Selling For Sale By Owner, or FSBO, may seem easy in a hot seller’s market like we’re seeing in Miami today. After all, when there’s a shortage of housing inventory and a lag in new construction, homes seem to sell themselves even if you just put it up yourself by owner on any number of websites like Zillow.
However, selling For Sale By Owner has some severe disadvantages such as not getting complete exposure to all possible buyers, and getting harassed constantly by enterprising agents soliciting you to list with them. We’ll explain how to deal with these problems, get full exposure and still save all 6% in broker commission with an Agent Assisted FSBO listing through Hauseit®.
FSBO sellers usually think that by inserting a sentence at the bottom of their listing description like “agent representing the buyer will receive a commission 3%” will be enough to satisfy any buyer’s agents. After all, they have it in writing right? Why shouldn’t buyer’s brokers just take their word for it and send along their clients?
The problem with this approach is that buyer’s brokers, who typically have no exclusivity with their buyer clients in competitive metro markets, can’t simply take your word for it. If they even share the address of your listing with a buyer lead or client, there’s nothing preventing the buyer from searching for your address, finding out that you’re a For Sale By Owner seller, and cutting the broker out completely.
Remember that real estate agents work on commission, and they often spend quite a bit of money procuring buyer leads and referrals.
This could range from spending money on dinners or rideshares taking their buyers around, or paying for advertising to get the lead in the first place. And since there’s no exclusivity to protect them, they are obviously going to do everything possible to keep their client and not get dis-intermediated.
As a result, there’s no way a smart buyer’s agent will show a For Sale By Owner listing without any protections in place. And yes, your sentence about paying them something on your listing description is meaningless. They’ve never worked with you, have no idea who you are, and the only thing they know about you is that you’re a supposed FSBO seller. And because you’ve chosen to sell For Sale By Owner, you presumably dislike real estate agents. Not a great start for gaining trust!
What if I agree to sign a commission agreement?
Sure, it’s theoretically possible for you to sign a FSBO commission agreement, or a one-time showing agreement with the real estate agent to protect them if they bring their client or clients. You can specify in the agreement one or more names of their clients that they wish to show your property to.
However, how much work do you think it’ll be for you to have to negotiate and sign a separate commission agreement with each buyer’s broker that wants to show your property, assuming they even would? Furthermore, why would buyer’s agents bother going through the hassle of negotiating a custom legal agreement with you, when the vast majority of listings are properly co-broked on the MLS where commissions are automatically contractually offered?
In fact, this is the very reason that the MLS is such a powerful marketing tool for sellers. Every listing broker is required to sign some sort of universal co-brokerage agreement before joining their local MLS. This agreement obligates the participating broker to co-broke, or split commission, with cooperating buyer’s brokers per MLS rules.
As a result, co-broking is automatic and contractual, meaning buyer’s agents can send their clients to listings without any fear that they will get cut out of the deal. In fact, sometimes buyer’s brokers are so comfortable that they have no problem sending their buyer clients on their own to listings if the seller’s agent is okay with it.
Pro Tip: You can solve this problem by listing on the Miami MLS (Southeast Florida MLS) for a flat fee through Hauseit®. You’ll get the same marketing exposure as if you’d listed for 6% commission with any other brokerage, including automatic listing syndication to dozens of popular websites like Zillow, Homes.com and Realtor.com. Once inquiries come in for your listing, they’ll automatically be forwarded to you for you to manage on your own. If you close with a direct buyer, then no commission is owed and you’ve saved all 6%. If you decide to sell to a buyer represented by an agent, then only pay the commission you chose to offer in the MLS.
A serious problem with trying to sell For Sale By Owner in Miami, or anywhere else for that matter, is that you’ll be constantly subjected to phone calls, texts and emails from Realtors looking to list your home.
Real estate agents need to get their seller leads from somewhere, and one of the most popular sources are For Sale By Owner websites and listings. In fact, there are multiple services out there that scrape the web for FSBO sellers’ contact information to sell to real estate agents on a regular basis.
Sometimes, FSBO sellers will get dozens of cold calls from mostly junior agents on a daily basis. Sometimes these calls are done from what are effectively “boiler rooms” where new agents are pressured to make cold calls to gain experience.
So as a FSBO seller, prepare to be called again and again by agents explaining why you need to pay 6% to list your home on the MLS.
