The FSBO Blog

Contrary to the way it sounds, it’s not your teenager’s latest designer clothes brand, or a new robotic toy from Sony. FSBO, pronounced "fizzboh" stands for "For Sale By Owner" and is the new buzzword in real estate - and you should get familiar with it!

(incidentally, you would probably figure this out, but FSBO, FZBO, fisbo, fizbo, fizzzzzzboh, fizboh are all misspellings or different spellings of the same thing and all refer to "For Sale By Owner")

For Sale By Owner real estate sales - where the owner doesn’t use a real estate agent - have been around ever since real estate agents. And in the sometimes-intimidating lingo used between real estate agents, the term "FSBO" has been around almost as long, the shorthand way of referring (normally derogatorily) to these For Sale By Owner properties.

Before, property owners who sold their homes or land For Sale By Owner chose to do so either because they wanted to rebel against "the establishment" and demonstrate their refusal to pay the "sales tax" of 3-8% agent commission, or because they really couldn’t afford to give up that much money and needed to get all they could out of the sale.

But the latest generation of some really innovative real estate companies are bringing "FSBO" into the mainstream spotlight, using the internet and special partner companies to make selling your home For Sale By Owner just as effective and safe as selling through an agent. But the big plus: It costs thousands of dollars less. Selling your real estate "FSBO" is the chic thing to do, and shows you’re a savvy money manager on top of society and technology trends.

The new "FSBO" companies aren’t in every city in America yet, but it’s only a matter of time before they are. And when they get to your city, now you’ll know what a "fizzboh" is.

Michael Poythress