FSBO Seller to Agent: Will You Find a Buyer for My Home?

As a busy Sacramento real estate agent, I receive all kinds of odd calls during the day, but probably the strangest call I received lately was from a FSBO, a for sale by owner, who asked me to find a buyer for her. Now, I know the way I was supposed to answer that question, the way a real estate agent who is hungry for listings might do it, but I couldn’t bring myself to stoop that low.

I was supposed to say sure, I would help her find a buyer, knowing that there was no way in hell I would. Then I would email her and talk about the market and other sales in the neighborhood, and day by day, week by week, I would wear her down until she is so damn tired of trying to find a buyer all by herself that she will turn to me, the real estate pro, and list. Because that’s how it works with FSBO sellers.

No, thanks. I’m not wired like that. Instead, I leveled with her. She didn’t like it one little bit. There are a lot of people in the world who just don’t want to hear the truth because it’s not the version they expect.

But you know, I wasn’t the person who called this real estate agent and flat out stated she had no desire to hire me as her listing agent because she wasn’t planning to hire any listing agent, and starts off by implying she has no respect for the job that I do because any person with a for sale sign and a hammer can slam it into the yard to find a buyer, but she wanted my help anyway. Oy. I tried to explain this was the wrong way to go about it, but she didn’t want to hear any of that.

I asked if she knows where buyers come from? No, she didn’t. Well, obviously not because she was calling to beg me to bring her a buyer. Buyers come from a listing. When a listing agent puts a listing into MLS and across the Internet, that agent gets buyers. That’s the way it works. No listing in MLS, no buyers.

Another reason she has no buyers and has taken to calling complete strangers from the Internet is because she thinks that agents who do have buyers are dying to work with her. No, they are not, and in fact, they go out of their way not work with a FSBO if they don’t have to and have a lick of common sense. They don’t want the liability, and they certainly don’t want the extra work that comes with trying to close an escrow with a FSBO seller who is unrepresented. Whoa, she was very unhappy and told me that was not true.

Well, between a person who has been in the business for 40 years selling homes, and a FSBO seller who is so desperate she is calling random agents to try to find a buyer, I think we know who has a better handle on the real estate market and the way things work. But you know what, I am on my way to Maui this morning with a team member for a little R&R in an oceanfront suite at Fairmont Kea, and you know what they say? Hair today gone to Maui. And my hair looks great!