Thank you Janet. I will be contacting him...

THere are no FSBO's on my MLS in Florida.  Only listings from member brokers are allowed.

I'm a member of two different boards in Florida and have never seen a FSBO on the mls either.

Here in Southern NJ, there are FSBOs on our MLS.  However, they have to be loaded by a real estate agent.  Some brokerages are willing to list FSBOs in the MLS for a small fee (such as $495), and the amount of commission paid to the Buyer's Agent is shown.  This is usually done in hopes that if the FSBO doesn't sell, he or she will later list with that Broker.  All in all, I don't think it's a bad idea(however, my broker won't permit me to do it.)  It does give the FSBO ample opportunity to sink him or herself and provides sufficient proof that in most cases, you really need an agent to actively list, market, advertise and sell your home.

Lew, I agree ... this way FSBOs have a chance to see what it takes and in many cases list anyway ... but, in many cases they do sell! I sold my own house that way about year and half ago.

Here in Illinois, the easiest way to tell if it's a "listed FSBO" is looking at what type of listing it is, if it's an Exclusive Right to Sell you should be fine ... if it's an Exlusive Agency, chances are you may be looking at a FSBO ... as with everything there may be some exceptions. The problem is that some agents still don't know the difference and don't know how to deal with it once they come to show a home and it has a FSBO sign in the front yard.

I have done quite a lot of research into the flat fee MLS listing companies when I opened up my office in 2005 and I found couple different approaches to this.

1. There are some companies that charge $$$, put the listing in the MLS and Realtor.com and let the sellers do their own thing (though legally the listing Broker has quite a lot of duties he/she should perform) ... they are "mass-producers" ... they list HUNDREDS of these ... can they service these even when only within the legal boundaries? I'd doubt it.

2. There are small, one-man companies that list maybe 30, maybe 50 of these and somewhat keep an eye on what is going on with these listings.

3. There are small and medium companies that have a wide variety of services they offer ... from Full service (or I should rather say full service and marketing) to flat fee (just list in the MLS) programs. And this is I would say where I belong as well ... that's why I might have a different opinion about all this than some of you. This third type of company simply gets listings on a case-by-case basis, depending on what the market calls for and what seems to work best for the seller ... it's all about being flexible. I have regular listings and I have flat fee listings. So what if I take a listing for a minimum fee ... chances are, it's a repeat client of mine or someone who just wouldn't list unless they could stay a FSBO ... it might be a seller who's going to be recommending me left and right, who doesn't want anything else other than being in the MLS and on the internet and therefore expects to pay the lowest possible amount (and believe me, I'm happy I don't have to do Open Houses, print advertising or none of the other time or money consuming activities) ... plus it's a listing that I can advertise if I want to and I may get a bunch of buyers thanks to this listing as well. And ask any of my sellers ... they will tell you that they get way more service than they ever expected ... simply because I do stay in touch with them, do "work" these listings, do negotiate their contracts and do stay in touch with them after they sell. I just talked to one of them yesterday ... she told me "I wish it would be you who sells my home" ... well, you know what? So do I! ... right now, she is offering 3% commission to the buyer's agent (on a house listed at $408K) and another 10K bonus if it closes by mid May ... when you do the math, just like I did, you are going to wonder why don't they just LIST FULL SERVICE? ... well, there are simply people who want to be in charge of what is going on and they want to keep the chance to sell on their own without having to pay commission ... can you blame them?

I have worked for both, a big traditional real estate company as well as my small business and as much as I would love to get paid as much as possible, I know that the market is not going to change for me ... I have to adjust based on what the market calls for.

I think people have to be careful here in contacting Clark Howard. If the responses are reactionary and not well thought out, you'll probably be providing him with additional ammunition. There was something similiar on the Bloodhound Blog earlier this year where one of the posters questioned the value offered by professional realtors. My sense was, though I didn't read all the postings, that realtors really tore a strip off this guy, but few talked about their skills as realtors and why they were a valuable asset for their clients.

Here in Canada CREA (the NAR equivalent) is in a bit of a battle with the competition bureau because they are trying to keep discount realtors out of the MLS system. That's a rough summary, maybe someone else from Canada can flesh it out a bit.

I agree with Larry.  Any comments you send to Clark could be taken out of context and/or misunderstood and misrepresented.  Clark's mission is to help consumers save money.  He happens to believe that going FSBO is a way to do that - and, in some cases it is.  

Ours is not the only professional service he recommends consumers attempt on their own.  I heard him talk about how easy it is to prepare your own will as long as your assets were less than a certain amount (I don't remember the amount but it was very high -- much higher than mine LOL).  

I figured, why not give it a try... I'm a pretty bright guy.  If Clark can do it, I can do it.  Well, the more I delved into all the different laws and scenarios, the more I realized that I was in way over my head.  Sure, I could do it myself and save a few bucks but my heirs may very well suffer a loss because of my ineptness.  I decided it is a job for a professional... I'll stick to real estate and leave the legal stuff to attorneys.

I really do believe that Clark's advice may be dangerous for many people even if he is well-intentioned.

Somebody could write a good letter, post it here, and then we could copy and forward...  

Mark,

I am in South FLorida, PAlm Beach county, and the FSBOs do get on the MLS as Unrepresented seller. They pay the $600 flat fee and all the showings and negotiations go to the owners directly........

They also get on Realtor.com and some even offer a Showcase package.

Sagine