Forty percent of FSBO sellers knew the buyer

The share of home sellers who sold their home without the assistance of a real estate agent was 10 percent in 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Forty percent of those sellers knew the buyer prior to the transaction.

Other FSBO notes:

• The primary reason that sellers choose to sell their home without the assistance of a real estate agent to a buyer they did not know was that they did not want to pay a fee or commission (37 percent).
• More than one-third of FSBO sellers took no action to market their home, and 59 percent did not offer any incentives to attract buyers.
• The typical FSBO home sold for $150,000 compared to $215,000 among agent-assisted home sales, NAR reported.