Question from Buyer:
Is it safe to assume that you will show us all For Sale By Owner properties that meet our requirements?
Short Answer:
No.
Explantion:
There is no way to know how a FSBO is marketing their home. If it is not in the MLS system, we would probably be unaware of it. Some FSBOs pay a service to list themselves in the MLS. The FSBO portion of the market is small but very important to the overall picture.
Most, but not all FSBO sellers are willing to “pay courtesy to broker.” Meaning, that they are aware of the fact that most buyers are working with a Realtor and if they want a Realtor to sell their house, they will pay our commission. The Realtor represents the buyer and the seller represents themselves. The buyer is afforded all the benefits of working with a Realtor. This process is done with a “fee agreement” with the seller that we must have before we show you the house. FBSOs account for less than 10% of the transactions we work on.
On the buyer side, for all real estate transactions, there is a “Buyer Service Agreement.” It outlines what the buyer can expect of the broker and what the broker expects of the buyer. It makes us your Realtor for any, including FSBO, real estate transaction in our market area for a set period of time (usually 6 months). In the event that there is a FSBO property you want to pursue and the seller is unwilling to offer courtesy to broker (we worked with three last year without any problem), we would earn our commission from you or the portion that they would not pay. This situation has very rarely occurr since either the buyer opts to walk away from the property or the seller acquiesces. We of course, cannot work for free. If the FSBO is in the MLS system, we know they are offing courtesy, usually at a rate that requires no buyer participation.
Since we are under written contract with a buyer with a buyer service agreement, they become the A+ clients. We shuffle and reschedule to give them priority over our non-committed clients. The clients deserve that and that is what they get.
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For Sale by Owner
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