With all due respect to the hard-working, competent agents with integrity out there, there is a segment of the real estate agent and broker community that is entirely worthless.

In fact, you said you spoke to some agents who blatantly admitted that they place their own financial interest ahead of their buyer clients by hiding some homes from their clients that might be a good match for no reason other than the agent wanting to make more money with a higher commission. Highly unethical, not the type of agent you want to do business with.

Many real estate agents seem to believe they are entitled to be massively overpaid for doing little work other than using the Multiple Listing Service. Those agents also tend to be the ones with less knowledge.

When you are at the lower end of the price range for your category in your neighborhood, the value of the agent is highly reduced. They might be of value in marketing the property, finding a buyer, and negotiating top dollar for a seller. It sounds like your pricing has reduced the value of the agent. I do value an experienced person in supervising the escrow, but a smart experienced transactional attorney in that field will do it for many thousands of dollars less than a greedy agent with less knowledge in completing the closing while protecting your interest. An attorney charging several hundred dollars an hour will cost less than an overpaid agent who charges a percentage and then shuffles some papers with a buyer paying the same you might have found on your own. This savings would likely exist even if the escrow did not close and you paid the attorney the hourly rate and then needed to start over with a different buyer.

These days, there are agents that specialize in being buyers agents and never expect more than 3 percent. There are also companies than make a point of discounting the commission significantly by having a seller do the showings.

The internet age has reduced the value of agents. Those that try to exploit the clients should be ignored.

Greed, entitlement to be overpaid, insufficient knowledge of the business. You don't need those kind of agents.

In your ad, say "buyer's agents welcome" or something to that effect. That signals the RE agent that you are willing to pay the buyer's agency commission. Find out what that typically is in your area. In my area, last I heard, it was 2.7%. It could be 3% now, or in your area, however.

When the agent "offers" to be your agent also - ie, become a dual agent (which in my view is a total utter conflict of interest) - say thanks, but I have my own lawyer or agent or whatever.

As others have stated, you will need to offer a "Buyer's agent" fee if you want to open yourself up to the market that uses Buyers agents, typically half the normal fee (3%).

Now that should cause you to pause and think for a minute about what it is you're truly saving.

Don't get me wrong: FSBO can POTENTIALLY help you save money, but unless you're an expert odds are you will lose money or save so little it's not worth your time.

An EXCELLENT Agent, one who sold 100+ houses last year and the year before, is worth their fee. Think about it. What happens if you do and one or more of the following:

1) Under price your house, by even 1%.

2) Get a Buyer who negotiates, know that you are saving on the FSBO side. I do this all the time. There goes another 1-2%.

So there are two very small, simple things that happen all the time, and already you've lost:

3% to a Buyer's agent.

1% to pricing yourself too low.

1-2% due to more aggressive negotiation tactics.

Uh oh. That adds up to...5-6%. How much did you really "save?"

The fact is 90% of buyers use Buyer's agents. If you do not agree to pay them, you lose a large percentage of your market. Fewer offers = less competition = lower sales price. Also, you'll end up with low ballers/investors like me wearing you down.

I know some here will claim they routinely FSBO all the time and make a ton more. I would ask them to provide data backing up that claim. Most of them will not or cannot. Most are either pricing and selling too cheaply and don't realize it, or they aren't saving as much as they think after all is said and done.

I tried to FSBO my personal residence last year and guess what. After all, I'm an investor and "know my market." I got nothing but tire-kickers and looky loos who wanted to low ball me.

Please don't think I didn't "know what I was doing." I've been in this town since 2005. I was all over Zillow. I ran comps, which was easy to do in my cookie cutter neighborhood. I sent out emails and flyers to the 30 top agents in town by listing and sales count. I offered a Buyer's fee of 3%. Nothing for 6 weeks; not one reasonable offer. So I listed with an agent who had helped me sell a flip a few years ago. He upped my listing price, marketed it like a crazy guy, and we sold it in about a month's time. The extra money we saved covered the entire 6% agent fee and we put $1,000 extra in our pocket.

I agree with exactly what Sid said, plus:

Don't forget to calculate your continuing costs while the listing sits and waits for a buyer. A longer time to find a qualified buyer adds more cost / lost profit due to taxes, insurance, utilities, gas and time for you to go back & forth dealing with the looks-loos.

In a hot market, FSBO works fine.

I put "courtesy to agents" in my FSBO ads.

When agents call, they are always trying to trick me into listing with them by claiming they have a buyer.

I tell them I'm happy to pay them 3% and give them a one party listing, only for the buyer that they have at the time.

Oddly, they all go away and I never hear from them again.

Try FSBO for a couple of weeks and if you aren't getting any genuine buyer interest, then you can think about listing it.

All good points. If your a Real Estate Investor-- that means buying and SELLING. Agent didn't earn anything. They didn't even list it-- you did. You do the showing. Most people now are required to be pre qualified. Realtor isn't doing that-- purchaser is.

Get a good one page sales contract-- run it by your real estate atty for any input -- put in your stipulations (one being) proof of financing and close in 30 to 45 days. Who your using for closing. Earnest money held by closing atty. Yada Yada Yada.. Realtor's don't sell-- they list and their 27 out of 28 page contract -- to cover their commission.

You all are making way to much out of selling only because you never really researched it. Kinda like the snow job from HVAC techs making us believe they are the only ones qualified.

My problem with FSBO is that the 145 losers that I have rejected for every rental vacancy will all contact me and try to buy the house I am selling on a rent to own contract.

They don't want to spring that great idea on me until after I have invested the time to show them the house. They have no problem with lying in order to get an appointment to see the house.

Putting "no seller carry, no rent to own" in the ad doesn't even slow them down; they will still try it.

Don't fall for the I'll have to represent both BS. That's called dual agency and it's against the law to truly represent both. The only legal way to do it is basically act like a referee to both parties, or just represent one party only. You can negotiate for yourself and a lawyer can look over the contracts. If they act as a referee, then they can only relay pertinent facts. They can't suggest how much the seller should offer, or any other opinions. The only thing they can tell either or both parties is just facts, no opinions. Sq ft, acreage, school district, number of bedrooms, gas or electric, etc.

Don't hesitate to pay the buyer's commission of 3% so you don't miss out on agents.

I wanted to sell a single family house that was paid off. So I got the comps and determined it's value. The best way for me was to sell it by owner, myself and carry back the mortgage with a tenants 10% down payment.

Since I didn't have to pay a commission, I was already 6% ahead of the game. And since the buyer didn't have to pay points and loan fee's, I got over the market price, an extra $10,000.