DEFINITION:  FSBO, not DIY: A For Sale By Owner (FSBO) transaction is one in which the owner markets the property without help from a Realtor. It should not be a Do It Yourself (DIY) transaction.

WORKSHEET: I have developed a worksheet form that assists my clients to provide me with the necessary information to prepare the documents in FSBO transactions. Please call to have it faxed to you, or email to have it attached to the email reply.

GUIDANCE: I also give step-by-step guidance to my clients who are sellers or buyers, as necessary to accomplish the task. I prefer to give that guidance either in person or over the phone, so that I can tailor the guidance to the needs of the client. It is very difficult to provide that guidance by email, because each answer seems to generate more questions.

BLANK FORMS, AN UNCHARTED MINE FIELD:  I will NOT provide blank forms, except for the worksheet. Blank forms are available in many stationery stores. My best advice is DON'T BUY THEM. The most common mistakes in DIY transactions come from misusing forms, either by using the wrong forms or by filling in the blanks incorrectly.

Real estate is one of the more complicated areas of the law, so that it is easy to make mistakes. Some mistakes can be very costly. It is as unwise to walk through one's FSBO transaction without step-by-step legal guidance as it is to walk through an unmarked mine field. That some sellers and buyers are successful without legal guidance is not a reason to attempt to save the costs of legal guidance, because the costs to repair mistakes can be extraordinarily high.

I have participated in several real estate litigations, which were very costly for the parties, which were caused because a DIY transaction went bad.  One of those went all the way to the Wyoming Supreme Court, at extraordinary cost.  By saving a few hundred dollars in legal fees in a DIY transaction instead of a true, properly supervised  FSBO transaction, both parties spent many thousands of dollars to correct their mistakes.