Real Estate Acronyms

There is an acronym used frequently among Realtor® ranks, FSBO (fizz-bo) that means, For Sale By Owner. That label is assigned to any property that is not listed by a real estate agent and is not entered into the Multiple Listing database. Sellers who fit into that category usually have two reasons for choosing that route. 1) They cannot afford the cost of selling with a Realtor® because they are upside down in the property or 2) They have a dislike for Realtors® and want to go it alone. Many Realtors® make efforts to recruit FSBO’s for listings and often succeed because the FSBO’s get tired out after fielding a plethora of fruitless calls or after they find the task more daunting than they thought it would be. After going it alone for awhile they often gain a new appreciation for the tools and expertise that give successful Realtors® the advantage.

My label for an independent buyer who goes unrepresented, is URB’s, or Un-Represented Buyers. For every one of these buyers who have the courage and expertise to navigate this frenzied market alone, there are scores of others who stumble around the real estate market totally unprepared and unable to handle the challenges of this dog-eat-dog market. Even the experienced ones may find that they are not really tooled up to get the job done totally on their own.

Some of the challenges that an URB may encounter are; 1) Access problems. How do you gain access to listings when most of them are listed by Realtors® who have the only keys? Some like the independence of searching via internet search engines, but then encounter road blocks when they find they cannot contact the sellers directly or view the properties without that special key. After all, wary sellers don’t want everyone to look at their home! They only want buyers who have been vetted by Realtors® and lenders to be pre-qualified. They don’t want some weirdo wandering through their home who just wants to check out their belongings. 2) How do such buyers write a real contract that covers all the bases and offers adequate protections? Realtors® have the proprietary state-of-art forms and knowledge that make that part a breeze! 3) Do these URB’s have the expertise and technique to negotiate an outcome that really works? Sometimes direct contact with the seller can weaken their ability to negotiate with power, especially if they are not a strong negotiator. 4) Without expert representation, they may not be agile enough to find and compete in situations where there are multiple offers.