I am currently house hunting. I was interested in a FSBO house, but thought it was way overpriced for the market and location. I visited the website regularly to see if the owner had finally come to his/her senses and reduced the price. So, although it may appear you have many hits for your house, it could just be two or three house hunters checking to see if you have lowered your price. In my experience, FSBO homes tend to be overpriced for the current market. Just a thought...

Hi Jill,

As previously mentioned, Trulia listing services are only available to real estate professionals. Unfortunately, your experience is similar to many others, with the number of hits being high but the actual number of contacts are low or non-existent.

Today's buyers are looking for deals.....if your home does not represent a deal it will undoubtedly be on the market for a while. The price needs to be right for your market................

Good luck,
The "Eckler Team"

Jill.tamara

Undoubtedly you have sold by now, and proved the negative thinking of all of the previous posters, to be way off base. Mb and J R excepted. However, for fututre reference the below link might aid you should you do another FSBO. You might even sell in two weeks instead of the six it took this time. :-)

http://www.trulia.com/blog/rockinblu/2008/08/thinking_about_…

If it's any consolation for you Jill, I have a listing that has had 350 web hits on ONE SITE and I've gotten no calls or emails generated by any internet advertising. My showings have been thru the sign (not many) and other agents bringing their buyers.

Hello Jill,
I admire those folks that do want to FSBO, but on the other hand most end up choosing a Realtor. I know there are some that don't seem to do the job, so choosing one is really important. In the slower market you are now competing with homeseller that do have Realtors and they see more homes currently on the market listed with the MLS. My company has several options available to seller that can help you realize more of your nest egg. If you are still trying to sell your home and have not engaged a Realtor, I would be delighted to speak with you. You can e-mail me also.
Best of Luck.

Below is a blog posting I wrote a while ago for another Turlia post similar to yours.

First of all, I am not one of those stuffy Realtors who believe people who attempt to do FSBO are bad, in fact, I believe if you can do it, you should. So with that being said, let me share some insight as to why FSBO’s have the highest failure rate in the Real Estate Industry.

Most homeowner’s just copy what they see the agents do. They put a sign in the yard, an advertisement in the paper, they hold an open house and even put their listing on some website like, “ForSaleByOwner.com” Then the set back and think, “WOW, this is easy!” The truth is, only about 10% of all FSBO’s ever sell. That is a horrible statistic however, only about 10% of homes listed with agents get sold by the actual listing agent. My point is, the percentage is the same for a Listing Agent selling a home themselves as it is a Home Owner going FSBO. This isn’t a random statistic of fate, it’s a result of how the Real Estate Industry actually works. Think back when you bought your home, how many agents were involved….most likely 2, in fact out of all of you reading this post, 90% had 2 Realtors involved in your last transaction. You had a Listing Agent, he was the one who represented the Seller and you had a Buyer’s Agent and he was the one who represented the Buyer. Only about 10% of the time do you have transactions where only 1 agent is involved and, that would be the Listing Agent.

So, why would that 10% statistic be true for both FSBO’s and Listing Agents. Simply put, Listing Agents aren’t trying to directly sell your home to a buyer. As a Listing Agent myself, I am more concerned with targeting my marketing efforts to the Buyer’s Agents who are working with qualified, ready, willing and able Buyer’s. This type of marketing effort ensures that those viewing your home are actually people who can make an offer. The are 4 main types of marketing efforts that you don’t see that Listing Agents do.

First is the Office Tour. An office tour is when a whole office of Realtors come through and tour the home. This is typically done as part of the office’s regular weekly meeting and can be rather interesting to watch. Most of the time each Realtor has a score card or feed back card and as the tour the home, they provide their feedback on these cards for the Listing Agent to collect and read over. This Office Tour is a great way of getting the word out about your home to those people who work with qualified, ready, willing and able Buyer’s

Secondly is the Broker Open. The Broker Open is when the Listing Agent send out open house invites to only Brokers. Most of the time the Listing Agent will have food and other incentives like prizes. The Broker Open typically will find Mortgage Lenders, Title Attorney, Closing Agents and all sorts of other Real Estate Industry professionals. Once again, the idea here is to market the home to those people who are working with those Buyer’s that are qualified, ready, willing and able.

Thirdly, is the Office Flyer. This is a flyer that is distributed among all the local Real Estate Agents through their offices. Sometimes, now that we are moving more and more into a digital age, this hard copy flyer is followed up with a email flyer to all these agents. The same ides is at work here and that is, spend marketing dollars on those people who are working with qualified, ready, willing and able buyers.

Last but not least, the MLS, the single most powerful reason to use a Realtor. The truth is, Realtor’s who work with Buyer’s typically and statistically proven only look in the MLS when it comes to deciding what homes are available, list price and more. So, in essence, if your home isn’t in the local MLS, then 90% of all your prospective buyer’s aren’t even going to see or know your home is for sale.

In closing, let me put it another way, when you’re serious about buying yourself, are you going to go find a Realtor or look for homes that are for sale by owner. I can confidently say that 90% of you reading this, will be working with a Realtor and that is exactly why FSBO’s fail. - Thu Jul 3 2008, 09:15 - Wed Jul 9 2008, 13:23 - Fri Jul 11 2008, 14:23

Keith's numbers are right. Do you have a lot of time to sell your home, or do you need to sell it now? A professional realtor can do a better job than all but 10% of owners selling on their own. (I'm not even going to calculate the luck factor)
As far as the FSBO sites, you have to remember that they have approximately the same number of listings as my company site has through the local professional MLS here in Kansas City. We average more than a million visits per month with each visit lasting an average of 14 minutes. I don't know what your FSBO site counts as a visit. Also, our listings are all local. FSBO has listings from all over the country.
Another thing to keep in mind is that each realtor has an average of 5 buyers they are working with. Multiply that by the number of full time realtors in your area and figure that's the amount of qualified buyers you may not be reaching. Not that their realtor would mind working with a FSBO, but when there are so many homes on the market, the buyers have plenty of choices.
Another good way to advertise on the internet is through your local Craigslist; lots of buyers look there. You can also buy a domain name from GoDaddy and direct people to your home throught it's address. Put that on the sign in your yard. Also, knock on all your neighbors doors and ask them if they know of anyone who would like to buy in your neighborhood. Are you holding Open Houses? When you advertise a home, you need to use all the media you possibly can. Does the local TV or Radio station have a program you can use to advertise? How about the small newspapers?
Finally, if you get 10 people inside to see your home and no offers, you need to reassess the condition, location, and price of your home. Are you offering any incentives?
This may be more information than you wanted. Good luck on your venture.

I am currently trying to decide whether to do FSBO or list with a realtor. I found this site which looks interesting called CENTURY 21 Clickit, Inc. You get an MLS listing and can get listed on Trulia. There are different packages and upgrades available. I don't know anything about it so you will have to do some research. If I learn more I will share info. as I research it myself. Good luck

Jill, the first poster is right, you need to be a Realtor to list your home on Trulia.
So, curious, why are you not listing your home?

If you want to sell your home, here are some thoughts:
1. If you can sell it on your own, great. Homes sold by owners without professional representation sell to someone they know 5% of the time, someone the don't know 5% of the time, and 86% list with a Realtor.
2. Homes sold by Realtors average 16% higher average price, than those sold by owners selling without professional representation.
3. If you need to sell in a hurry, for top dollar, you need a Realtor. Why not interview a couple of REaltors, then decide what is in your best interest.

Hi Jill: I believe you have to be a licensed real estate agent to post a listing on Trulia. At least that what it says in the Trulia ad. Also, if Wachovia and BofA start mass layoffs it will start in Charlotte NC and because of the subprime mess with both Wachovia and Countrywide (now BofA) being such agressive subprime promoters, you will be one of many trying to sell and it might be wise to start now with an experienced agent and agressive price. Heck, I live 3000 miles away and even I know what precarious positions the Charlotte banks are in; if I was a buyer in Charlotte, I would not be buying at the present time anticipating much lower housing prices in the future. Good Luck