Most of the home owners who choose to try and sell their homes on their own to avoid the fees of a licensed Realtor have it all figured out so this post is for the buyers out there who may be looking at those privately listed homes, (sellers who hope to soon change hats and be buyers should thank me for the advice too.)

A high number of owners who choose to list privatly will have had their homes recently evaluated by a professional Realtor but are convinced their home is worth more than the professional market value assessment report reveals. It is one of the hazards of the profession when you tell people the truth about thee value of their home, some respond to like you have just told them their children are stupid and ugly.

Overly ambitious sellers almost always decide to list private because few Realtors are going to pay hundreds of dollars, often much more, to advertise an overpriced home that will never sell. Better a Realtor just give them $1000 and politely make an exit is my advice. They will think more highly of you in a few months if you do that than they will if you spend a dozen wasted hours of Sunday openhouses and that same $1000 on advertising only to reinforce what you knew going in. As the advertizing dollars go up the clients opinion of your selling skills goes down. 

Wise buyers still need to know what comparable homes have recently sold for in deciding if a private listing is priced fairly. Sold data information unfortunately is protected under federal government privacy legislation in this Country. A Realtor can't even put flyers around the neighbourhood where they just sold a home telling what they sold for anymore without the written consent of that seller.
Unfortunately much of the public and even our Competition Bureau seems to unaware of this piece legislation. 

When determining if the asking price of a privatly listed home is fair,  keep in mind that professionally sold comparable sale prices have Real Estate fees built in to them unlike that private listing you have your eye on. At the end of the day does any potential savings from avoided Realtor commissions belong to the buyer or the seller? That is the valuable question. I would say the buyer for at least two reasons:

Without the involvement of professional Realtors your lawyer is going to have to pick up much of the slack and lawyers prefer not to work for free either. Second: Statistically, private sales end up in litigation many times more frequently than sales done under the scrutiny of trained and licenced professionals. That and any additional risk encountered has to come with a return for any smart negotiator.

It is always better to put the knowledge, efforts, access to information and negotiating strengths of a professional behind you when you buy a home.