Thinking about selling your home without an agent? Here’s why many FSBO sellers actually net less — and where money is quietly lost during negotiations.
There’s a persistent belief in real estate that if you remove the commission line item, you automatically make more money.
On paper, that sounds logical.
In practice, it’s often not what happens.
Every year, homeowners decide to sell their property themselves — commonly referred to as For Sale By Owner (FSBO) — with the hope of “keeping more of the profit.” And every year, national data shows something surprising: homes sold with professional representation consistently sell for more on average than those sold without it.
According to annual reporting from the National Association of Realtors, FSBO homes typically sell for less than agent-assisted sales. Not a little less. Meaningfully less.
That doesn’t mean FSBO sellers aren’t intelligent. It doesn’t mean they& ...