I have been doing some research on that and across the nation it appears that generally speaking "for sale by owners" sell for about 14% less than the houses through an agent. I am guessing that the reason that happens is because they are going to have to come down in price and still do the work. The other problem is that an un-represented seller and an un-represented buyer better really know what they are doing because who knows what the sellers are covering up, who knows what forms you are supposed to fill out, what disclosures are supposed to be made, and what the other values in the neighborhood are. So, if a neighbor was buying from a neighbor, they probably would have an idea, but if I come from a different neighborhood I wouldn't have an idea. Sometimes they don't have enough equity in their house, they took too many loans against their house and they don't have the money to pay a real estate agent, but then a house like that might have deferred maintenance.
