I was told that only about 5% of agents acutally contact FSBO's.

What is your experience with them if you do contact them?

I dont contact any one about listings. I wouldnt want to borther any one. I just wait for buyers and sellers to contact me. So far it hasnr been a problem. When they contact you they are pretty serious

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I email them - response has been mixed. Some 'bless you out' (Southern lingo for you there ) and some respond positively.

I've had one website tell me to stop, but who cares, they are the one that put their 'clients' emails on the web. What do they expect? If they wanted to help FSBO's sell their houses in a timely, professional manner, without hassle, they would've hired me instead.

In any case, I only send them a note once, every email is written to a specific FSBO specifically by me (no forms or bulk 'spam') and if they don't reply, or reply negatively, I don't send them anything again. No harm, no foul.

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Lydia Taylor, Realtor & Broker

Augusta GA Real Estate | North Augusta SC Real Estate | Augusta GA Home Search

I call them all the time. If someone has a FSBO sign in there front yard it might as well be a NEON sign saying "HELP I WANT TO SELL MY HOUSE BUT DON'T KNOW HOW"

Ill give you guys the secret. You ask them how you can help them, then when they get to the part about not wanting to pay a realtor 6% to sell there home you come back with this. "Are you more conserned with what you net from the sell of your home or what you pay a realtor, Let me come over and show you how you can net more for your home while paying a realtor" It works about 65% of the time from my calculations. On a side note, I only work with motivated FSBO's if I call them and they are in no hurry to sell I just bag them. There are to many motivated sellers to mess with FSBO's that are in no hurry to sell. Anyways if you aren't calling FSBO's you are losing business.

FSBO's are great in my book. I contact to build a relationship and hopefully get referrals for the future.

Every now and then I'll get a listing (not my direct goal though). Just today I got a listing appointment actually.

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Steve Castaneda, Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
The MyHomeHouston Team

Specializing in Houston Real Estate. Feel free to visit my Houston Real Estate Blog or read about Real Estate Technology for agents.

I have had prettty good luck with them as well. A majority of them are friendly. I ask them if they mind if I stay in touch and usually they are open to that idea. Then I follow up every few weeks and sometimes it pays off.

In my area (and my opinion) FSBO's are a waste of my time. When we first started, we drove around scouting FSBO signs and contacted everyone we found. Most (9 out 10) of the contacts wanted nothing to do with an agent (many in fact were quite rude and almost hostile, believe this has to do with our area).

We tried several techniques including offering them marketing advice, providing them written materials to assist them and so on. We would contact them once a month to see if there was any change in their outlook, but there wasn't.

Many of these FSBO's stayed on the market for quite a long time and eventually a few did get an agent to represent them (for whatever reason) and some of the homes never did sell and are still available today (2 years later).

Maybe our technique was the issue, but who knows. We implemented the standard techniques and did what the more experienced agents and our broker told us to do.

It just wasn't worth our time and effort to go after these leads with a significant investment in time as it never panned out (out of 100 FSBO contacted repeatedly, only 1 ever signed for a listing). I feel our time is best spent supporting and targeting: our web customers, our incoming referrals and our just listed/just sold targets. We get quite a bit more ROI from them then we do by owner contacts.

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Jessie: Panama City Beach Real Estate, Panama City Real Estate and Panama City Beach Condos

As a new agent I am thinking about starting to contact some FSBO's in the neighborhoods surrounding mine. Maybe just knock on the door and introduce myself. I fear cold calling due to all the do not call laws now and missing something there. I am thinking maybe just knocking and saying hello, I live in the neighborhood and thought I'd give you my card might work better. What do you guys think? Do you think that would get a better response? Maybe handing them a list of recent sales too?

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Liane Jamason, Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
Tampa FL Homes|Free List of Tampa Short Sales & Foreclosures|TampaRealEstateGeek.com

Liane Jamason is a Realtor in Tampa Bay servicing St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tampa, Carollwood, Westchase, Ybor City, South Tampa, Davis Island, Brandon, Riverview, Apollo Beach, Ruskin and beyond!

I tihnk giving them a card is a good step. I personally hardly ever sign up a FSBO on the first try. (My % gets higher all the time though) You really have to look at why people sell there home FSBO. Usually it comes down to 2 reasons, money or bad experance with an agent. Figure out why then you can properly handle the objects. If its money use my responce up above if it was a bad experance you will need to show them you arent like the last guy, sometimes that is as easy as calling them back. What i like to do with these people is tell them I will call you next week to check up on you and see if I can anwser any questions you might have at that time. They love it when you call as they fully expected you would never call them a again. Anywas some people are better at FSBO's then others, I could see if you were getting 1-100 it would be a waste of time. Then again when its 1-10 it definately isnt a waste of time. Also when you are a new agent with limited funds and unlimited time its an easy way to pick up listings and establish yourself as a listing agent.

What do you think about a list of recent sales? Also my office just purchased a new software that our broker is paying for completely that allows us to do these cool virtual tours on a CD. They said you could offer to do one for a FSBO and that way it has all your logos and info in it, and they will call you when their home doesn't sell and they need help after seeing your professional marketing skills. Or they can give it to potential buyers who may end up calling you for help buying. What do you think?

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Liane Jamason, Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
Tampa FL Homes|Free List of Tampa Short Sales & Foreclosures|TampaRealEstateGeek.com

Liane Jamason is a Realtor in Tampa Bay servicing St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tampa, Carollwood, Westchase, Ybor City, South Tampa, Davis Island, Brandon, Riverview, Apollo Beach, Ruskin and beyond!