I had that Dummies book from the library for awhile but the offer fell through, the book went back. Now the offer has come through (the intricacies of federal hiring) and so i will go back to the library and get it again. It wasn't a FSBO book per se - it was the Selling for Dumies which covered a little bit of everything. Do you have a different book recommendation? I was hoping to buy a flat fee MLS listing - so so many people (including myself) search the mls on their own. Many don't have realtors. But I can't seem to find a...service? that does that here. There is a bank that does the flat fee thing with an ad in the newspaper. Also a real estate lawyer, the one I bought the land from actually. I can use him for legal but he doesn't do mls either. Could it be against a state law or something? I can't figure it out from the googled websites I get. I think they are designed to confuse you.

I'm hopping in on this thread too... We are going to be listing in the near future. I am not sure exactly sure when, we want to move around May/June. When we sold last time we were able to get the fee down to 6% instead of the usual 7% in this area, and we sold the house in 6 days (3 years ago) I watch all the HGTV shows on how to get the house sold, put a lot of work into having my house show ready, and made fresh cookies just before every showing :) (I kept a batch of ready made cookie dough in the fridge to be ready in a few minutes notice) This house should hopefully sell for around $230,000. I have found several flat fee listing companies in the area, they are about $500 for getting on the MLS, up to about $1000 if you want multiple pictures on Realtor.com etc... So this is looking like a good idea to me, and I agree, it would make sense to offer the buyer's realtor some commission too. My concerns are... what do we have to do that a listing agent usually would? I have no problem doing the showings (if they have no buyer's agent), writing the ad, taking the pictures, setting the price, writing the disclosure forms, and the other things. But I am concerned about what happens AFTER the deal is accepted. What services would I be doing that a realtor usually takes care of? In our case, if we sold at $230,000 and I am able to get a realtor to do 6%, their commission would be $13,800. If I went with the $1000 listing service, paid the buyer's realtor 3% $6900, and any other incidentals (lawyers services, etc...) we may be talking about $5000, which is worth my time and effort, but I want to know what I am getting myself into.

Personally, I would get a realtor who is recommended by people in the neighborhood. It would not be worth saving the 1% in realty fees to deal with all the hassle of buyers, realty ads, reviewing contracts, etc. Also, the realtor should know how to present your house professionally and to target it to the appropriate buyers. If you cant get the price you want, maybe you can consider renting it out?

Photos tell story about a house. Very likely your house is not like that yet your photos loudly convey this property is suffocating, cluttered, lacking of regular maintenance and needs tons of work. Average buyers tend not want to be bothered seeing a dreary property if there are others available. Savvy buyers will treat it as an opportunity to get a bargain as these photos say the seller does not have professional acumen. In essence, FSBO is the owner does the job a realtor usually performs in order to earn the commission. Without realtors' professional knowledge, experience, network and supporting infrastructures, the owner has to work a lot harder to compete with other houses. It would be good to give critical thinking of the comments you received from "fellow realtors" before passing them along. There are many top notch realtors on this forum (NC is one of them), I bet none of them would have this type of silly opinions.