# FSBO site owner turns to a Broker to sell his house



## Montrealer (Sep 13, 2010)

Read this if your trying to sell your house or property yourself:

http://blog.buzzbuzzhome.com/2011/08/founder-of-for-sale-by-owner-site-calls.html



> *Founder of "for sale by owner" site calls in broker to get the job done *
> 
> BuzzBuzzHome Corp.
> August 4, 2011
> ...


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Gloating from the full-service brokerage industry?

Selling a specialized $2 million property may not be something that should be done DIY. Selling an entry level 2 bed condo in the $300k range is considerably more straightforward. It's a more liquid market.

On the other hand, charging >$120k to sell such a place would be obscene.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Just because he started FSBO business doesn't mean he has to use it. He might be pretty rich and have other businesses run. 

It might be worth it for him to pay real estate commissions, which might not be the case for most people.


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

Montrealer said:


> Read this if your trying to sell your house or property yourself:
> 
> However, it's worth nothing that just last month a Manhattan townhouse was sold for $48 million without a broker commission.
> 
> ...


Thank you , now I know it can be done regardless of the value of the property, although I am sure it's easier with properties for regular folks like me, do you have an article about selling this 48 million dollar home without a broker, it would be an interesting read.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

FP: Agreed that there is a good chance a former COO (c-suite exec of a different company?) may have better things to do with his time than show tire kickers his property. For the rest of us, whose time is not worth hundreds of dollars per hour, maybe it could be worth it to do it ourselves if we have the time and inclination.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

Homerhomer: Found it through Google.

http://simplepropertysolution.com/house-tops-47-million-on-east-side/

It's a funny story, though it doesn't really change anything. There is definitely a value to having a broker; the question is whether it's worth the price. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Part of that is the property being sold, but the other part of that is how good the broker is, and anyone who suggests one is better than the other without looking at the other factors is probably selling something.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Some places are easier than others to sell.In my hometown in Newfoundland no such thing as a real estate agent , it goes by word of mouth and when a buyer and seller get together they go to a paralegal and usually split the $300 cost together.Then they go to the 'council office ' and sign over the docs .This is how it is done when mortgages are involved as well.


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## kubatron (Jan 17, 2011)

thats cuz its newfoundland.



all kidding aside as some have said, some properties need an agent, some dont. i feel that they're getting the squeeze from too many people lately. i'm not an agent, but too many think they know so much more than an agent. the 2/10 of the good ones out there are worth their weight. the rest can go away, but they won't. the money is too good.

it's like this. i pay a guy $1.10 to install hardwood. i got quotes from $2.50 to $4.50 (per foot). same w/ an agent. use them but negotiate their fee. you'll see the hungry and aggressive ones will work with you on a plan, and everyone will be happy. you'll have 90% exposure on MLS, and they will make enough to make them happy.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

I agree the highest priced are not always the best ones either.


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

In today's market there are very few valid reasons to use a Broker. If it wasn't for the fact an employer is paying for everything, we wouldn't have used a Broker. Even using a Broker we found our buyer ourselves and set the price. Our home sold in one day with zero showings, specifically because of us finding a buyer.

Since Montrealer has made it clear he is a Broker, I take scare tactics like this post with a grain of salt as the saying goes.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

I have no problems paying my real estate agent as she is very good negotiator and I am not .Also from time to time she will send me updated sales in the areas we have investment properties to let us know what is going on .I am a RE Investor so I like to update my values a couple times a year.Going on MLS is pointless as I need to see the real numbers .You are one of the lucky ones Addy and selling a house is not always a snap of the fingers.


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## Montrealer (Sep 13, 2010)

It also made the *Wall Street Journal* by the way:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903341404576484352486553740.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

And for those of you saying that he does not have time to sell it himself, he needs to focus and work on other projects and his condo is not the type of property you sell yourself.

Think of this...

The CEO of BlackBerry using an iPhone 
The CEO of Mercedes driving a BMW
The CEO of Microsoft using Unix and Linux on his home computer

I think you all get my point, the owner of the site HAS no faith in his product and service so why is he expecting people to pay him and use it?


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Does the CEO of McDonalds have to eat a Big Mac every day? Does the CEO of Walmart need to buy his clothes there?

I don't think any FSBO sites make the claim that DIY is the right answer for everyone, all of the time.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

I sold my last two homes privately. The last one was though a website called bytheowner.com (now called Com Free) and it sold in 2 days for well over the asking price. We arrived at a price by having three top local Agents come in and assess the house. The plan was to use one of them but when I asked each of them what their strategy would be to sell the house they all said the same thing... "put it on mls, create a great feature sheet and do open houses". Since they all thought we should list at around $609-619k, I realized the commission including GST would have been around $32,000. So we thought might as well try to sell it privately. Total cost was around $1500 including a big ad with photo in the local Saturday paper and a great feature sheet that I spent hours creating. We listed at $609k and the morning the ad came out we had a ton of calls and by that night we were negotiating between two offers. 

It was really a simple process and we saved a ton of dough. The house was fantastic and we had done several renovations (including a totally new kitchen, granite, sinks and taps in all bathrooms, all new carpet, expensive Hunter Douglas blinds) so it showed extremely well. Both my wife and I are in sales related careers and we really loved the house so it was easy to get people excited about it.

It is certainly worth considering a private listing if you are not in a huge rush to sell it, have a good product, price it well and have the time to show it and confidence to negotiate a deal.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

andrewf said:


> Does the CEO of McDonalds have to eat a Big Mac every day? Does the CEO of Walmart need to buy his clothes there?
> 
> I don't think any FSBO sites make the claim that DIY is the right answer for everyone, all of the time.


Great point Andrew.

Although I have successfully sold two homes privately in the past, I may choose to use an Agent the next time depending on the circumstances at the time. Both times I sold before buying the next home so there was no pressure to get it done quickly but if I found a great house I wanted and put an offer in conditional on the sale of my current house I would likely use an Agent.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

The article doesn't discuss other mitigating factors that might have been present and required the use of a broker such as

1 - Not reachable - people who can't answer the phone or get such a large volume of calls that it is difficult to reach them. 

2 - Out of town - very difficult to show the place when people when people want to see it. 

3 - Too busy - Same as above

4 - No salesmanship - Some people are not good at selling anything

5 - Emotional reasons - If you are very attached to a place, you may sabotage yourself (even if you don't know it) think divorce, death in the family or just very attached to the home. 

There are cases when a broker is better, but when you consider the amount of money involved, my thoughts are that too many people's knee jerk reaction is just to call a realtor when none of the above factors are present. 

Part of this is that in our current market prices have continually gone up for almost the last 20 years. In a flat market you'll be handing over all your equity and possibly even writing a check to cover the real estate commission if you sell anytime up to the 5 year mark. That's when people will really reconsider if the large price tag is worth it.


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## Montrealer (Sep 13, 2010)

andrewf said:


> Does the CEO of McDonalds have to eat a Big Mac every day? Does the CEO of Walmart need to buy his clothes there?
> 
> I don't think any FSBO sites make the claim that DIY is the right answer for everyone, all of the time.


Yeah, and I would love to see the CEO of McDonald's being caught by the media eating at Wendy's or having a coffee at Tim Hortons.

What would that say about his own product?

Bottom line is, GET A PROFESSIONAL TO DO SOMETHING FOR YOU, especially when it requires dealing with one of your most expensive and lucrative investments.


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

But realtors aren't professionals.

Professionals are:
Accountants
Actuaries
Advocates
Architects
Pilots
Dentists
Engineers
Financial analysts
Lawyers
Librarians
Pharmacists
Philosophers
Physicians
Professors
Psychologists
Quantity Surveyors
Scientists
Veterinarians


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Estate agents aren't professionals. They took a certificate program and passed a test. They are not fiduciaries. 

Now, your example of McDonald's CEO eating at Wendy's is not the analogue. Maybe eating a steak at the Keg. A different product category at a different price point.

I would probably use an agent if I could pay them $75/hour for their services. Paying a % of the asset value strikes me as totally bonkers in that it is mostly uncorrelated with the amount of effort required to sell it. On the other hand, it's not rocket science. People can and do do it themselves, quite successfully.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

What annoys me about paying a percentage is that the market has gone up so much.

I sold my house in 2005 for 75% more than I bought it for at the beginning of 2000. In five years, the fees went up 75%. 

That's just not right.


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## Charlie (May 20, 2011)

It does bother me that the services of an agent in Vancouver to sell a moderate house would be several times what those same services would cost for a similar house in Edmonton. Especially in a 'hot' market. 

But I would still use one. I don't have the expertise or market knowledge. So I'd 'overpay' (IMO) and grumble away. I'm not knocking their expertise, or skill -- just the pay structure.


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

In the Vancouver market you only need to sell 1 house a year to live extremely well...


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

I wonder what role RE agents ( representing buyers) played in the FSBO not being able to sell his own prepertly by ensuring clients will never see this property.


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