Housing Rumble: Online Debate at U.S. News & World Report

I’ve been invited to an online debate on U.S. News & World Report’s blog, The Home Front.

The subject is, “Do you need a real estate agent to sell your home?”

I’ll be debating with Greg Healy, Vice President of Operations at ForSaleByOwner.com.

My initial volley is up, look for Greg’s first response tomorrow.

Readers will be able to vote at the end of the debate for the “winner”.

Should be interesting, hopefully educational, and maybe even entertaining.

I could use a little support people. It’ll be interesting to see if an “anti-Realtor” crowd gathers. Them I can deal with. Greg on the other hand, will be a strong opponent!

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Tucson Michael

I think this is an obvious without even looking it up I think it would be safe to say most used cars are sold through auto dealers. Why because they understand how to market cars, "deal" in them and understand all the issues with selling them, not to mention I think for the most part most people feel safer buying from a dealer then from a private seller. The reason I bring this up is cars are much easier to sell individually then homes, yet dealers still control a large part of the market. It’s even more so with homes since your now dealing with 100's of thousands of dollars at stake.

Laura

I'm an attorney with transactional real estate experience and I won't buy or sell a house without an experienced agent. Nobody ever wants to hire a lawyer, either, but think they can do it themselves until the damage is already done. It always costs far, far more to clean up a legal mess than to avoid it in the first place. And most real estate messes become legal messes pretty fast. The problem for both our professions are the practitioners who either don't know what they're doing or just don't care. People who've had bad experiences just don't realize how much easier a competent agent can make a thoroughly stressful process.

Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate

Laura - brilliant comment! Mind if I use part of it in my rebuttal in the debate?

VickiLloyd

Go Jay! I've just added this discussion to my feedreader and will add my 2 cents to the debate when it seems appropriate.

D. Patrick Lewis

Why wouldn't you want a Professional Realtor working for you? I truly believe one of our greatest functions as Realtors is to manage expectations, be an unemotional voice of reason and an advocate for our clients. Those qualities along with negotiation and communication skills are qualities that can't be capitalized on in a FSBO transaction. Not to mention, the seller may save some bucks but the commission-ectomy can be painful if something is missed.

Lastly, great first volley Jay, can't wait to see the rebuttal tomorrow.

Laura

Wow! I'm flattered. If my comment helps, feel free to use it.

Keahi Pelayo

ask him if he cuts his own hair?
Thanks,
Keahi

Mortgage Samson

Do you need a real estate agent to sell your home?

No you don't; you only need one if you want it to be sold/closed.

Hunter Jackson

Congrats Jay! I know you'll serve us all well!

Teri Lussier

Congrats on the gig!

Tony Sena

Hey Jay,

Congrats on the opportunity and I am sure you will do well.

I read your reply and the only thing I would add is that most successful real estate agents have a large database of clients that they market their newest listings to as long as it matches their home search criteria.

In regards to marketing, a FSBO can use the free sources on the Internet to market their home but they don't have as many resources and experience to know where to market a home like a real estate agent.