1. SAVE MONEY – Actually the only savings you will incur is the agent’s commission – BUT – will you be able to achieve top dollar for your property that a professional real estate agent may bring to the table???
2. COMPLETE CONTROL – over everything, which includes marketing (Very time consuming), advertising (very expensive) showings and negotiating.

Here are some negative reasons For Sale By Owner is a better way to go when listing your property – FOR SALE BY OWNER – CONS

1. Advertising  - there are 1000’s of agents between the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Board, Cambridge Real Estate Board, and Guelph Real Estate Board looking for buyers who you are competing with instead of working with all of them – professional real estate agents.
2. Attracting wrong buyers - There is a misconception when people tend to look for homes FSBO’s. The major misconception is they feel they can save big money for your real estate property – ask around! People think that since you are not paying a real estate agents commission they can get a great deal. For this reason most FSBO’s sell for less then similar homes listed by a real estate agents in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and surrounding areas.
3.  Showing your home – When selling your home without the guidance of a Realtor you have to be available to have people come through your home. What happens if you are at work?  Unable to meet the requirements of the buyer. The buyer will likely move on. You have to listen to all the negative comments because they either hate your property or setting the stage for negotiating. Plus you have to put on a show and make them feel welcome in your home. Buyers are more comfortable when the homeowners are not there trying to sell the house. When the home owner is not there, a buyer speaks more freely – buyers tend to picture which child would go in which room, where they would out their furniture, setting the stage for making an offer and more likely to pay more for your home.
4.  Stressful and Frustrating – What if you are to market your home only to receive dozens of calls to find out buyers are actually looking for something different. What about those offers that are not even worth looking at? What about allowing complete strangers walking through your home at an open house?  This is Definatleuy Stressful and Frustrating. – How are you protected?
5. For Sale By Owner.  Because it is so hard for one person to find the right buyer for a particular home, most FSBOs either list with an agent or take themselves off the market.  I have heard that as little as 2% of FSBOs actually sell on their own.  However, I have never seen any proof to back up that number.
6. Most of the calls you will get are from Realtors. A past Client of mine said to me that the fastest way to find a Realtor® is to put a for sale sign on your lawn.  He was right, five minutes after the sign went up I walked over and made sure that he knew that I was the person who was going to get his home sold, which I did in under 1 week.  Realtors see FSBOs as hot leads.  The sign on your lawn says I am going to sell one way or another, and most often after about a month and several hundred, if not thousand, dollars later they will, with agents help.
7. FSBO can be a security risk.  There are stories every year where Realtors® are accosted during showings.  Not every person who responds to your ad or sign will have good intentions.  When you are working with a Realtor® there is a list of every agent that has gone through your home.  Those agents keep contact information for reaching their clients, which means that a) you are hopefully not home if something happened during a showing (because of point 3) and b) if something happened during or after there is a paper trail that could lead to the culprit.
8. FSBOs are great targets for Fraud.  Most people would not recognize the difference between a legitimate vendor take back 2nd mortgage offer and an "Oklahoma" that could cost you tens of thousands of dollars.  Rates of mortgage fraud and identity theft have been rising.  A Realtor® should be able to detect most mortgage fraud schemes.
9. Most Active and Motivated Buyers use a Realtor®.  When a buyer is interested in finding a place fast most often they will find a Realtor®.  People who have the time to drive around looking for open houses and FSBOs are not motivated to buy now!!  They are willing to wait until they find a particular deal and they do not care how much or how much time they waste in their search.