Going solo vs. hiring an agent

As the owner of a regional for sale by owner service in Massachusetts, I would like to respond to your article. 1) Pricing: There are many pricing services on the Internet, however, we recommend hiring an independent residential appraiser. By pricing using the appraisal report, the seller is able to negotiate with buyers and their agents very comfortably. Moreover, the seller will know that the sales price will overcome the "lender hurdle", as the agreed upon price based upon an appraisal should be close to the appraiser's report filed on behalf of the lender. 2) Coaching: Regional services exist all over the country and have excellent knowledge of their local markets and media resources. Most are also well known in the communities they serve. The ability to help the seller in all stages of the sale is very comforting. We are able to refer the seller to the attorney, home inspector, stager, lender, etc. at appropriate times. 3) Negotiating: I disagree with the comment of Mr. Merrion regarding negotiating being difficult for sellers. The majority of our sellers have never mentioned that as being a problem at all. They were much more concerned about decluttering, depersonalizing and PACKING! Funny, this is something that all sellers fret about.

I tried to sell my condominium "by owner," but I was not able to generate enough responses. The market is very soft right now and many properties are available.

We had a recent estate sale and the deceased owner's next of kin dropped the price $40,000 below what the last comparable unit sold for.

I've finally listed with an agent, but it wasn't my first choice. Since I've lived in the property over a decade, I'll still make a profit.

It's not just a choice between doing it yourself and hiring an agent at 6%. There is also the choice of hiring someone to do it for you at a much lower cost - a cost that doesn't make it worth your time to do it yourself. The savings of FSBO are usually not as large as people think. I cover these issues in a piece I wrote up a while back: http://blog.lucidrealty.com/2008/05/03/for-sa...

I hope everyone notices that this is the classifieds, and Tribune Co OWNS Forsalebyowner.com . How interesting that the Tribune is happy with making a thousands of dollars each month in advertising revenue from Realtors but willingly prints an ad disguised as an article allowing Mr. Healy to self-servingly declare agents useless, to the benefit of his company. As an agent my reaction is due in part to the fact that this sort of story is bad for our business. But its worse still for a nation already reeling in sub-prime mortgage woes. It's unbelievable that someone would send novice home buyers and sellers into the current market without the help of an expert. Isn't that part of how we got where are? It shows no respect for the profession and, worse yet, gives the false impression that real estate is something you can do after reading a for-dummies book. I'll be sure think twice about where I'm spending my advertsing dollars in the future, Trib.

I'm curious as to why a person would need to increase the askibg price 10% if the average Realtor commission is 5%. That sounds like a FSBO recipe for failure being that they'd decided on the price with "extensive research". I'm sure part of that research was making useless appointments with Realtors in order to determine an asking price. So often in this business people outsmart themselves. They find more value in trying to be the expert than in relying on an expert until they need something.

As a licensed broker this story is comical. What is amazing, is the fsbo companies fleece, I mean charge, the seller up front fees. A Realtor earns and is paid a fee after generating a completed transaction. In my opinion these types of firms will disappear over the long term. Help-U-Sell just filed for bankruptcy.

The trib hasn't and won't ever receive a dime of my marketing dollars.

At least sam zell was smart enough to get rid of mary umberger!