Inman News published findings from a report out of Madison, WI that found homeowners who sold their home without a real estate agent were getting more money for their property than those who did. Now this flies in the face of a recent National association of Realtor study. It showed a property listed by a Realtor on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) went for as much as 16 percent more than the lonely FSBO guy pimping his own home.

What does this mean to the home seller? Nothing. FSBOs work on a case-by-case basis. You can read all the positive FSBO reports you want, but if you don't market your home as aggressively as a good real estate agent can, then you might as well pull it off the market and take a nap. The reason why a NAR member will tell you a FSBO house reels in less money--even after the commission--than a house sold by an agent, is because an agent is a ninja sales person who will track you with her Blackberry/GPS/Taser device until you're too weak to say no. Do you have that in you? If so then maybe you're ready to go FSBO. If not, don't rest your hopes soley on a positive report out of Madison. Besides, people in Wisconsin will work day and night to sell their home for Packer tickets.

However, over the past twenty years FSBO's have hung onto a healthy percentage of all properties sold (anywhere from 12-20%). You can do it! You just need to know where to get the help and extra exposure. One location a FSBO can get an agent's advantage is the Global Listing Service. Agents and brokers are loading their properties on the GLS, and now even the FSBO can partake.




We wholly encourage the idea to sell your own home, and the success of the Madison crowd should be inspiring. Just don't let it fool you. In a cool sellers market it takes a lot of work to get the money you expect out of your property.

Someone with a lot of time, gas money and snacks is cruising around America's major cities taking 360-degree pictures for Google's snazzy new Street View. Aside from the issue of privacy (The Google guy who implemented Street View first did it with A9, a company criticized after an image of women walking into a domestic abuse shelter showed up for all to see), Street View has become big time blogger fodder. Streetviewr and a number of other sites are already posting their favorite images. It doesn't take a psychic to figure out some of the winners...

But is online real estate ready to embrace this technology? The benefit of a virtual tour is that you know when someone's coming over to take pictures. The Street View guy can buzz by and snap a shot of a stray dog with a head cone snoozing in the weeds you were planning on picking real soon.

I'm imagining telling an interested buyer that, "Yes, the house is charming and the neighborhood spectacular," as the savvy real estate shopper gawks at a Google pic of the police pepper spraying a criminal on my front lawn.

Sure, they had to chase him from a bad part of town, but hey, you never know when and where the Google van will whiz by.

HOA's will love Street View because people will be even more insecure about curb appeal. My wife will rejoice that I might leave my shirt on when I mow. Sellers may want to make sure they're getting the best pictures of their home online before Google does it for them.