Actually, the room naming is one of my pet peeves with Realtors - "...and here's the kitchen...." Really? What else would the room with a stove and refrigerator be called?? LOL!

As for a homeowner walking people through their home, I can't see another way to do that and would not be offended to have a homeowner lead my way. Turning things around, I would do the same. Standing at an entrance to a room, quietly waiting while they explore seems appropriate.

I can't imagine not walking through the house with anyone because of theft. Unless it was a model home or the home was empty, I have never seen a Realtor allow someone to walk through a home unattended.

You don't have to name rooms, but you can point out special features such as heated floors that may not be noticeable.

I know I read this a lot. However, having just shown and sold my home FSBO, people seemed reluctant to see the home without me. Even the buyers who came with realtors-- I was specifically asked to 'give a tour.'

I was very concerned about making potential buyers uncomfortable, so I ended up giving a very quick tour and answeingr questions and then retreating with pan encouragement to the viewers to feel free to wander around and open cupboards, etc.

That compromise seemed to work very well.

There is a huge difference between a Realtor walking clients through a house (a good thing) and the owner doing it. A client feels free to really inspect a house with a Realtor - not so with an owner tagging along.

If your home is on the market, I would hope you do not have anything valuable laying around ----

I have a realtor who does that. I don't like the way she does it. She sticks close to us like a tracking dog. I'm going to get rid of her. She acts as if were going to steal something. She even follows us in basements where there's nothing anybody would want other than the Salvation Army. I don't like her at all. She's always interjecting when she's not asked. Not my first home purchase and then she even argues with us when we tell her the house isn't worth the price. Yes, I'm getting rid of her. She's not on our side. Some agents you just don't click with.

Your Realtor is never 'on your side' because she is representing the seller. That is unless you are paying her a commission to represent you in a purchase. Remember that.

"Your Realtor is never 'on your side' because she is representing the seller. That is unless you are paying her a commission to represent you in a purchase. Remember that."

That isn't necessarily the case. I always have my buyers sign a buyer's agency agreement with me, allowing me to represent their interests, not the seller's. The commission is still paid by the seller.

"Your Realtor is never 'on your side' because she is representing the seller. That is unless you are paying her a commission to represent you in a purchase. Remember that."

This is simply an overstatement for a large forum when you don't the location or agreement others have with their agent.
Not all agents represent the seller, they may have a fiduciary responsibility to the buyer.

mpinto - That isn't necessarily the case. I always have my buyers sign a buyer's agency agreement with me, allowing me to represent their interests, not the seller's. The commission is still paid by the seller.

So your commission doesn't go down if the buyers negotiate a lower price? Doesn't go up if they pay more?

If your commission depends on the sales price, you have one heck of a conflict of interest - you can't truly claim to represent the buyers if you are financially rewarded for getting them to pay more.

We don't "get them" to pay more. We encourage them to make reasonable offers. Bank appraisals can easily kill a deal that is for more than it should be. I don't get paid on a deal that doesn't close.

I agree with pinto, the agents real goal is closing.
The small amount an agent gets for a slightly higher sale price is not a real motive. Getting the buyer to offer an amount acceptable to the seller is more realistic goal.

lazygardens how much do you think the agent gets if the house sales for $5k more ($5-10K seems like the normal quibble range for much of the US).

To get back to the point of the question, and off the unending pro/con realtor argument, the biggest mistake I see around here from FSBO sellers is price.
Since I'm kind of monitoring house sales around here (planning on selling/buying early next year), every FSBO house I've seen recently has been significantly overpriced. I'm basing this on the current asking price for comparable properties offered through realty companies, and on current recent sales prices.

I wonder if it's an emotional attachment that makes them overvalue what their house is "worth". I've seen a number of these stay on the market for a long time.

"I wonder if it's an emotional attachment that makes them overvalue what their house is "worth". I've seen a number of these stay on the market for a long time"

The explanation is called endowment effect. From Wikipedia:

In behavioral economics, the endowment effect (also known as divestiture aversion) is the hypothesis that people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them.[1] This is illustrated by the observation that people will tend to pay more to retain something they own than to obtain something owned by someone else��"even when there is no cause for attachment, or even if the item was only obtained minutes ago.

There are a number of theories in the article attempting to explain what drives endowment effect; it's very interesting reading.

We've sold our homes by holding day long Open Houses all weekend. We got our buyers and second looks from that pool. We never followed anyone around to show our home. We would tell them that we had a short spiel to give them--letting them know where to see our inspection report, a copy of the appraisal, and that we would be on the deck outside to answer any questions. You could see them visibly relax when they understood we werent going to follow them, high pressure them, point out every detail and they'd have a fair amount of privacy to discuss the home without worrying about offending us. We never left anything of real value in the home as well as any medications, of course, and never had a problem.

debrak2008 wrote: "I can't imagine not walking through the house with anyone because of theft. . . . I have never seen a Realtor allow someone to walk through a home unattended."

I agree that allowing strangers to wander through your home unattended seems risky.

But I *have* see Realtors allow people to walk through homes unattended -- on many occasions.

Not only that, I've had a potential buyer go into my personal bedroom drawers while touring my home with a Realtor, so I can only assume that the buyer was "unattended" by his/her Realtor.

Similar to what dlm2000 wrote, I would think you'd have to accompany the potential buyers, but stay in the doorways and encourage them repeatedly to have a thorough look in each room.

Hi there. Longtime lurker who finally signed up because of this question.

After staring at listings for the past few years, the biggest mistake that I see FSBOs make is a) not removing all traces of having pets before taking photos (putting away food and water bowls, hiding litter box, putting dog leashes in garage, etc.) and b) thinking that they're being cute by including their pets in some of the photos.

Our daughter has a lung disease and is incredibly allergic to pets (not in the sneezing kind of way, but in a sometimes dangerous way). When I see FSBO photos with evidence of pets, I move along, regardless of how interesting the house may be. I have never bothered going to look at one in person.

The house that we're buying in two days did actually have dogs living in it, but that was not reflected in the photos, so I went through it. It was so clean and fresh in there that I couldn't detect any pet smells/hair, and our daughter has been fine every time that she's been over there. But if there had been an errant leash hanging on a hook or a water bowl on the back patio, I wouldn't have stepped foot in it.

The other thing that I see a lot is that the photos are really poor quality, often taken with a cell phone. Come on, now. In this day and age we all have access to a friend with a fairly nice digital camera. Do NOT take the photos at night or with heavy blinds/draperies closed. Open every window covering, turn on every light, and use a good camera. Very little effort that would go a long way.

Ryse... your comment is just plain incorrect. What you describe is called "sub agency', and is not allowed or performed in most areas of the Country.
Most buyers ARE represented by their agents through a contract called a Buyers Agency Agreement.
The biggest problem I see with FSBOs is letting emotions get in the way of negotiating and over pricing the home.

Most FSBO listings are extremely unprofessional. Sticking a sign one bought at Wal-Mart out in front with a phone number scrawled on it, is not going to generate much of anything except in possibly very high traffic areas.

Not being listed in the MLS

Unprofessional photos & marketing materials

Use of personal phone number

No website or online presence

No broker co-op

No realistic knowledge of the market, comps, or pricing

No knowledge of how to get a home ready to show/sell

No knowledge of actually selling a house without a broker or realtor - attorneys etc.

Decades ago when I was trying to sell my first home, I received a call from a woman who wanted me to pick her up, show her my home, and then take her home. I later heard that she did this routinely as a form of entertainment.
There can be other reasons beside home purchasing that people will visit your home. A FSBO sign is an invitation to loons, thieves and more.
Just be cautious.
BTW I ended up getting a Realtor, smart move on my part. I added an incentive and the house sold fairly quickly; I was happy, the buyer was happy, and the Realtor was happy.

karyn: why is it a problem to use your personal phone number?

I have to say sadly that a lot of the things you list (bad photos, home not show-ready, unrealistic price) are things that I see all too often with realtor listings as well.

I don't think having a FSBO on the MLS is all that important anymore. Two years ago we sold our last home FSBO by using multiple, strategically placed directional signs to our home (for Open House) which included the Zillow address so people could look up the home online if they happened to come across our signs. Four were placed on heavily trafficked intersections. We listed on Zillow, of course, and Craig's List. At the Open House, it wasnt unusual for people to be chatty once they realized we weren't going to put the hard sell on them and we would take that opportunity to ask them how they found our home. We found out that way that we had attracted buyers from the Zillow website, the signs, and Craig's List. If we had an unusual home or a very limited pool of buyers, I would consider MLS. But, otherwise, I wouldn't spend the money, in this day and age where it's not only easy and cheap to list online but to educate yourself with all kinds of great advice if you want to go FSBO.

Two years ago we sold our last home FSBO by using multiple, strategically placed directional signs to our home (for Open House) which included the Zillow address so people could look up the home online if they happened to come across our signs. Four were placed on heavily trafficked intersections.

There are many areas that will not allow people to place signs wherever they want to on property they do not own.

In my area...

1. Dramatically overpriced (like $100,000 overpriced for what should be a $200,000 house.)

2.) Terrible pictures, even more terrible than the terrible realtor-taken photos which are common around here. Sometimes even uploaded sideways or upside down....

I have never seen a FSBO get everything right. A current FSBO listing in my neighborhood looks PERFECT - but the price is ridiculously high and I expect it to just sit and sit. But maybe that's their plan... just looking for bites, holding out "til the market comes up to" their price, without worrying about a realtor getting paid. They've also lived there for 40 years or so so I can't really imagine them laying off a bit and not being pushy and protective.

Honestly, I'm not sure what's wrong with mentioning the name of a room. If you had friends or family coming to look at a new house of yours, and they requested a tour, wouldn't you walk them around and say, "and here's the kitchen, and here's the master bedroom," etc.? Or would you just silently have them follow you? Yes, everyone knows it's the kitchen, but mentioning it is still totally normal.

In my area, it is typical for seller's realtors to be present for the showings, and I do know that my realtor lets the buyers have some time wandering alone (and apparently hangs out with their realtor in the kitchen or something.) He's a very non-pushy realtor, but it has worried me. So far we've never noticed anything missing, though.... We've removed all true valuables, but I'm thinking of Marie on Breaking Bad, going to open houses as a hobby and compulsively stealing little things like commemorative spoons.... Still I think it's nice for realtors (or owners) to hang back a bit and let people look for themselves or at least not feel so monitored.

This post was edited by lizzie_nh on Mon, Jul 7, 14 at 11:36

"We've sold our homes by holding day long Open Houses all weekend. We got our buyers and second looks from that pool. We never followed anyone around to show our home. We would tell them that we had a short spiel to give them--letting them know where to see our inspection report, a copy of the appraisal, and that we would be on the deck outside to answer any questions. You could see them visibly relax when they understood we werent going to follow them, high pressure them, point out every detail and they'd have a fair amount of privacy to discuss the home without worrying about offending us. We never left anything of real value in the home as well as any medications, of course, and never had a problem."

You sound like the seller we bought from. He did everything right. He should have been a realtor!

The house wasn't furnished so there was nothing to steal. Best of all he didn't have to follow us around. Showed us the brochures and basically answered any questions we had. House was clean, landscaping was tidy. The realtor he hired didn't do much of anything. They were on vacation the day we made our offer. During an open house HE was hosting. Sheesh. I hope they gave him a few bucks for doing all the work.