Forget the possibility for sellers violating disclosure requirements, HUD Fair Housing parameters.

So what about me a buyer going it alone and buying from a FSBO ? Been there done that didn’t go well. Did it once and never again. If an agent isn’t there to talk sense into a seller on my behalf re: price/ repairs/ etc etc, it always ends up a waste of my time. Unrealistic sellers that don’t have a plan of attack may even say YES to my fair price, but then I have to do all the work from then on with little to no help or cooperation from them. So I have to earn my discount running things about, setting up appraisals, closings, inspections, and no lockbox makes for a really (not) fun time getting back in the property after acceptance of offer.

I’m not surprised the FSBO chief used and agent, after all, I – a broker – prefer not to rep my own properties !