Housing Rumble: US News & World Reports “Do You Need an Agent” Debate Concludes

Pin It

UPDATE: Here is the link to vote for the winner of the debate.

The debate over at the US News & World Reports Housing Front blog has ended.

Here are links to all the posts:

Day 1 (Thompson)
Day 2 (Healy)
Day 3 (Thompson)
Day 4 (Healy)
Day 5 (Thompson)
Day 6 (Healy)

Sometime later today of the Home Front Blog, there will be a voting poll set up. Read the posts, and vote for who you feel “won” the debate.

I know who I’ll be voting for, you should vote for who you felt presented the best argument.

I enjoyed debating with Greg Healy. Seems like a nice guy. He has a vested interest in the success of his FSBO site, and I of course, have a vested interest in the success of my real estate brokerage.

FSBO works for some. A very small some. More power to you if you can pull it off. Personally, I think it’s a mistake to go FSBO, but there is no denying some can do it, but most can not.

Like, Tweet, share...

Pin It

 

Other things you can do...

Search for Homes
Email Updates
RSS

About the Author
Jay Thompson

I'm a real estate broker in Phoenix, Arizona and the publisher of the Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog. I tend to drive too fast and scream at the University of Texas and Denver Broncos football teams. My two kids are smarter than most adults I know and my wife is simply amazing.

The Phoenix Real Estate Guy runs on AgentPress

AgentPress is a specialized WordPress theme for real estate agents and brokers, powered by the industry standard Genesis Framework. With AgentPress on your team, you're empowered to get the most out of WordPress for online marketing.

Genesis provides the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that powers any successful website. And AgentPress provides the specific listing and lead-generation functionality real estate pros need to succeed.

Find out more about AgentPress here.

Comments

We always appreciate your comments! Phoenix Real Estate Guy uses two commenting systems, Facebook and LiveFyre. LiveFyre is the most robust system (and easy to use!). It allows you to login with Twitter, Facebook, Google+ LinkedIn, OpenId, LiveFyre and as a "Guest". I recommend getting a LiveFyre account, it has some great features (just click the LiveFyre button when you write your comment).

 

BLOG COMMENT POLICY: We respectfully ask that you use your real name (first name only is fine) and not use keywords (Why no keywords?). The only real "comment rules" are be civil -- no personal attacks -- and no advertising. (See the full comment policy here). Opinion and debate are welcome, but attack the idea, not the person.

 

LiveFyre Comments

Comments have been disabled for this post.
Sort: Newest | Oldest

I feel badly for a lot of FSBO's because they often don't quite understand just how hard hit the real estate market is. I think we all want to believe our home is worth top dollar, however this is where anyone selling their home needs the advice and direction of an expert who knows the market and will give a very honest assessment of the FSBO's home. If you're going to go the route of FSBO you'll want the power of Web 2.0 behind you to get the message out. After all, over 86% of buyers begin their home search online.

Hey Tony - Yeah, my Google alerts have been lighting up all day. I love how they still push a fundamentally flawed Stanford paper in their press release.

And the conclusion from this *completely* non-statistically significant vote has now become, "Consumers Read Both Sides and Decide that Agents Aren't Needed to Sell a Home".

Interesting.

And no, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they emailed clients. Heck, I asked people to vote for me. Sadly, there were a ton of people that would have but we were all in a conference in San Francisco during the voting, and we had very limited internet access.

Oh well. I knew going in I'd get slaughtered in the vote. It was still fun. I think both sides made valid points. The bottom line is, FSBO works for some, and doesn't work at all for others. There is no one right way to sell a home.

Congrats to FSBO.com for winning the vote!

Here's the press release if anyone is interested.
http://tinyurl.com/6q4nm9

Your opponent is now doing press releases that they won the debate. I wouldn't be suprised if they emailed their clients the link and asked them to vote.

I have had a few people attempt to go FSBO run into numerous problems and then call us as an agent. Going into a large and complex financial transaction without someone with experience is simply risky.

Jay,

I just voted, and voted for you. While the other side made a decent arguement, stats prove that he is wrong.

Congrats on going head-to-head on behalf of the entire industry.

Matt Pellerin - Realtor

There's no doubt a good real estate broker can sell a home quicker and for more money than a For Sale By Owner. We have proved that time and time again in the Bend Oregon real estate market! Nice blog! Keep up the good work!

I feel badly for a lot of FSBO's because they often don't quite understand just how hard hit the real estate market is. I think we all want to believe our home is worth top dollar, however this is where anyone selling their home needs the advice and direction of an expert who knows the market and will give a very honest assessment of the FSBO's home. If you're going to go the route of FSBO you'll want the power of Web 2.0 behind you to get the message out. After all, over 86% of buyers begin their home search online.

Hey Tony - Yeah, my Google alerts have been lighting up all day. I love how they still push a fundamentally flawed Stanford paper in their press release.

And the conclusion from this *completely* non-statistically significant vote has now become, "Consumers Read Both Sides and Decide that Agents Aren't Needed to Sell a Home".

Interesting.

And no, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they emailed clients. Heck, I asked people to vote for me. Sadly, there were a ton of people that would have but we were all in a conference in San Francisco during the voting, and we had very limited internet access.

Oh well. I knew going in I'd get slaughtered in the vote. It was still fun. I think both sides made valid points. The bottom line is, FSBO works for some, and doesn't work at all for others. There is no one right way to sell a home.

Congrats to FSBO.com for winning the vote!

Here's the press release if anyone is interested.
http://tinyurl.com/6q4nm9

Your opponent is now doing press releases that they won the debate. I wouldn't be suprised if they emailed their clients the link and asked them to vote.

I have had a few people attempt to go FSBO run into numerous problems and then call us as an agent. Going into a large and complex financial transaction without someone with experience is simply risky.

Has this question been around forever, or do some feel that with the internet this question is seriously being raised more with CL and other sites?

FSBO ends with 0 for a reason.

Jay,

I just voted, and voted for you. While the other side made a decent arguement, stats prove that he is wrong.

Congrats on going head-to-head on behalf of the entire industry.

Matt Pellerin - Realtor

There's no doubt a good real estate broker can sell a home quicker and for more money than a For Sale By Owner. We have proved that time and time again in the Bend Oregon real estate market! Nice blog! Keep up the good work!

Facebook Comments

 

The ARMLS logo indicates a property listed by a real estate brokerage other than Thompson's Realty.
All information should be verified by the recipient and none is guaranteed as accurate by ARMLS.

Copyright 2012 Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, Inc. All rights reserved.

Data last updated 2/9/12 2:30 PM PST.

This IDX solution is (c) Diverse Solutions 2012.