When Three Bedrooms Aren't Enough: House Hunt

Today's real estate term:  FSBO.

Stands for For Sale By Owner and it's pronounced "fizbo" (just like the classic episode of Modern Family).

Sellers try to sell their property without the help of a listing agent to save the 3% cut of commission that a real estate agent generally takes.

The pros? If you do it right, money is saved.  Lots of money.

The cons? It's easy to not do it right, and because FSBOs aren't usually listed on the Multiple Listing Service that real estate agents use, your property can be overlooked by buyers' agents.

Do you really save money by going FSBO? Not surprisingly, realtors say FSBOs sell at lower prices than comparable properties listed with real estate professionals. Other studies say that it all comes out about even, although there are up-front costs and lots of homework that must be done by FSBO sellers that aren't incurred by sellers who use listing agents.

If you're thinking about selling your property as a FSBO, there are many great sources of information on the web. Here are just two of the many that give a balanced picture:

• FSBO Primer: Why Sell FSBO?
• FSBO versus Real Estate Agent