Sellers know it can be a lot tougher to turn their property into a buyer magnet when the housing market slows. With more homes on the market and increased pressure on pricing, buyers have more power in the process.
According to the National Association of Realtors, for-sale-by-owner transactions, or FSBO’s as they’re known in the business, fell over the past decade to 12 percent of sales today from 18 percent in 1997. NAR spokesman Walter Molony says sellers believe real estate practitioners are better equipped to achieve fast sales at top dollar in a weak market. The median price for agent-assisted transactions was about 16 percent higher than FSBO sales last year. Moloney says that agents handle the myriad amount of paperwork and identify serious buyers for sellers.
NAR’s 2006 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that five percent of sales from mid 2005-2006 involved FSBO sellers turning to a real estate professional. Only one percent of sales involved sellers who abandonded their practitioner to go it alone.