If it's in a small town & buyers see the signs, they will ask their agents to show the house & find out about details. This is how we bought the last house. Had been looking for a particular type of house in a particular neighborhood with an agent. When my son saw the signs, he did call up the agent & asked to see that house. The seller at first wanted to pay no commission, but he finally did pay about 2% (and we paid our agent the rest). Wish I could say that our loyalty to this agent paid off in advice and negotiating -- but unfortunately, the agent was quite ineffective in securing any advantages for us. However, we finally did get a home in a location that was what we wanted.
Good luck
Susan

I didn't have time to look in papers or sift through the FSBO sites. There was the rare occasion that one caught my eye but that's as far as it went. I've been followed around by sellers (with an agent) as well as read stories here where some would allow buyers to walk their house. I wasn't comfortable with the whole process I guess. If it wasn't listed on realtor.com, I didn't walk it. FWIW, I never saw any FSBO's come up in my searches there, so who knows?

I just sold my home FSBO, however without listing it. The buyers realtor heard we were selling (we were interviewing realtors) and contacted me and asked if I'd be interested to do a FSBO before listing.

I really think it depends on the realtors and other realtors in the area. The realtor that brought her buyers to me really worked for her clients imo. Others may not have the same idea of servicing their clients and depending on what is common in your area all realtors may just follow the flow or even tell their clients that ask about it something bad. We had one of those realtors early on in our househunt and stopped using that realtor.

What about the Flat fee services that are popping up all over where the realtor for a flat fee will put what is essentially a FSBO in the MLS. I personally don't want to deal direct with an owner, just personal preference, nothing against those doing FSBO. However, if I'm looking on realtor.com I'm not sure how easy it would be to spot the flat fee listings. But I have a friend that tried the flat fee listing and was very happy with it. Although she said 75% of all those that viewed the home were through her directly and were not using an agent. She definitely had the feeling that realtors in her area were boycotting her home.

I'm fine working with FSBOs - I have acted as a buyer's agent for many buyers who have purchased FSBO.

I have always contacted the seller in advance to negotiate whether they are willing to pay a half commission to an agent. If they were, I show the listing. If not, then I disregard it.

I have even written letters to several selected buildings on behalf of clients who like particular buildings. That only worked once (and it happened to be for myself), but I have done it for several clients.

What seems to happen when I sell a buyer a fsbo is that I end up doing all the work because the sellers tend to have no idea what they are doing, but that's ok.

My objection is to the word "boycott". I work in a RE office as an assistant to an agent, and have never heard any agent say that they "boycott" all FSBOs. I know agents that are leery of working with FSBO sellers because they don't know how knowledgeable the sellers are. With current market conditions as they are with so many homes on the market, most agents can find a suitable home for their clients among the hundreds of homes on the MLS. That said, when it was a sellers market, and buyers were having trouble finding a home, the agents that I know would seek out FSBOs for their clients. I also know that many FSBOs are not realistically priced. For instance there is a home in my area that was priced at $375,000 with a flat fee agency which is basically a company that puts FSBOs on the MLS for a fee. After over 3 months they listed with an agent at $339, a month later it's at $319 and still not sold.

A FSBO can get into the MLS using a flat fee realtor. But when the posting shows up in MLS, it will show the flat fee broker's contact info. So the standard buyer will not know it is really a FSBO that is in the MLS (with seller willing the pay the agent that brings the buyer a commission). Most local realtors know the names of the flat fee brokers, so they can tell the listing based on the name of the broker. But most buyers don't typically remember the names of most area brokers, so often don't know if a broker is really a flat fee broker.

I sold FSBO and was listed in MLS by a flat fee broker. That broker passed all calls/emails to the seller(me). Then I dealt directly with the folks that contacted the "listing agent".

I don't think they boycotted. I got a lockbox and gave the realtors the code so they could show the home without me being around.

Boycott is exactly what happens here. We had an agent sitting in the driveway (during an open house) who wouldn't let her clients in the house until she extracted a commission # from us. If I had been that client I would have gotten out of that car and that agent would have never heard from me again.

Yes, some of us sell FSBO because we don't want to deal with agents. In a nutshell. We do a RE transaction on the average of every two years. We have yet to have an agent involved where it wasn't screwed up (by the agent.)

Someone may not have the time to read the RE ads, but I don't have the time or energy to weed out the crappy agents.

Gloria

"Boycott is exactly what happens here. We had an agent sitting in the driveway (during an open house) who wouldn't let her clients in the house until she extracted a commission # from us. If I had been that client I would have gotten out of that car and that agent would have never heard from me again."

If I was the agent and my buyer did not want to pay me, I would have done the same.
I know, you don't want agents to get paid.

It depends on the market and, of course, on the particular agent, but agents not only do boycott FSBOs, some also have been known to flat-out lie about homes that are FSBO ("there's water in the basement," "that house has a mold problem", etc.) In the last metro area I lived in, very few agents would ever show a FSBO, even if full commission was offered. It was the "principle" of the thing, I guess. Yes, there are some agents who will work with FSBOs but if you are considering FSBO, be prepared to deal with the boycott issue. Nothing you can do about the bad-mouthing issue.

"...but agents not only do boycott FSBOs, some also have been known to flat-out lie about homes that are FSBO ("there's water in the basement," "that house has a mold problem", etc.)"

That's why it is so important to be represented by a buyers agent/REALTOR, who only has the buyers best interests at heart. (and buyers need to make sure they selected the right agent)