Twenty years ago, selling your home without an agent seemed like a smart money move. Skip the commission, pocket the savings, and handle the sale yourself. Fast forward to 2025, and that approach has become nearly extinct. Just 5% of home sellers now choose the For Sale By Owner route—down from 21% in 1985 and a dramatic shift from where things stood two decades ago.
So what changed? Why are homeowners abandoning FSBO in record numbers?
The Numbers Tell a Sobering Story
The decline has been steady and unmistakable. In the mid-2000s, roughly 10-14% of sellers went the FSBO route. That number hovered in the single digits through most of the 2010s, dipping to 7% by 2023. Then came 2025, when FSBO hit an all-time low of just 5% of all home sales. Meanwhile, a record 91% of sellers now use a real estate agent.
That's not a minor shift. That's a complete reversal in how Americans approach one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.
The Commission Savings Myth
HouseJet knows that there's really no commission being saved when sellers choose to sell their home themselves.
Here's what most FSBO sellers don't realize until it's too late: they're not actually saving money.
The median FSBO home sold for $360,000 in 2025, while agent-assisted sales closed at $425,000. That's a $65,000 gap. Even after paying commission, sellers working with agents still net approximately $33,000 more than their FSBO counterparts.
But it gets worse. Roughly 75% of FSBO sellers still pay a buyer's agent commission of 2.5-3% just to get buyers through the door. And only 11% of FSBO sellers complete the sale without involving a realtor at some point. Nine out of ten people who start selling on their own eventually need professional help anyway.
The Complexity Factor: Real Estate Isn't What It Used to Be
Two decades ago, real estate transactions were simpler. Disclosure requirements were lighter. Technology was limited. The paperwork was manageable for a motivated homeowner.
Today's landscape is completely different. Modern transactions involve environmental disclosures, lead paint certifications, HOA documentation, and seller's property disclosure statements that can run dozens of pages. One missed disclosure can lead to a lawsuit that makes any commission savings look like pocket change.
And 43% of FSBO sellers admit to making legal mistakes during the process. That's not a small risk—that's gambling with potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Emotional Toll Nobody Talks About
More than half of FSBO sellers describe the experience as stressful, and 47% said the process brought them to tears. Nearly half. Over a transaction that was supposed to save them money.
The challenges pile up quickly. Pricing the home correctly stumps 30% of sellers, who rely on automated estimates instead of professional market analyses. Without MLS access, FSBO homes reach only a fraction of potential buyers. Phone calls become overwhelming—80% are either realtor solicitations or scams.
Buyers also feel uncomfortable touring with the owner present. Professional agents create the neutral space buyers need to envision themselves in the property.
"Selling FSBO might seem like a shortcut to saving money, but it's actually a shortcut to leaving thousands of dollars on the table," says Mike Oddo, CEO of HouseJet. "We see it all the time—sellers who try to go it alone end up overwhelmed by the paperwork, confused about pricing, and frustrated when buyers disappear. The real estate market has become too complex and the financial stakes too high to navigate without professional expertise. That commission you're trying to avoid? It pays for itself many times over in the final sale price and your peace of mind."
The Pricing Problem
Pricing might be the single biggest obstacle FSBO sellers face. Without access to recent comparable sales data and hyperlocal market trends, most sellers either overprice or underprice their homes.
Overprice, and you sit on the market for months while buyers assume something's wrong. Underprice, and you leave tens of thousands on the table. Professional agents work with these numbers daily. For FSBO sellers, it's guesswork.
The data backs this up: 64% of FSBO sellers admit they didn't achieve their desired sales price.
The Marketing Gap
Marketing a home in 2025 requires more than a yard sign and a Craigslist ad. Professional agents leverage MLS distribution, professional photography, virtual tours, social media advertising, and relationships with other agents representing qualified buyers.
FSBO sellers are mostly limited to yard signs and telling friends and family. Without MLS access, they're essentially invisible to 90% of the buyer market.
When FSBO Actually Works
From HouseJet's perspective, FSBO still has its place. About 38% of FSBO sellers already have an interested buyer before listing—often a family member, friend, or neighbor. In those situations, where both parties know each other and agree on terms, skipping the agent can make sense.
But that's a specific scenario, not a general strategy.
The Bottom Line
The 20-year decline of FSBO isn't happening because sellers don't care about saving money. It's happening because they're doing the math and realizing professional representation pays for itself through higher sale prices, faster closings, and significantly less stress.
Real estate has become more complex, not less. Legal requirements have increased. Buyers expect professional marketing and representation.
The market has spoken: the era of selling your home without an agent is coming to an end. And for most sellers, that's a good thing.
