Give FSBOs something to think about

Agents successful at grabbing listings from FSBOs will tell you of one great advantage prospecting this group: you know you are dealing with a person who wants to sell his home. The fact that the homeowner has decided he doesn’t need the services of a real estate agent … well, that makes the job a little harder.

A combination of persistence and patience provides a foundation for acquiring these listings. Here is some information you may want to pass on to FSBOs to try to win them over:

• Nationally, the final selling price for FSBOs was $137,400 compared to $175,000 for agent-assisted sales, a difference of 27% (according to NAR’s 2002 Profile of Buyers and Sellers).
• After selling their homes themselves, only 17% of Texas FSBOs say they will sell their next home on their own. Four in 10 say they will use a real estate agent, while 44% are unsure (according to the Texas section of NAR’s 2002 Profile of Buyers and Sellers).
• Though a primary reason many FSBOs decide to sell their home without assistance is to save the agent’s commission, many buyers will try to negotiate that savings out of the selling price.
• Agents qualify buyers before showing them homes. This weeds out people who are simply curious or nosy as well as those who can’t afford the house.
• Showing the home only to qualified buyers accompanied by an agent is safer than the homeowner letting everyone in who claims to be an interested buyer.
• Agents typically market the home to a much larger audience than FSBOs through the MLS, Web sites, newsletters, and other channels.
• Being available to show the home to all prospective buyers can require a FSBO to be home when he would rather be at work, on vacation, exercising, visiting friends, at a restaurant, or any number of other activities away from the home.

Photo © Thinkstock.

Buyers & sellers, visit www.texasrealestate.com.
REALTORS®, visit www.texasrealtors.com.