MISTAKE #3—MARKETING IN THE WRONG PLACE: FAILING TO USE THE RIGHT CHANNELS A Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is, simply put, the way to go. Many property owners who want to sell their home—be it a house, an apartment, a condo, anything—fail to market their property as well as they could because they don’t want to spend hundreds of “extra” dollars to list their property on the MLS. This is one of the greatest mistakes people can make when selling FSBO. An MLS is basically a huge, comprehensive database of homes for sale, connections to real estate agents and other buyers and sellers, and market information, which is routinely used by real estate brokers. It’s a very good way to attract the interest of many potential buyers, as well as their buying agents. Even if you decide to go FSBO, working with buying agents is the way to go in order to obtain a fast sale. Real estate agents have access to MLS. That is a big part of how they are able to find potential buyers for any and all of their clients. They usually also have tons of personal and professional contacts to refer back to when needed, though, which is more difficult to replicate than MLS access. Unlike owners, an agent trying to sell a home is working on commission. Striving to obtain a hot deal at the highest possible price is in the agent’s best interest—even more than it would be for the owner. Someone looking to sell their house FSBO certainly wants the best deal, but an agent needs it. They will throw all their skills and experience into getting that perfect price because, at the end of the day, agents make their living this way, and being able to uphold a good reputation for high sales prices is crucial to a good real estate business. MISTAKE #4—NOT UNDERSTANDING THE NECESSARY PAPERWORK Not knowing what papers you need to sell your property can cost owners opting for FSBO dearly. There are lots of documents and many disclosures that need to be signed and submitted for filing throughout the home sales process.
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