Threats to Do-It-Yourself Real Estate

In my mind, For Sale By Owner has always had connotations of a fly-by-night home buying experience. While I would like to sell my own home (and put the 6% commission in my pocket), the marketplace has developed in such a way whereby the Realtor experience has become associated with trust and convenience. But it is no wonder that in this day and age that discount realtors have come onto the scene to shift some of the work to homeowners in exchange for flat-fee commissions.

Even though discounters push to provide a more viable do-it-yourself model for real estate transactions, the traditional realtors are pushing back hard to defend their turf (WSJ, 7/18/05, A2). They are lobbying to tighten real estate transaction laws and using other tactics to keep out the DIYers. One discount realtor ran an advertisement promoting "self service" transactions -- full service realtors were appalled and, as a block, pressured the newspaper's advertising staff to limit where such ads could appear in the paper's real estate sections.