I was sitting across from my sister-in-law (also a realtor) when her sister told her that her friend would like to see the house on her street that was for sale privately with a FSBO marketing company sign on the lawn. My sister-in-law's response was 'no way, I don't show privates, especially if they are with one of 'those' companies. 
I questioned her on it, saying most of them will cooperate with agents, and if you have a Buyer's Agency Agreement with the buyer, what's the problem? She said she didn't want to do 'all the work' of a listing agent and buying agent for only half the commission. I shut up then, as I didn't see any point of debating the topic in the milieu of a birthday party (hers, to boot).
Mere postings on MLS, therefore Realtor.com/Realtor.ca are a relatively new phenomonen in our balliwick, and I know that a lot of you have been dealing with this a lot longer than we, so I wondered what your attitude and response might be.
Personally, I used to avoid private sales in the past, because only about one in five would cooperate with agents anyway. Also, they were usually never priced attractively, and unless my buyers drove by it and loved it from the outside, hardly ever even asked about them. On the odd occasion that happened, I would call the seller and find out if he would cooperate, and if so, I would run over with an 'Agreement to Pay Commission' to be signed, then show it. I even sold a few.
With the advent of Buyer Agency I was less inhibited about showing privates, as I made my buyers understand that they were responsible for making up any difference if the seller refused to pay a buying agents commission. With the changes that allow FSBO 'marketing' firms to post listings on the MLS site (through a cooperating Realtor), buyers now see these listings on Realtor.ca and if they are relavent may want to view them. Protected by my Buyer Agency agreement, and the fact that more and more private sellers are advised to cooperate with agents, I have no problem showing them, and on occasion have gotten full listing/selling commission even.
Anyway, what do you do with FSBO's and 'mere listings'?
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