{"id":6887,"date":"2009-02-12T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6887"},"modified":"2009-02-11T17:30:37","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T00:30:37","slug":"has-real-estate-reality-taken-all-the-fizz-out-of-fsbos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6887\/has-real-estate-reality-taken-all-the-fizz-out-of-fsbos\/","title":{"rendered":"Has real estate reality taken all the fizz out of FSBOs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been fun dealing with years-old academic studies of the real estate market insisting that For-Sale-By-Owner marketing is just as good as listing with a Realtor.<\/p>\n

It might have been, during the boom, when any idiot could sell a house. But it’s been kind of sad to watch people in our current declining market trying to sell by themselves — or trying to sell with the Help-U-Fail style of discounters — or trying to sell with the usual crew of spelling-impaired white shoe Realtors.<\/p>\n

For owner-occupants clinging to the last of their equity, there is no substitute in this market for actual real estate marketing<\/a>. The white shoe boys will shine you on, and the rape-and-run guys will beat you up on price once a week, but to actually sell a premium-quality home at a premium price, somebody<\/em> has to make a sales effort.<\/p>\n

This is what FSBOs normally do worst, of course. Even the typically-clueless rain-dancing Realtor at least gets the basics<\/em> right, when many by-owner sellers are busy finding unique and original ways to get in their own way.<\/p>\n

But the market tells, doesn’t it? A short bit in Fortune<\/a> hints that the fizz may be gone from the FSBO highball:<\/p>\n

“I used to get a phone call a day from people interested in FSBO Web sites,” Zwiefelhofer says. “Now it’s maybe one call a week.”<\/p>\n

So were FSBO sites just flashes in the pan? Murray says that with properties harder to sell these days, sellers are returning to brokers for professional marketing help, causing the unassisted slice of the market to slip to around 15%. But he expects the FSBO market to bounce back – eventually.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not all by-owner sellers stink at the job. BloodhoundBlog Contributor Richard Riccelli<\/a> is scary-good at marketing his own properties — witness 214Calhoun.com<\/a> — and here in Phoenix, the people most likely to adopt our style of listing tactics are FSBOs — a sad commentary on the so-called “professionals.”<\/p>\n

But in a market where even well-prepared, well-priced, well-promoted homes are taking a long time to sell, doing everything you can to make things hard on buyers is obviously<\/em> a sub-optimal strategy. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been fun dealing with years-old academic studies of the real estate market insisting that For-Sale-By-Owner marketing is just as good as listing with a Realtor. It might have been, during the boom, when any idiot could sell a house. But it’s been kind of sad to watch people in our current declining market trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-realty-reality","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/68\/in-the-battle-of-the-baseball-cards-the-biggest-shoe-box-wins\/","url_meta":{"origin":6887,"position":0},"title":"In the battle of the baseball cards, the biggest shoe-box wins — but Realtors who master the art of marketing homes will be fine","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[This post appeared on BloodhoundBlog on June 30, 2006, our second day. I'm reprising it now as a part of our birthday celebration. It's fun for me to see how much of what I talk about here was with us on our very first days. --GSS] \u00a0Cathleen and I live\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3535,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3535\/the-new-real-estate-model-part-1-disbrokeration\/","url_meta":{"origin":6887,"position":1},"title":"The New Real Estate Model – Part 1: Disbrokeration","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"July 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes The Real Estate industry is going through some pretty rapid changes lately. We have everything from Apple\u2019s iPhone to Zillow\u2019s Zestimates. There is a lot of conflict too. Your local Board of Realtors is most likely still trying to throw a fence around listing information, while a wired world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3324,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3324\/musical-chairs-you-can-buy-a-home-on-leased-land-for-a-bargain-price-but-you-must-be-prepared-to-sell-before-the-music-stops\/","url_meta":{"origin":6887,"position":2},"title":"Musical chairs: You can buy a home on leased land for a bargain price, but you must be prepared to sell before the music stops","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0Musical chairs: You can buy a home on leased land for a bargain price, but you must be prepared to sell before the music stops We're preparing to list a condominium that sits on leased land. Land\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3187,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3187\/agent-branding-is-good-but-truliacom-is-still-deliberately-hi-jacking-street-addresses-frustrating-the-interests-of-sellers\/","url_meta":{"origin":6887,"position":3},"title":"Agent branding is good, but Trulia.com is still deliberately hi-jacking street addresses, frustrating the interests of sellers","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still digging out from Unchained, so this is not as timely as it might have been. First, I think we might have gotten distracted by whatever cozy arrangement does or does not exist between Trulia.com and Number 1 Agent. Second, I think Trulia's recent announcement that agents can \"brand\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18457,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18457\/overnight-news-if-the-ibuyer-idea-is-any-good-whats-the-rush-to-go-public\/","url_meta":{"origin":6887,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: If the iBuyer idea is any good, what\u2019s the rush to go\u00a0public?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"As a matter of news, OfferPad went public last week \u2013 meaning none of the iBuyers are now backed by wide-awake entrepreneurs, just pie-eyed punters. The \"offering\" was done by Wall Street chicanery to avoid even the casual due diligence white-shoe investors normally do. But, of course, no due diligence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2851,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2851\/if-you-dont-have-to-sell-into-the-current-phoenix-real-estate-market-dont-but-what-if-you-do-have-to-sell\/","url_meta":{"origin":6887,"position":5},"title":"If you don’t have to sell into the current Phoenix real estate market — don’t. But what if you do have to sell…?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0If you don't have to sell into the current Phoenix real estate market -- don't. But what if you do have to sell...? Here's a piece of real estate marketing advice that should be obvious: If you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6888,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions\/6888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}