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.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Jim Johnson CRS 07.22.08 at 6:59 pm
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!
Scottsdale Homes 07.23.08 at 3:14 pm
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
Mortgage Samson 07.23.08 at 3:36 pm
FSBO ends with 0 for a reason.
RonOrr.com 07.24.08 at 10:53 pm
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?
Austin Real Estate Blog 07.26.08 at 3:26 am
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.
Tony Sena 07.29.08 at 3:22 pm
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.
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 07.29.08 at 4:22 pm
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