It is hard not to feel sorry for Alan Jacobson. He fell in love with a historic home in Virginia, made a deal with the seller, and waited for the seller to make repairs before close.
It got really ugly after that, a contractor died, the two parties started fighting and lawyers reaped the benefit of a deal gone sour. I am not sure that Mr. Jacobson ever got the home.
Take a look at his FSBOGoneWrong blog for the full story. The comments are particularly interesting. One that I found enlightening was from a Realtor named Jim. Jim says,
I am a Realtor. I try not to do business with FSBO’s. I have neither the time nor inclination to train them in the art and science of real estate negotiations and transactions. Almost all FSBO’s are too cheap to pay for Realtor services. Little do they know, the buyer of FSBO’s fully expects the cost savings in price to be passed on to him. That’s why I don’t get involved with either of them. I just let them lie, cheat and abuse each other.
Honestly, the number of unrepresented sellers in Metro Detroit seems to be way down. In a challenging market one needs all the help available to muster up a sale. Time is Money. The unrepresented seller is most likely just adding to their time on market. In a market with declining values this is a particularly expensive decision.
[tags]unrepresented seller[/tags]
Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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Agent Greg 07.16.07 at 10:13 am
I like to be patient with FSBO’s. I keep in touch and wait for them to fail. I don’t put much time at all into it and wait for them to come to me. Just as long as you don’t promise them miracles they have not been all that bad for me.