FSBO or Realtor HELP!

[ray7694]

We live in the Midwest and our town isn't doing too bad with the real estate market. In the past I sold my homes through fsbo website that is very popular. I don't know if I should try it before listing it with a realtor or not.

How do you decide this? Realtor commission is crazy.

[sewarsh]

if you don't have any time restraints, than go for it. have an open house 2 or 3 times in a month, make flyers (we used a great site, but can't think of it!!) and put signs up in your neighborhood. worked for us (but that was 2 years ago), so hopefully yo'll have some luck too.

good luck!

[BabyMine]

I'd try it first.

[ourbabygirl]

No BTDT experience, as we used realtors for all our moves, but next time I think we'd like to try selling it ourselves, too. I would say to get on the MLS, though- that's key for other people having access to your home online. And professional-looking, well-made flyers can really make a difference, as can open houses (that's how we sold our last two so quickly)!

Good luck and let us know how it goes! ;)

[ray7694]

Does it hurt if its fsbo and then realtor for showings?

[codex57]

Does it hurt if its fsbo and then realtor for showings?

You mean hiring a realtor to show up for showings? You are REALLY blurring the lines. Have you found a realtor who will even do that without taking the listing?

[maylips]

One thing we did was offer realtors a 3% commission if their clients bought our house. We put it on the flyers so they'd have an incentive to tell their clients about it.

(BTW, we had our house FSBO for 3 months, then finally listed with someone, who sold it in a month. So it didn't work for us - we had 3 open houses where NO ONE showed up, and only maybe 2 calls the entire time, although we had to replace our flyers daily. I think people were afraid to instigate a call with the buyer and feel safer going through a realtor, if that makes sense.)

[khm]

If you've done FSBO before, and it is popular in your area, what are your reasons for questioning this time around?

We FSBO'd in a similar situation (midwest, strong FSBO market) and it went swimmingly.

If you have enough time, I'd certainly give it a go. If you later end up going with a realtor, I do not see the harm as for as how showings go. Some buyers will know you went from FSBO to realtor, but I don't see that as really mattering in the grand scheme. Some will not have seen your property, if they don't seek out FSBO. Some will start looking after you've hired a realtor and will not know you ever were FSBO.