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FSBO Website Design Philosophy

Following is a list of observations and opinions I've come to hold after seven years of owning and operating a FSBO website and developing FSBO websites for others. This list is continually updated as I find time to add to it.

  1. The fsbo site should be designed around the property buyer, not the property seller. (The home page should deal with helping home buyers find what they've come to see: properties for sale).
  2. Site visitors should be able to find properties meeting their search criteria within 10 seconds of their first visit. Don't hide a lack of properties by making them difficult to find on your site.
  3. A FSBO website cannot be successful without a large selection of properties for sale. Go out and get them.
  4. FSBO property sellers will not beat down your door to list their properties on your site just because your listings are free.
  5. Automatic emails informing list members of the availability of properties for sale meeting particular search criteria are bad for your site.
  6. FSBO property listings on your site should be exclusive.
  7. A large number of yard signs promoting your website's address throughout your market area is critical to your site's success.
  8. A method allowing visitors to directly access individual listings (i.e. www.mysite.com?x=999) will drive additional traffic to your site by encouraging the indirect advertising of your site by home sellers.
  9. Real estate licensees will steal your signs.
  10. Real estate licensees will attempt to scare your customers into an exclusive right to sell contract.
  11. No one can corner the market in "FSBO" domain names. With a little creativity anyone can come up with a short, memorable and descriptive name that's still available.
  12. FSBO franchises are unnecessary. The barriers to entry are low and the business methods are common sense. If you do purchase a franchise, it should be cheap!
  13. FSBO sites designed to generate leads for real estate licenses never succeed.
  14. FSBO sites that put a mortgage broker between the seller and buyer never succeed.

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