Real Estate | Bristow & Northern Virginia
Updated August 2026
A lot of people think the internet has made it so much easier to sell a house, and have a hard time understanding why they should still hire a real estate agent and pay a commission.
It's an understandable instinct. The internet has genuinely made it easier for buyers and sellers to find each other — there are plenty of ways to advertise a home online without an agent's help, and even buyers who reach out directly to sellers to cut agents out of the process entirely.
So with the internet creating such an efficient marketplace, why bother hiring an agent?
Because it could end up costing you far more than you think you're saving.
The Data Backs This Up
According to the National Association of REALTORS®' most recent Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, homes sold without an agent (FSBO — "for sale by owner") had a median sale price of $360,000, compared to $425,000 for agent-assisted sales — a gap of roughly $65,000.
That number isn't the whole story, since FSBO homes do tend to cluster in lower price ranges and rural areas, and a meaningful share of FSBO sales happen between people who already knew each other (a neighbor, a family member) rather than on the open market. But even accounting for that, the trend is unmistakable: FSBO's share of the market has fallen to just 5% — an all-time low since NAR began tracking this data in 1981, down from 10% just a few years ago in 2021. Fewer and fewer sellers are choosing to go it alone, and it's not because selling has gotten harder to do without help — it's because more sellers are recognizing what they'd be giving up.
One more telling number: roughly 40% of FSBO sellers didn't actively market their home at all. That's not a small oversight — marketing exposure is often the single biggest driver of a strong sale price, and it's exactly the kind of thing an agent handles as a matter of course.
55,000 Real Examples of Sellers Who Lost Money
Beyond the broader statistics, there's a real, specific cautionary tale worth knowing. The Federal Trade Commission took action against an online home-buying company called Opendoor Technologies, after the company misled roughly 55,000 home sellers with promises that its technology would save them money by paying "market value" directly and cutting out traditional costs like agent commissions.
The reality was different. According to the FTC's own findings, most people who sold to Opendoor made thousands of dollars less than they would have through the traditional process — sellers were misled about their home's true market value, and many ended up paying more in fees to Opendoor than they would have paid an agent. Research from a Columbia Business School professor found that companies with this business model buy homes at an average discount of 3.6% below what sellers would get selling through the traditional process.
The FTC's settlement offered eligible sellers only about $1,000 each — a small fraction of what most of them actually lost by skipping agent representation.
What We Tell Our Sellers
Over the years, we've seen the same handful of challenges come up again and again with FSBO sellers. A few of the biggest:
Pricing. FSBO sellers generally miss the mark on pricing — either too high, running into the same problems we've written about before (a stale listing, fading buyer interest, and an eventual price cut that costs momentum), or too low, leaving real money on the table. There's also something FSBO sellers often don't realize: without an agent, a listing tends to attract a different type of buyer — a discount buyer, who assumes the seller is saving money by not paying an agent and negotiates accordingly, expecting to split that "savings" with the seller through a lower offer.
Exposure. A FSBO listing typically ends up on a handful of sites — Zillow, Homes.com, maybe a few others. When an agent lists a home on the MLS, syndication services push that listing out to hundreds of websites nationally. Some agents even use international syndicators that translate the property information into multiple languages, reaching buyers a FSBO listing would never see at all.
Pictures. FSBO sellers rarely hire a professional photographer — most just use their phone. Professional photos, video, and virtual tours are a critical part of marketing a home online today. As we've noted before, listings with richer media — extra photos, 3D tours, floor plans — see measurably more views and higher search placement compared to listings without, according to Zillow's own data. A phone photo simply can't compete with that.
FSBO Services. Some sellers pay a flat-fee FSBO company to get MLS access, printed signs, or other basic tools. But even with those services, the seller still has to do all the actual work themselves.
Scheduling. This is a bigger deal than most sellers expect. Agents use scheduling tools that make it easy to coordinate showings with as many qualified buyers as possible. FSBO sellers don't have those tools, and if they're not quick to answer and return calls, they can lose a genuinely interested buyer to a home that was easier to see.
Qualified Buyers. Agents generally only bring buyers who've already gone through pre-qualification — serious, ready, and able to close. A FSBO seller has no way to know who's actually calling. Is it a real buyer? A curious neighbor? Or, worse, is it a potential security risk, letting a stranger into your home with no vetting at all?
The Takeaway
It's easy to see the appeal of avoiding a commission, especially with technology making it feel simpler than ever to sell directly. But without an agent who knows local market values and has the skills to actually get you the most for your home, it's easy to lose far more than their representation would have cost you. The data backs this up — and so does a very real, very expensive lesson learned by 55,000 sellers who thought they'd found a shortcut.
Curious what real, professional representation could mean for your sale? Let's talk it through. Get started →
Related reading: Your House Didn't Sell. Here's What To Do Now.