Why For Sale by Owner Homes Spend More Time On The Market?

You’ve accepted the risk that comes with For Sale by Owner, and you’ve managed to wade your way through the stacks of never-ending paperwork. It’s finally time to list your home, and you realize that without a real estate agent, you don’t have access to the major listing services on local and national levels. After spending more money out of pocket for advertising your home, you start to notice that your house isn’t going anywhere. No one is messaging you or asking to tour the property, even though it’s a pretty nice house.

Why?

Because most buyers are using real estate agents of their own, who are advising them to run far, far away from your FSBO listing. If you’re attempting to assume all of the liability when it comes to home sales, that’s too much pressure for a buyer. They want to negotiate with someone else who has a realtor at the table.

Liability

On average, 18 percent of FSBOs were unable to sell within their chosen time frame in 2016.  Any reasonable buyer will understand that by electing for FSBO, you’re assuming total liability for the sale. Let’s say they’re lying about a house feature or function. They don’t have a realtor advising them of legality in the matter. They can pull a fast one on buyers, and leave people out in the dust. There have even been cases when FSBO take down payments and run with them, not having any accountability to any real estate firm.

Realtor Advice

Additionally, buyers will have realtors who do not want to work with a rogue homeowner attempting to learn the art of realty overnight. Realtors will advise buyers to skip over the FSBO listing and move onto the next one. Since the majority of people start the home buying process online today, the FSBO branding is more apparent than ever.

Market Stagnation

Between the liability, lousy stigma, and just all-around misinformation that comes with FSBO, these homes will sit on the market much longer than their realtor counterparts. There may be nothing wrong with the home – in fact, it could be perfectly acceptable and listed at a reasonable price. But, before buyers ever get a chance to acquaint themselves with the property, they’re already assuming a lot about the seller and what would happen if the deal fell through.

Essentially, opting to go FSBO dooms a beautiful house from the beginning. The longer your home spends on the market, the lower it is market value. And, the longer it hangs out with no buyer, the more clout a buyer will have in the future to bargain the asking price down.