WHY DO BATON ROUGE LOUISIANA REALTORS NET SELLERS MORE MONEY THAN FSBO'S

By Darryl Brasseur, REALTOR® with TIGER TOWN REALTY, BATON ROUGE LOUISIANA

I have been selling homes in the BATON ROUGE LOUISIANA and surrounding parishes for a while now. I have noticed a trend when driving around or when I speak with potential sellers regarding the sale of their homes. A large percentage of sellers decide to test the FSBO market and most of them get frustrated after around 6 weeks of the "roller coaster" ride, (Now worse than ever), that us REALTORS have come to expect as part of the business in the BATON ROUGE LOUISIANA Some sellers mistakenly think they can save money by excluding a REALTOR. Invariably, they usually learn the hard way that selling a home is an extremely complex and time consuming undertaking and that, in the end, the savings might not even exist. These sellers go online to these dot com FSBO websites, pay a flat minimal fee and think "that's it"...I will stab a sign in my yard and wham! My home will get sold! I only wish these FSBO websites would accurately report to the consumer how many of the "SOLD" listings they boast of, were actually sold by Realtors. Here is the reason that most FSBO's don't sell. Sellers usually don’t reduce their sales price by the amount of the commission they would have paid in hopes of pocketing the perceived profit. Likewise, buyers take into account that there are no ccommissions to be paid and reduce their offers accordingly. So, many sellers end up right where they would have been price-wise if they had used a Realtor’s service, but without any of the benefits of the expertise of this professional. My experience here in the BATON ROUGE LOUISIANA market is that if I have a relocation of an executive from another state, they don't have time to go through newspapers or dot com sites in search of there new home. They will call their REALTOR and then get referred to a local Realtor. Another issue that would scare me as a potential buyer is that a FSBO is not governed by any real state laws whereas a licensed REALTOR is governed by the state real estate commission. We have to carry errors and omissions insurance to protect the consumer. Not utilizing a Realtor’s services also means your property will not be marketed through MLS or shown to the largest pool of potential home buyers. Studies show that 8.5 out of every 10 homes that are sold, are sold by Realtors.