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It’s A Great Time To Be A For Sale By Owner
Posted by Heinrich Wiebe in Fizbomap, For Sale by Owner, News, Consumer Rights on March 8th, 2007
January of this year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) launched a new $40 million ad campaign expected to stretch over 11 months, directed in part at the For Sale by Owner (FSBO) market.
“Two-thirds of For Sale By Owners would use a Realtor® next time,” one of the print ads declares. “The other third swear to never, ever move again.”
Is selling a home without an Realtor that unbearable?
Not according to the NAR’s own 2006 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. The national survey found that only 20 percent of FSBO sellers would use an agent next time, while 33 percent would sell FSBO again and 47 percent weren’t sure. Clearly, FSBO sellers are happier than the NAR’s ad lets on.
Here’s another argument by the NAR’s media department.
“[s]ellers who use a real estate professional make 16 percent more on the sale of their home than do sellers who go it alone.”
Give us a break. Do the math. That would be like picking up a $250,000 house for $210,000. We find this claim impossible to believe.
For much of the past year, though, the NAR has gloated over the 16 percent statistic, claiming that it’s
“one reason the level of unrepresented sellers has declined steadily in recent years.”
Again, the NAR Profiles tell a more complicated story. The number of unrepresented sellers has indeed dropped, but the most likely reason for this is that many sellers are now able to pay flat-fee brokers a modest amount to get them on the Multiple Listing Service and Realtor.com.
The decrease in the number of unrepresented sellers, in other words, doesn’t reflect a decline in FSBO transactions so much as a decline in the ability of Realtors to keep FSBOs off the MLS. Until recently, Realtor associations were often able to block these kinds of listings, but the Federal Trade Commission has largely put a stop to the practice.
The thousands of ads that the NAR plans to air won’t just deal with FSBOs, of course. One TV ad, for example, talks about the importance of being protected by someone you can trust.
“Realtors adhere to a strict code of ethics,” declares the voiceover, “so you know you’ll be treated honestly.”
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