FSBO Guide - Authorify

Part I: FSBO Opportunities

Why Most FSBOs Need Your Help You may not know this, but it’s true: Most FSBOs do a horrible job marketing their houses. If a real estate professional put the same amount of effort into marketing a house that a FSBO does, that agent would be at risk of losing his or her license! Here’s an example. I recently did a study by pulling up 20 FSBOs. Most of them did not put much effort into marketing their house. Only two or three of them had good-quality pictures. The rest had low-quality pictures — probably taken with a cell phone. The angles were bad. The houses did not look attractive. Trees and shrubs obscured attractive structural features. In some cases, the picture was so dark that it was impossible to distinguish any detail. Several photos were selfies, showing the owner competing for attention with the house — or blocking the view of the structure. Eight of the sellers did not even have a sign in the yard. Is that crazy, or what? Individuals who offer their homes For Sale by Owner do not understand how challenging it is to sell a house. They think it’s so easy. After all, if they thought it took any effort, they would probably hire a Realtor®. Consider some common characteristics of FSBO sellers: ● They don’t know much about marketing. ● They definitely don’t know anything about staging. ● They don’t want to show their home at times convenient for prospective buyers. ● They don’t want to paint. ● They don’t want to spend money on plumbing, electrical, roof repairs, etc. ● They don’t want to fix up their house. Even the most aggressive, hard-working sellers probably lack access to crucial resources. According to the National Association of Realtors®, only 7% of FSBOs use an MLS website. Some are forced to rely on shoddy consumer real estate sites, none of which generate nearly as much traffic.