if we list with FSBO and pay to have it listed with MLS, will even see it?

Question

Hi, my mom is trying to sell without an agent right now. If she lists her home with FSBO and pays them $500 to list in the MLS who will even see the listing? Iam just wondering how that work....Thanks

Answer 1

Agents will see it when they do a search for a client but they won't show it. Why should they?

Potential buyers may see it if they're any good at doing a search on the internet which is rare.

Only people searching FSBO listings specifically will see it and there is probably not a whole lot of those.

Once upon a time people would do a FSBO so as to position their property at a lower price thru the saving from not having to pay agents' fees. Today it seems most FSBOs are done so the seller can pocket more money but without realizing how much work is involved in the selling. So, the property sits and sits until the seller gets an agent or someone like me comes along who lowballs an offer.

And my offers often get accepted because, I guess, by that time the seller is getting antsy.

FSBO is only a good idea if you have (or will make) the time to show it to prospective buyers and will go out and market the house. The work an agent does. True, some agents don't know what they're doing either but at least their listings will be seen by other agents.

Answer 2

Oh my gosh. I cannot believe some of these answers. I have sold many homes FSBO and there is no way NARs knows that I sold the home FSBO or who I sold it to (a friend, neighbor, driver-buyer or whomever). The above stats are bogus and biased. The truth is that Agents are freaking out because each year they are losing more and more clients because sellers are realizing that they no longer need an agent to advertise their home nationally and they no longer need an agent to write the contract. (Thanks to the Internet and online legal form websites and your local title agency with real estate attorneys). Sellers are becoming more educated in selling their homes and other real estate themselves.

Back to the question... If your mother listed her home in the MLS, it should be in realtor.com. But you need to verify that it is yourself. Go to realtor.com and do a search for the home and see if it comes up. If you cannot find it, go back to the listing agent and ask him/her about it. It's ok to ask the agent questions. It costs a lot of money to advertise in the MLS so you should know what you are paying for. Hopefully the agent also listed your mom's home in the local MLS if it is available. But you need to verify this.

Every agent, and every person looking for a home has access to view the listings on realtor.com (not just FSBO as another person answered).

Sometimes a local mls is only visible by agents with a login and password to the local mls website.

Either way, ask your mom's listing agent these questions that way you will know for sure where the home is being advertised.

Answer 3

Good question.

The National Association of Realtors keeps track of how many For Sale By Owners (FSBOs) are actually successful in selling their own house; that number has been getting smaller each year as real estate become more and more complex and frought with legal requirements.

In 2006 only 12% of FSBOs actually succeeded in selling their home without representation by a real estate professional; that means 88% were not successful and either listed or did not sell and stayed where they were.

Of the 12% that actually sold over 30% of those sellers sold to someone they knew beforehand, i.e. a friend at work, church, neighbor, etc.

MLS only listing firms do only that; enter a home into a Realtor MLS for a tiny fee. There is no listing agent to market and promote the property.

Statistically your mom may be stepping over dollars to save pennies. Agent assisted transactions can be proven to net, that is, put more money in a seller's pocket even after paying commissions, than they can on their own.

http://www.realtor.org/research.nsf/pages/fsbofacts

From NAR: "Homes sold with the help of a real estate professional in 2006 sold on average for 32 percent more than FSBO sales. The median FSBO selling price in 2006 was $187,200, compared with $247,000 for agent-assisted transactions."

Answer 4

Listing with the MLS will make the property visible to all the other agents who subscribe to that MLS, to Realtor.com, and possibly it will appear on other real estate firm websites as well.

Depending on how a potential buyer shows up, your mother may be required to pay some sort of fee to another realtor. It all depends on how any offer to purchase is tendered.

Answer 5

If its in the MLS, then it downloads to sites such as realtor.com and home.com. However, by the time she spends that $500 and whatever else she'll inevitably spend on advertising and such, she could have just listed it with an agent and been done with it!