This is a roundabout way to start this commentary but years ago I worked in a high end restaurant in East Hampton Township, village of Montauk, Long Island, NY, playground of the rich and famous of NYC .  I learned a lot about food that I probably never would have learned anywhere else.  I skinned and deboned smoked eel, cleaned raw squid, ate mussels remoulade for the first time, and disliked the looks of anchovie immediately but discovered they were deliscious in a recipe once melted from their flattened earthworm appearance.  The most important thing I learned at that restaurant, however, was the day the owner/chef said that someone confident in themselves could share everything they knew without fear that the sharing would diminish them.  I was teaching someone how to assemble an appetizer at the time, according to the rules of the kitchen, and my precise instructions prompted the chef's remark.  It is the same in approaching a FSBO.  Whaaaat?  Yes.  I will illustrate the point by recounting a recent experience.  I was working with a buyer who was on email notification via our MLS system.  He was particular.  He would drive to the properties and decide if they were residences he cared to view.  I had him signed for buyer agency and this agenda worked perfectly for me!  One day he said he had seen two listings I had sent him and he was interested but there was a third in the cul-de-sac that was a FSBO.  Could we see that too?  Of course, I said, I just needed to contact the seller since our agreement stated that someone would pay commission and if it wasn't them, it would be you, my buyer.  The sellers readily agreed to pay commission having just put the sign in the yard that week.  They hadn't even established a price yet, had no flyers, didn't know what was good, bad, right, wrong with their property.  They told me everything they shouldn't have, I thought.  I showed it and my buyer decided to write an offer.  Well, there was a lurking second mortgage that made his offer unacceptable and he was unable to come up to meet their need.  Once the dust had settled, I asked my buyer, to whom I owed my fiduciary responsibility, if he minded if I approached the FSBO sellers about listing their property.  He was fine with that, fully understanding that they would not come down and he could not go up in price.  I contacted the sellers.  They asked specific questions about marketing their property; I gave specific answers.  How would I handle invasions of privacy?  Could they list without a flyer box?  Could they list without disclosing their names?  Did we need to do open houses?  What price did I think they should list at and what was a realistic price to get.  Would I accept a 60 day listing if they decided to list?  They thanked me.  I asked if they were planning to interview other agents.  When they said no, I asked for the listing.  In about two days I listed the property at a price that put them at a competitive advantage in their sub.  I had no fear that sharing what I knew would diminish my capablility in getting the listing.  If anything, I believed it would prove that my knowledge would overcome their fears and uncertainties.  I let them know that I would listen to them; I was confident in my ability to lead and guide them.  Just like in the restaurant decades before, sharing did not diminish me.  It empowered me.  One success builds upon another.

P.S. I sold the buyer another house the next week and am helping the formerly FSBO sellers find their move-up property too.