For Sale By Owner

It was suggested that I write my comments on the perils of attempting to trade in real estate as a private seller or buyer. This is a tough one for me as the potential for looking like I am offering a biased, whining opinion is great.
That said, I always appreciate clients who say "I wouldn't have my dentist fix my car, I think my most valuable investment, my house, should be handled by a professional also".
Prior to obtaining my real estate license, I bought and sold my own homes without proper representation. I thought I had all the information I needed by looking at the houses that sold in my area and looking online at the houses for sale. When I sold my house I had no idea what information I was supposed to disclose and what I should not. I had no idea how to protect my family from potential future lawsuits. I had no idea what strategy I should plan for negotiation based on all the factors involved. (I find that this is where many FSBO sellers fail miserably. They could have sold their property ten times over if they had only known how to properly negotiate the sale.) I also didn't weigh out the complication of dealing with two different lawyers (mine and the buyer's) and the additional costs associated with that as the lawyers were doing a lot more leg work and paperwork.
When I purchased my house I didn't bother to get my own Realtor to represent me. When I look back on it, that was probably the dumbest decision. Selling my house privately was the result of a neighbour offering to purchase my house so it was an opportunity I jumped on. When it came to buying I had options and I didn't think through those options due to my lack of understanding about the real estate world. Without representation I was only guessing at what the best price would be for my "fixer upper". I also didn't opt for a home inspection and didn't fully understand the many upsides of going through with that. The listing realtor didn't give us any indication of what comparable homes were selling for so we had no idea whether what we were paying truly was a "deal". We bought with the plan of doing extensive renovations, however, we were not advised on whether, once we had put $250,000.00 into the house, we would be able to increase the value of our property by that amount. This is another one of the biggest mistakes people make. They buy without advice on the potential future value of a property. I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen a case where the buyers saved money by purchasing through the listing Realtor and not having their own representation.

I could go on to discuss all the horror stories I have encountered when representing buyers who are purchasing a FSBO property but I would prefer to leave it to people telling their own stories.
I welcome you to comment on this post with your own FSBO stories.