Is For Sale By Owner Right For You?
Many people think they can save time and money by selling their homes without a REALTOR®. I’ve put together a list of FSBO facts to help you decide whether FSBO is right for you.
These FSBO stats show that, while you can save some money on REALTOR® fees, you could also be faced with some unexpected challenges. For example, roughly 11% of sellers actually succeed at selling their home without an agent. And if they did? Those FSBO homes sold for about 22% less on average than agented properties, which often negates any savings!
Real estate became a legitimate business in the early 1800’s. It has been around for close to two centuries for a reason. A real estate transaction is not quite the same as going to the store and buying just any product. There are a lot of factors at play, and there is a massive amount of money at stake.
Let’s dive into the pros and cons of *For Sale By Owner.
WHAT DID FSBO SELLERS FIND MOST DIFFICULT IN 2021?
Canadian statistics on FSBO are not tracked as closely as they are in the United States. For that reason, I will be using numbers pulled directly from the National Association of REALTORS® website.
Prepping the Home is the Most Difficult Task for 12% of Sellers

If you’re wondering what the hardest part of selling FSBO is, over 12% of FSBO sellers said it was getting the home ready for sale.If you’re selling FSBO, you may feel overwhelmed by tasks such as staging your home properly, keeping the home clean for showings, taking care of repairs and touch ups, and maintaining your lawn and garden.While many of these are tasks you’ll have to do even if you have an agent, an agent can give you direction about what work is the most important to attract buyers. A good agent will even assist you in completing these tasks.
6% of FSBO sellers struggle to sell on time
About 6% of FSBO sellers said selling their home within their ideal time range was the hardest part of their experience.Conveniently, selling within their desired time frame turned out to be the top reason people did choose a REALTOR®, according to 36% of agent-assisted sellers. That suggests selling fast is one of the top benefits that a REALTOR® can provide. In our current market, sellers are typically accepting offers within the first 4 days of listing their home.Non-REALTORS® simply lack the marketing skills or the network of interested buyers that an agent brings to the table — which help get a property sold fast. If you’re looking to sell fast, the safest bet is to get an agent to help with your sale.
Pricing the home correctly was the most difficult task for 9% of FSBO sellers.
Most FSBO sellers simply look at what other homes are selling for in their area and choose a similar price. But that fails to take into account unique aspects of the home — such as unique features, or recent upgrades and repairs — that could affect your final sales price.
Pricing your home is one of the most important parts of selling a home. Sellers need to find the sweet spot of not losing money by pricing too low and not losing prospective buyers by pricing too high. It can be difficult to take an unbiased approach to pricing your home, especially when the home holds sentimental value to you.
As we’ll discuss in later FSBO stats, problems with pricing are part of the reason why FSBO homes sell for over 25% less on average than agented properties. On a $400,000 home, that could mean losing over $100,000 on your sale — way more than you’d pay in realtor fees!
10% of FSBO Sellers Can’t Stand the Paperwork.
The second hardest part of selling on your own is completing the paperwork. This was ranked the toughest task by 10% of FSBO sellers.
Completing the paperwork involved with a sale is a complicated process that most FSBO sellers struggle with. REALTORS® are trained on every piece of paperwork required for the sale of you home during their licensing program. On top of that, we must take mandatory courses annually to keep ourselves as sharp as possible on all forms. Even if you price your home correctly and find a willing buyer on your own, as a FSBO seller, you’ll handle a lot of the paperwork that goes along with a sale.
While you can hire a real estate attorney to handle some of the paperwork, including the sales contract, this will likely cost extra at the time of closing. An attorney won’t provide you with the advantages that a REALTORS® offers, such as pricing your home and negotiating the most appropriate terms for you in your current situation.
5% wish they had more time to focus on selling
FSBO can be so much work that a lot of people struggle to find the time for it. 5% of FSBO sellers say that finding enough time to devote to selling was the most difficult task for them.
Not only do you need to focus on getting your home ready for sale (which is the most difficult task faced by FSBO sellers), but you also need to focus on finding buyers by marketing, holding showings, and negotiating with potential buyers. Doing this while also working a full time job can prove to be challenging.
When you have an offer, you’ll have to do things like draw up a sales contract, negotiate terms, price and conditions. These are things that a REALTOR® would typically handle. After all that work, there’s a good chance that you’ll still end up making less money than if you just hired an agent in the first place.
Only 6% of FSBO sellers list on the MLS

About 91% of all homes for sale are listed on MLS®, but only 6% of FSBO sellers market their homes with an MLS® listing.
Only licensed REALTORS® and brokerages can list on an MLS® — but it’s how the majority of buyers and buyers’ agents find homes for sale. This leaves FSBO sellers missing out on a lot of exposure. Buyers’ agents may not even know that your home is on the market and never show it to their clients!
There is a work-around. A flat-fee MLS® service will list your home for a couple hundred dollars. A flat-fee MLS® service is legally a brokerage, which is why they can list on the MLS® — but aside from that, they won’t do any of the other work that an agent would, like showings, staging, negotiating, or photography.
At the end of the day, it is your home, and it is your decision who you sell to, and for how much. A REALTORS® job is to represent you and your property to the best of your ability. Not only to get you top dollar for your home, but secure the most favourable conditions for you and your family. Of course this comes at a cost. No service is free, but in my experience, and judging by the numbers, FSBO sellers stand to lose more than they have to gain by selling without representation.
I will be writing more about this topic in a later article, however I am always here to answer questions should you need answers to specific questions.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out, I promise to give the most honest advice that I can.
Ryley Norman
902-580-6226
rnorman@pressrealty.ca