I recently got a request from someone in an area I market religiously.  It seems they wanted to know what the final price and concessions were for a house I sold in their neighborhood recently.  They also mentioned that they has put their home on the market as a FSBO.

Now, I'm not sure whether they were really looking for pricing/comp information so they'd be in the ball park or if they thought they were just trying to get the word out that their home was on the market and would I please find them a buyer.  Perhaps they're just testing the waters or they really don't care if they sell their house this year or sometime in 2011.

In any case, when they let me know their listed price I had to chuckle to myself.  It was obviously a price they are fantasizing about and a price they might have gotten in 2005. However, in today's market with short sales and bank-owned properties pulling the market down, long days on market and even low prices by sellers who have equity in thier home, it doesn't seem to me that they'll get anywhere close to their price.

I was even doing some figuring with the "wiggle room" they have by not paying a Realtor.  They still aren't close.

Hey, that works for me.  It just means that all the homes that do have Realtor representation will sell more quickly and will seem like a huge bargain compared to the FSBO.  In a way, I'm kinda sad that FSBOs doin't get more exposure so that buyers can really see the difference that Realtor representation can make.