Why not just buy a For Sale by Owner house?

There is nothing wrong with buying a for sale by owner house -- just make sure you hire a very strong agent to help you do it! Some FSBOs have something to hide, as the account below shows.

My favorite for sale by owner story goes like this: I listed a for sale by owner who could not sell their home themselves (By the way, most FSBOs tend to overprice badly which makes everything go wrong for them. Most buyers of FSBO houses expect to save at least 10% over what they would pay for the same home listed by a realtor. This make the FSBO sale almost impossible, unless the local market has a shortage of inventory and steadily rising prices!)

The next door neighbor to the former-FSBO approached me, stating that his last agents were unable to sell his home; after I sold his neighbor's home, he would hire me to sell his home. When we put this home on the market, I discovered that he and his wife had purchased from a FSBO seller, and saved even more money because the seller had offered them a home inspection report at no cost!

When I sold this home myself, the buyers' home inspector discovered an abandoned oil tank in the front yard. The prior owners had abandoned it years ago when it began to leak oil and neglected to mention it when they sold the home as a FSBO. My seller clients ended up with a multi-thousand dollar clean-up bill. Oh the money they saved by buying a For Sale by Owner...

The moral of the story: “If you think hiring an expert is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur!”
Red Adair - World Famous Oil Field Firefighter

If you don't hire an agent, you are the amateur...

For more actual experiences with For Sale by Owner challenges, email Brent.