Humboldtian

This may not be news in local real estate circles, but a Eureka Realtor has launched a FSBO website: eurekafsbo.com. FSBO, pronounced "fizzbow," of course stands for "for sale by owner," the four words Realtors hate the most. And it does surprise me this is the work of a Realtor, Dean Kessler of RMK Realty, an active member of the Humboldt Association of Realtors. Why did he do it? Well being that there are no listings on the site, which offers to list FSBOs for free, I didn't bother to call and ask.

Home sellers who go the FSBO route do so to avoid paying a commission to a real estate professional. FSBO websites serve as an alternative to the Realtor-controlled Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The nation's most successful local FSBO is in Madison, Wisconsin, which claims homes marketed on its website (for a flat fee) sold for a higher price on average than homes sold through the local MLS. It claims that more than 2,000 homes have been marketed through FSBO Madison each of the past two years, and that the sales rate is 72 percent. Impressive.

A close friend who is a local Realtor, one of the few busy ones in this market, didn't know about eurekafsbo.com and doesn't seem concerned.

"I can see how successful it is with the number of properties on the site," he said.