A recent survey reported in Parade magazine caught my eye. The survey, Parade Crisis Impact Poll, by Michael Berland and Douglas Schoen, (July 19 - 23, 2009) revealed that while American families have certainly felt the downturn in our economy, there has also been an upside effect.
In the survey, 68% of the respondents reported "creating a meaningful life" and "giving back" as being important to them. What really stood out to me was that 63% of respondents have become more "do-it-yourself".
How will this translate in the real estate market? Will more sellers strike out on their own, by-passing the hefty agent commissions that come with outsourcing a real estate transaction? Quite possibly we are witnessing the beginning of another surge in for-sale-by-owner activity, this time caused not by the greed of the seller's market but by necessity. Whatever the reason, selling by owner is a smart way to hold onto your equity and increase your purchasing power.
FSBO sellers today enjoy a plethora of tools to market their property. Gone are the old stand-by classified ads, replaced by Internet listing websites and social networking platforms. The latest to jump into the online listing market is
Tweetlister, where agents (and private homesellers) can upload listings to Twitter. We have been adding our sellers listings to Facebook and Twitter as well as several blogs over the past couple of years and encourage sellers to also post within their own networks.
So, will 2010 be the YEAR OF THE FSBO? We can't wait to find out....at least Massachusetts home sellers will know where to turn for the best exposure and ongoing marketing help.
