Convincing FSBOs They Need You

March 20, 2009

The Internet’s amazing power has persuaded many home owners they can sell their home as well as any real estate professional.  Therefore, you aren’t worth your commission.  So for FSBOs you must prove your value to them, thereby justifying your commission in their eyes.  Here are a few ways of doing that:

FSBOs Limit Their Home’s Exposure

People selling their own home get far less exposure than if they listed with a real estate professional.   A FSBO typically generates one tenth the prospects a strong real estate professional can generate.  This means their home will take much longer to sell than if they listed with you.  This is an especially important point for FSBOs who have a limited time frame to sell their home in.  Quantify for them out how much exposure having their home listed on MLS gives them to both the public and thousands of other real estate professionals.

FSBOs Get Lower Prices

The longer a home is on the market, the less it typically sells for.  Why?  Most buyers believe there must be something wrong with a house if it stays on the market a long time.  This fact alone goes a long way to justifying the real estate professional’s commission.

Most People Don’t Like Negotiating

The one indispensable quality real estate professionals have that buyers and sellers will always value is their negotiating skills.  Most buyers find negotiating very stressful, awkward and distasteful. When a buyer sees a FSBO home, they often assume the seller won’t accept buying agents either.  So these buyers will pass on such homes in favor of ones they can be represented at by a real estate professional.

Legal Liabilities

When neither buyer nor seller has real estate professionals on their side, both parties become vulnerable to legal issues.  The FSBO seller will probably not understand what constitutes a sound legal contract for themselves, nor for their buyers.  A savvy home buyer such as a real estate investor may get the FSBO seller agreeing to terms and conditions they immediately regret.  Experienced real estate professionals warn their clients of any contract caveats.

Potential Problems At Closing

It’s one thing for the FSBO seller to accept an offer, but a safe and successful closing is another.  Deals can easily be lost when the buyers and sellers fight over issues, especially when lawyers get involved.  A real estate professional’s role is mediating between buyers and sellers and smoothing out any issues so both parties are satisfied with the transaction.  A lawyer has a vested interest in helping only their side and therefore can’t necessarily help resolve disputes amicably.

I teach a great deal about how to effectively prospect for FSBOs on the internet in my Building Your Ecommerce Business course.  This course has been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 6 credits.

Filed under: Marketing Tips,Technology and Marketing/Selling Lists - Best Practices

Tags: FSBO, mls, negotiate, negotiating, prospect, prospecting, prospects