It’s been fun dealing with years-old academic studies of the real estate market insisting that For-Sale-By-Owner marketing is just as good as listing with a Realtor.
It might have been, during the boom, when any idiot could sell a house. But it’s been kind of sad to watch people in our current declining market trying to sell by themselves — or trying to sell with the Help-U-Fail style of discounters — or trying to sell with the usual crew of spelling-impaired white shoe Realtors.
For owner-occupants clinging to the last of their equity, there is no substitute in this market for actual real estate marketing. The white shoe boys will shine you on, and the rape-and-run guys will beat you up on price once a week, but to actually sell a premium-quality home at a premium price, somebody has to make a sales effort.
This is what FSBOs normally do worst, of course. Even the typically-clueless rain-dancing Realtor at least gets the basics right, when many by-owner sellers are busy finding unique and original ways to get in their own way.
But the market tells, doesn’t it? A short bit in Fortune hints that the fizz may be gone from the FSBO highball:
“I used to get a phone call a day from people interested in FSBO Web sites,” Zwiefelhofer says. “Now it’s maybe one call a week.”
So were FSBO sites just flashes in the pan? Murray says that with properties harder to sell these days, sellers are returning to brokers for professional marketing help, causing the unassisted slice of the market to slip to around 15%. But he expects the FSBO market to bounce back – eventually.
Not all by-owner sellers stink at the job. BloodhoundBlog Contributor Richard Riccelli is scary-good at marketing his own properties — witness 214Calhoun.com — and here in Phoenix, the people most likely to adopt our style of listing tactics are FSBOs — a sad commentary on the so-called “professionals.”
But in a market where even well-prepared, well-priced, well-promoted homes are taking a long time to sell, doing everything you can to make things hard on buyers is obviously a sub-optimal strategy. How obvious? So inescapably clear that only a college professor could miss it.
All that said, here’s a spooky thought: I keep hearing gossip that FHA buyers for by-owner properties are going to have to spring for two appraisals. That smells so much like the NAR that I find it entirely too plausible. If I’ve gotten this wrong, I’d be grateful for correction.
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
James Boyer says:
Here in North Central New Jersey we still have a hard core group of FSBO’s who will not give up, or listen to reason when they do talk to a Realtor. Can you believe I called a FSBO the other day because a buyer client of mine asked about the house and possibly wanted to see it. Once I had the FSBO on the phone, first thing they said to me once I told them I was a Realtor was, you cannot show our house, no Realtors.
Talk about short sighted!!
Anyway, I agree with you on the white shoe group and the others.
Oh a word to the possitive, I listed a home last week, and just 5 days later, (and lots of hard negotiating) we were under contract within a few % of the listing price. So much for the brain dead who perpetually are screaming that no homes are selling in Morris County New Jersey.
February 12, 2009 — 6:45 am
John Kalinowski says:
Greg- I like the way Richard Riccelli organized his site so the links stay in place as you click through each photo tour. On your Engenu listing sites, every time you click to another level, the menus disappear and you get that “up one level” link. Richard’s is much cleaner and easier to follow, and I’m wondering if you can do the same with the Engenu structure? Did you build his site?
February 12, 2009 — 7:00 am
Miami Beach Homes says:
Perhaps the current situation has just made things harder, not that they’ve necessarily “fizzed out”. Very informative post.
February 12, 2009 — 10:18 am
FSBO Jane says:
While your perspective is clear on this – and if I were a practicing Realtor today, I’d be happy about the article, too, and I mean that – I do feel I need to point out the article, which was from CNN Money, was terribly misleading.
To interview one small, struggling FSBO company (the guy said he’d done 50 sites) and then, based on that interview, make generalizations about all FSBO sales, well, it’s not good journalism. There are much, much bigger players that offer much, much better marketing, but they were not interviewed. Before anyone starts bidding farewell to FSBO, maybe they should look at the hard data.
February 12, 2009 — 10:47 am
Buenos Aires Real Estate says:
Do this FSBO´s also publish their property in a website?
February 12, 2009 — 1:20 pm
Richard Riccelli says:
John K:
My website was built by my friend Michael Huffman michael@dwarfdogchuck.com at the digital design company http://dwarfdogchuck.com here in Charleston. He built it as a WP template (essentially as a full-blown website where you buy it once and control and manage the content for yourself without limits).
Michael has a special genius about these things and I know he would be happy to do the same for you and everyone reading this site** and at a fee that is a pays-for-itself value the first time you use it and makes you money each time after.
Hint to GSS: It would make a great post/service for BHB readers for you to contact Michael Huffman and write about what he has made. If for no other reason than to talk to a colleague who has also named his company after his pet dog Charlie, the Corgi.
February 12, 2009 — 3:27 pm
Jim Gatos says:
The FSBO’s can do ALL the websites in the world; let’s see WHAT actually sells the house..
February 13, 2009 — 11:36 am
Robert Garza says:
Hi Greg,
In regards to the 2 appraisal issue..i believe you mean for areas in declining markets on high balance purchase or refinance >95% ltv. In Calif,, we deal with this all the time. Hope this helps..Good luck.
February 13, 2009 — 10:58 pm
Jonathan Blackwell says:
As a lender, I’d certainly advise a Realtor in your corner right now if you are trying to sell.
February 14, 2009 — 5:58 pm